MARION — Day one of the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference track and field meet is now in the books after the field event participants and sprint qualifiers traveled to Marion Harding High School on Tuesday, May 8.
After six events being scored, the Galion Lady Tigers appear poised to regain their conference title after being upended by the River Valley Lady Vikings last spring. Galion had won the title its first two seasons in the MOAC prior to 2017.
Scoring after six events on the girls side is as follows: 1. GALION- 71; 2. River Valley- 39; 3. Clear Fork- 37; 4. Buckeye Valley- 25.5; 5. Ontario- 22; 6. Pleasant- 14; 7. North Union- 13.5 and 8. Harding- 12.
The field events for the Lady Tigers have contributed a great portion of their points throughout the season and that would not change on Tuesday.
Marisa Gwinner led the way with two conference titles for Galion, winning the high jump by clearing 5-feet, 4-inches and the long jump with a bound of 16’7½”. Bri Streib earned the Tigers a title in the discus event, winning with a toss of 123-feet, 7-inches. On the day, Gwinner and Streib would post 38 points as Streib finished in second in the shot put event with a heave of 37’8¼”.
Also picking up major points in the field events were Kerrigan Myers, Anna Court, Jalyn Oswald, Kayla Hardy and Mia Brannon.
Myers finish as the runner-up to Gwinner in the high jump, clearing 5-feet, 2-inches on Tuesday. Myers also qualified for the finals on Thursday, May 10 in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and the 100-meter hurdles.
Court would net 10 points for the Lady Tigers on Tuesday, finishing as the runner-up to Streib in the discus at 109-feet, 11-inches and by placing seventh in the shot put, throwing 30’6¼”.
Oswald snagged third in the long jump (16’2”), Hardy took fourth in the pole vault (8’) and Brannon also cleared eight feet to finish in eight place in the pole vault.
In the lone scored running event on the day, the 4×800-meter relay squad from Galion would earn four points by finishing fifth with a time of 10:40.52.
Also qualifying for finals on Thursday were Samantha Comer, Mara Winbigler, Kaitlin Bailey and Brooklyn Cosey.
Comer will be in action in both the 100 and 300-hurdles, Winbigler and Bailey will be off and running in the 400-meter dash and Cosey will join Comer in the 300-hurdles.
Over on the boys side, Galion is hoping to make it three conference titles in a row while River Valley is looking to dethrone the Tigers. The Vikings last won the MOAC in 2015, outlasting the Tigers.
Scoring after day one for the boys: 1. River Valley- 49; 2. GALION- 32; 3. Buckeye Valley- 31.5; 4. Pleasant- 28; 5. Harding- 27; 6. Ontario- 26; 7. Clear Fork- 20 and 8. North Union- 19.5.
Galion’s boys wouldn’t take any titles on Tuesday but would see numerous qualifiers advancing to action on Thursday.
Takoda Crisman and Colbey Fox would provide each other some friendly competition in three separate events with both boys moving on to finals. In the 100, Crisman would qualify first and Fox fifth. The two would go second and fourth, respectively, in the 200 and Fox would finish as the top-qualifier in the 400 with Crisman snagging second.
In the 110 and 300-meter hurdle event preliminaries, Isaiah Alsip would advance, qualifying third in the 110 and fourth in the 300. Also moving on to finals on Thursday will be Colten Yost (110, 8th) and Tanner Crisman (300, 3rd).
As for scoring in the six events from Tuesday, it would be the throwers earning the most points. Mason Weldon earned a runner-up spot in the shot put with a throw of 47’8½” while teammate Noah Atkinson snagged sixth, throwing 44’8½”. Atkinson would also earn six points by finishing third over in the discus with a toss of 130-feet, 2-inches.
Also scoring for the Tigers on Tuesday were: 4×800-relay- 3rd, 8:36.52; Gage Lackey- high jump, 4th; Tanner Crisman- pole vault, 5th and Ben Alstadt- pole vault, 8th.
Finals are set to begin at Harding on Thursday, May 10 at 4:30 p.m.
