Warsaw senior Sam Alexander will compete this weekend in long jump at the IHSAA Girls Track State Finals. (Photos by Mike Deak)

BLOOMINGTON – The stars will shine this weekend at the 43rd running of the IHSAA Girls Track State Finals at Indiana University this Friday.

There will be a fair amount of local representation, specifically from the Kokomo Regional team champion Warsaw Tigers.

Warsaw only has one top-ten seed heading into the finals, that being the 4×400 relay at tenth, but the Tigers have the wheels to compete for podium places. It’s 4×100 relay team is among the top half of teams coming into state and the 4×800 relay team from Tiger Town have a chance to podium as well.

Mia Beckham will take her cracks in the mile and two-mile races, seeded 14th in both races. Manchester’s Rae Ann Bedke, the Kokomo Regional champion in both races, will also compete in both distance jaunts.

Warsaw senior Brooke Rhodes has been a valuable piece of the 4×800 relay team.

Audrey Rich will take one last stab at a podium medal in the 100-meter dash and Sam Alexander will have her last stand in long jump. Rich is seeded 13th, which really goes out the window in the race where all the times are split by two seconds. Alexander, who achieved the state standard at the regional, is 13th coming in.

Whitko has one athlete working in Bloomington, that being Kaitlyn Reed in the high jump. The school record holder in the event, Reed is making her second straight appearance in high jump and comes in 13th, but is jumbled with eight others at the same 5-4 height.

Only two area athletes enter the state finals as a top seed.

Kloee Fitch of Lakeland is tops in discus. Her 150-01 effort at regional is a full nine inches longer than the next-best throw. Fitch is the six-seed in shot put as well.

Culver Academy’s Addison Coy, who made the 300 hurdles regional championship look simple, comes in number one in the state with her 43.93, well ahead of the next closest pursuer.

NorthWood’s Riley Hershberger will compete in both 100 and 300 hurdles events, sitting as a six-seed in the 100. Teammate Erica Stutzman will run in the 400.

Fairfield’s Jessica Miller is the seven-seed in the 100 hurdles, Chloe Armbruster got into the 200-meter dash, Andrea Hagar will compete in discus and the Falcons’ 4×100 relay squad will also give it a go.

Elsewhere in the Northern Lakes Conference, Concord’s Janiyah Barnes is in the 200 and Jasmine Hudson is in the 400, Plymouth’s Nicole Horvath is alive in both throwing events, and Goshen’s 4×800 relay team will compete.

Bremen’s Katelyn Aguayo is ready in the long jump, Elkhart Central’s Emily Decker will throw shot, Jessica Duvall of Mishawaka will run a mile, and Penn has 10 spaces filled at the state finals, led by Mikaylah Woods and Ashleigh Macleod in multiple events.

Field events begin at 3 p.m., the 4×800 relay at 4:15 p.m. and track events starting back up at 6:15 p.m.