OAK HARBOR — On Wednesday afternoon, Galion’s track and field teams headed to Oak Harbor to compete in day one of two in the Division II, Northwest District meet.
For the day, three girls events and four boys events were scored while qualifying for Friday’s running finals took place.
The Galion Lady Tigers currently sit in first place in the team scoring, racking up 27 points to lead hosting Oak Harbor (22).
To begin the day, the 4×800-meter relay team of freshman Zaynah Tate and Ava Smith, sophomore Brooklyn Gates and senior Sari Conner took to the track hoping for a top-four finish and a regional meet berth. The Galion foursome would do just that, coming in fourth place in the field while recording a new school record time of 9:56.20. The previous record stood for 28 years and was held by a group of athletes that included Ashley Nigh Smith and Missy Gates, Ava and Brooklyn’s mothers.
With five points already on the board for Galion, Kerrigan Myers claimed a championship in the high jump, clearing 5-feet, 4-inches and recording another 10 points. Samantha Comer would finish seventh in the event for an additional two points. In the girls discus, Anna Court threw her way to a district championship with a heave of 128-feet, 5-inches and will be in action next week at regionals.
Myers would wrap her day with the top-qualifying time in both the 200-meter dash (26.60) and the 100-meter hurdles (14.90). Also finishing with a top-qualifying time on Wednesday was the 4×100-meter relay team of Kaitlin Bailey, Myers, Jalyn Oswald and Brooklyn Cosey (50.35).
Also qualifying for finals for the Galion girls were: Oswald- 100-meter dash, 6th; Bailey- 200, 6th; Tate- 400-meter dash, 7th; Conner- 800-meter run, 2nd; Smith- 800, 13th; Comer- 100-hurdles, 4th; 4×200-meter relay (Bailey, Conner, Hannah Snyder, Cosey), 2nd; 4×400-meter relay (Conner, Snyder, Tate, Bailey), 7th.
The boys team for Galion managed six points in day one via a third place and regional qualifying jump by Hanif Donaldson in the long jump. Donaldson and the Tigers currently sit in 11th in the 14-team field.
Galion’s 4×800-relay team finished ninth on the day while Ben Alstadt came in 12th in the pole vault. Wrapping the field events for day one was Noah Atkinson in the shot put. Atkinson finished ninth on the day, narrowily missing an eighth-place point.
Colbey Fox will be in action on Friday in all four of his events, qualifying first individually in the 200 (22.96) and 400 (49.97). Joining Fox in the 4×200-relay will be Evan Barker, Kalib Griffin and Isaiah Alsip. That Galion foursome finished Wednesday with the top-time of 1:30.86. In the 4×400-relay, Fox, Gage Lackey, Griffin and Jacob Williams made the cut with the sixth best time in the field.
Also recording a top-qualifying time for the Tigers was Braxton Tate. Tate will be the runner to beat in Friday’s 800 following a time of 2:06.11. Tate also qualified for the finals in the 1600-meter run, finishing third in the preliminaries.
Other Galion boys in action in the finals on Friday are: Barker- 200, 8th; Williams- 400, 4th; Simon Shawk- 800, 16th; Mathias Breinich- 1600, 16th; 4×100-relay (Donaldson, Griffin, Barker, Alsip), 8th.
