Area Athletes Shine At Girls Track Regional
WARSAW — Warsaw’s tragedy turned into Wawasee’s treasure at Tuesday’s track regional.
A late disqualification of the Lady Tigers in the 4×800 pushed the Lady Warriors into third place in the race at the Warsaw Girls Track and Field Regional, punching their ticket to the IHSAA state finals Saturday, June 1.
Bailey Mayhew, Nadia Palacios, Cammy Kryder and McKenzie Smith clocked a 10:21.99 in the 3200 relay, the better part of a full minute behind Mishawaka’s runner-up time of 9:46.72 but still good enough for a state berth. Later in the night, Wawasee collected a second state finals berth when Jada Parzygnot cleared 11’2” to win a regional title in the pole vault ahead of runner-up Caitlin Kehler of Warsaw and her 10’10” mark. Parzygnot is also on the bubble for a callback in the long jump, where she placed fourth with a leap of 16’01” Tuesday.
Mishawaka won the team title with 77 points, followed by Penn with a score of 61, while host Warsaw finished third with 55 points. Wawasee placed eighth with 26 points, NorthWood finished tied for 16th with 14 points, and Triton slotted in in 19th place with 12 points at the big meet.
While the host Tigers found disappointment in Tuesday’s 3200 relay, one among the relay squad, freshman Winni Barnett, found redemption in the open 3200. Barnett clocked 11:26.62 for third place in the event to advance to state. Teammate Grayson Kilburn punched her ticket to state with a 5’2” clearance in the high jump, good enough for runner-up honors.
Marin Hart placed fourth in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.2 seconds, while Makayla Clampitt was fourth in the 100-meter dash in 13.04 seconds. Remi Beckham placed fifth in the 800 meters with a 2:25.67 stop, and she, Maygan Bellay, Ava Knight and Adree Beckham combined for a firth-place result in the 4×400 with a time of 4:09.84.
NorthWood earned a state qualification in the 4×100, where Reagan Hartman, Emma Martz, Lexi Parisi and Riley Hershberger clocked 50.1 seconds for a runner-up finish Tuesday.
Fresh from a dual championship finish at the Plymouth Sectional a week prior, Triton’s Abigail Powell booked an appointment to state in the 300-meter hurdles with a 47.01 stop in second place Tuesday. She finished fifth in the 100 hurdles with a 16.48-second mark.
The girls state finals will take place at the Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington Saturday, June 1. Events are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.