COLUMBUS — After a state track and field championship meet that was dominated by qualifiers from the boys team in 2017, the Galion Lady Tigers would send five girls to Columbus in 2018 to represent the blue and orange in the 44th annual version of the girls meet.

Galion, represented by Marisa Gwinner, Bri Streib, Kerrigan Myers, Jalyn Oswald and Brooklyn Cosey, would finish the two-day event with their fair share of time spent on the podium.

The highest finish at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium came from Gwinner in the high jump. Gwinner, who was no stranger to placing at the state meet, entered the day seeded near the top of the lineup set to compete. Looking to improve on her fourth place finish from a year ago, Gwinner entered the event at 5-feet after passing on the starting height of 4-feet, 10-inches. It would be smooth sailing from there as Gwinner cleared that mark, as well as 5-feet, 2-inches and 5-feet, 4-inches without a hitch, while passing on 5-feet, 3-inches. Picking back up at 5-feet, 4-inches was not a problem for Gwinner either as she would clear that, as well as the next three heights on her first attempt to find herself guaranteed at least the runner-up in the event. On her first attempt at 5-feet, 7-inches, Gwinner cleared with room to spare and was ecstatic on the mat post-jump. The pressure was now on Katelyn Meyer of Eastwood, the lone remaining competition for Gwinner. Meyer, who finished just above Marisa last year in third place, missed her first attempt at that height and was down to just two more tries. She would only need the second attempt to clear to send the bar to 5-feet, 8-inches. Meyer would be up first at the new height and would proceed to spring over to switch the pressure over to Gwinner. Marisa would have three attempts at the height but would foul each one, giving Meyer the title. Gwinner finishes her high jumping career for Galion having placed third her freshman year, ninth in her sophomore campaign, fourth last season and as the Division II state runner-up in 2018. Myers would also be in action in the high jump for the Lady Tigers on Friday. Myers would clear the starting height on her first try and 5-feet on her second attempt but would miss all three tries at 5-feet, 2-inches to finish in 12th place overall.

Galion’s other senior representative at the state meet came in the form of first-year attendee, Bri Streib. Streib would head down to the discus throwing area across the street from the track action. Things got off to a bit of a rough start for Streib as she fouled her first throw. In her second attmept, Streib would record a mark of 119-feet, 9-inches. Down to her final attempt to qualify for finals, Bri would uncork a toss of 124-feet, 6-inches to earn a slot in the top-nine finalists. Knowing that she had to get in at least one good throw, Streib went for 127-feet, 11-inches on her fourth attempt before notching her best throw of the day on attempt number five at 135-feet, 8-inches. In her final throw for the blue and orange, Streib digressed to 128-feet, 3-inches but with her fifth attempt, solidified a spot on the podium by finishing in fifth place in the field. Winning the Division II girls discus was Katie Seyfang of Miami Trace with a heave of 144-feet, 5-inches.

Myers, who was down at state to represent the Lady Tigers as their only female, four-event qualifier in program history, would not make the finals in the 200-meter dash after finishing Friday’s preliminary running in 13th overall with a time of 26.34. She would, however, see finals action on Saturday in the 100-meter hurdles. After qualifiying with the fifth fastest time on Friday (15.00), Myers took her spot on the track on Saturday alongside eight other runners and would cross the finish line in a time of 14.77 to snag a sixth place finish. Leah King of Perry won the event with a new Division II and state meet record time of 13.89.

Gwinner and Myers also comprised half of the state-qualifying 4×100-meter relay team for Galion. Joining them was Oswald and Cosey, with the goal of making it to the podium on Saturday afternoon. In the prelims on Friday, the Lady Tigers foursome turned in a time of 49.67 seconds, good for the fourth fastest time and automatic bid into the finals. Oswald, Myers, Cosey and Gwinner would finish slightly slower in the finals with a time of 49.72 seconds to finish in seventh place overall.

Senior Takoda Crisman, the Galion boys team’s lone representative at the state meet, failed to qualify for finals in the 200-meter dash after finishing preliminaries in 17th place with a time of 22.91 seconds.

As for overall team champions at the Division II level, the boys from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy won the title with 51 total points and the girls from Beachwood repeated as champs with 38 points.