LEXINGTON — Qualifying members of the Galion High School track and field headed to Lexington on Thursday afternoon to begin competition in the Region VI meet.
On day one, just four boys events and three girls events were scored and the preliminaries for the sprint events took place to see which athletes would qualify for the finals to take place on Saturday starting at 11 a.m.
Freshman Hanif Donaldson was the big story on the day for the Galion boys as he claimed a regional championship with a bound of 22-feet, 4-inches in the long jump. With the jump, Donaldson will represent the Tigers next week at The Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University. With Donaldson’s 10 points, Galion sits tied for third in the team field while Genoa Area leads the way with 18 points.
The Tigers had competitors in action in three other events on the day: the 200-meter dash, the 400-meter dash and the 4×200-meter relay.
Colbey Fox was in all three of those events and would claim the top qualifying spot in the 400 in the process, breaking his own school record with a time of 49.35. In the 200, Fox earned a spot in the finals by turning in the sixth fastest time of 22.52. Fox also served as the anchor in the relay and was joined by Evan Barker, Kalib Griffin and Isaiah Alsip to qualify for Saturday’s action with a time of 1:31.02, good for fifth.
Joining Fox and the relay team in action Saturday morning will be Braxton Tate (3200-meter run) and Jack McElligott (high jump).
Zaynah Tate, Ava Smith, Brooklyn Gates and Sari Conner, the new school record holders in the event, began the day for the Lady Tigers in the 4×800-meter relay. The Galion grouping would turn in a time of 10:11.78 which put them in ninth in the field meaning no points and no advancement to the state meet next weekend in Columbus.
Kerrigan Myers, participating in the high jump, would see her season come to an end in that event as she cleared 5-feet and landed herself in fifth place, scoring four points for Galion but not advancing to state.
In preliminary action for the Lady Tigers, Myers would set a new meet record in the 100-meter hurdles, qualifying with the top time in the field of 14.24. Joining her in finals on Saturday will be Samantha Comer. Comer earned the fifth spot on Saturday by turning in a time of 15.77. Kaitlin Bailey, Myers, Jalyn Oswald and Brooklyn Cosey advanced to the finals in the 4×100-meter relay, recording the top qualifying time of the day in 49.31. Rounding out the qualifiers and joining Oswald (long jump) and Anna Court (discus) in Lex on Saturday was Myers in the 200. Myers ran her race in 25.60, good for the third fastest time in prelims.
Also in action but not moving on to finals was the 4×200-relay team of Bailey, Conner, Hannah Snyder and Cosey and Bailey in the 200. The 4×200-relay came in ninth in 1:49.49 while Bailey snagged 11th in 27.07.
