PIQUA — Versailles boys track and field team couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the Diviision II district meet on Thursday at Alexander Stadium.
The Tigers won two of the four finals held on the opening day and are in first place with 35 points.
The 4×800 relay team (Cole Condon, Mitchell Huelskamp, Brooks Blakeley, Joe Spitzer) won in 8:17.34, while Luke Shellhaas won the pole vault at 13-10 to advance to next week’s regional meet, also at Piqua.
Spitzer was in third when he got the baton for the anchor leg in the 3,200 relay, but by the time he came off the turn in the backstretch, he had passed Oakwood and Dunbar and never gave the lead up.
“Oakwood and Dunbar had the two fastest seed times,” Spitzer said. “The idea was to go out fast and hold on at the end and that worked pretty well. It is a great way to start the meet.”
And he hopes for better things to come.
“With us winning the district, hopefully we can go to regionals and do something good and get to state,” Spitzer said.
Shellhaas didn’t have to do a lot of jumping in the pole vault and that strategy led to a win.
He passed until 12-foot — then after making that on his first attempt, passed again until 13-2. Shellhaas made that on his second attempt, leaving him and Oakwood’s Jake Schaurer as the only vaulters at 13-10.
When Shellhaas cleared that on his second attempt, he was taking nothing for granted.
“I know he (Luke Schauer) is a good vaulter,” Shellhaas said. “If he had a good jump, he could have made it.”
That didn’t happen, making Shellhaas the winner. He then missed three attempts at 14-4.
“I can make that,” Shellhaas said. “But, I was just blowing through heights so fast tonight.”
And he likes the fact the regional is at Piqua as well.
“I am comfortable here after vaulting here once,” Shellhaas said. “I vaulted well here tonight. There is no reason I can’t come back and do it again next week.”
Kyle Jones and Nathan Nelson also advanced to the regionals.
Jones was third in the long jump with a distance of 20-10. He got that jump on his first attempt in the finals. Nelson was fourth in the discus, with a throw of 133-8.
Versailles had a number of boys qualifiers to Saturday’s finals.
Josh Steinbrunner had the fastest time in the 110 hurdles (14.79) and 300 hurdles (40.08).
Spitzer (5:06.20) and Blakeley (5:07.88) both advanced to the final in the 1,600 while Condon had the second fastest time in the 400 (51.53).
The 1,600 relay (Huelskamp, Jones, Steinbrunner, Spitzer) advanced with the fifth fastest time of 3:32.99.
Versailles’ girls 4×800 relay finishes third
Versailles’ girls 3,200 relay also advanced to next week’s regional meet. The Tigers’ foursome of Megan Rismiller, Tori Schulze, Maria Mangen and Kenia McEldowney finished third in 10:11.20.
Dana Rose had the second-fastest time in 100 hurdles (15.65) and third-fastest time in the 300 hurdles (47.51). She will be joined by Jaden Prenger (17.20) in the 100 hurdles and Ellen Peters (48.61) in the 300 hurdles in Saturday’s finals.
Ava Moran had the second-fastest time in 100-meter dash (12.57) and 200 (26.51). She will be joined by Lucy Prakel (13.10) in the 100 finals Saturday.
Liz Watren advanced in the 400 with a time of 63.06.
The 1,600 relay (Watren, Winner, McEldowney, Peters) had the second-fastest time of 4:05.84 to advance.
The 400 relay (Prakel, Peters, Moran, Moran) and the 800 relay (Peters, Peters, Watren, Winner) both had the fourth-fastest times of 50.94 and 1:48 respectively to advance.
GRAHAM DIVISION II DISTRICT MEET
Fogt, Shoemaker qualify for district finals
Anna didn’t have any athlete qualify for regional in the few finals that were held Thursday in the Division II district meet at Graham, but several qualified for Saturday’s finals.
Austin Fogt was first in the 110-meter hurdle preliminaries in 15.69. He’ll be joined on Saturday by Alex Bruggaman, who was third in 15.91.
Fogt was second in 300-meter hurdles in 41.56. He’ll be joined on Saturday by Colton Nanik, who was fifth in 41.85.
Bart Bixler was third in the 400-meter dash in 53.05 to qualify for Saturday’s final.
The boys 4×200 relay qualified for Saturday by finishing second in 1:33. The 4×100 also qualified by finishing fourth in 44.74.
Ian Bollheimer qualified for Saturday’s 100-meter dash finals after finishing sixth in 11.43.
Hannah Shoemaker was first in 300-meter hurdles (47.19) and fourth in girls 100-meter hurdles preliminaries (16.41) to qualify for Saturday’s finals. Shoemaker was also third in 200-meter dash (26.75).
