16 athletes advance to regionals

By Donnie A. Lucas

Albany tracksters returned for a second day of events at the area track meet last Wednesday, qualifying in hurdling and relays for the regional meet set for Friday and Saturday at Springtown.

Some field events involving local athletes will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, including boys’ pole vault, followed by girls’ high jump at 10:30 a.m. The boys’ long jump will start at 11:30 a.m.

Preliminaries in running events will start at 2:00 p.m.

The remainder of the field events will begin on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. with the boys’ triple jump, for which Albany advanced the top three places from the area meet. Also, girls’ pole vault will start at 9:00 a.m., followed by boys’ high jump at 10:30 a.m.

The Albany girls qualified a total of seven girls in five events including the high jump, pole vault, 100-meter hurdles, 4x200 relay, and the 300-meter hurdles.

“I’m so proud of every single one of these girls,” girls head coach Dakota Fowler said. “They gave it their all, and we are going to regionals in five events – I couldn’t be happier for them.”

On the boys side, Albany is advancing to the regional meet in eight events involving nine athletes.

“It was a good meet for us,” boys coach Rod Britting said. “I’m really proud of the guys’ efforts in qualifying in the sprint relay and winning the mile relay. Hawley beat us the last few meets, so we were pumped to beat them this time.”

The coach said that the Lions are headed to regionals with the third best time in the event in Region II, along with the best heights in the high jump and pole vault, second, third, and fifth best distances in the triple jump, and the second best long jump.

“All these events look like strong possibilities to advance to state if we can show up and compete well,” Britting said.

Only the top two finishes in each of the four regions in the state move up to the state meet set for May 6-8 in Austin.

The Lions finished in third place in team totals with 104 points. Quanah won the meet with 137 points, and Hawley was second with 108 points.

The Lady Lions finished in sixth place as a team with 36 points. Haskell won that division with 136 points.

The top four places at the area meet qualify for the regional level.

Girls Area Results

High jump – 4. Sarah Cotter 5-02. 5. Alli Hill 5-02.

Pole vault – 4. Briley Tabor 7-06.

Shot put – 5. Kiana Roberson 32-10.50.

100 m hurdles – 3. Alli Hill 17.04, 6. Ella Webb 17.52.

4x200 relay – 4. Albany 1:54.33. Brylee Moore, Ashlyn Holson, Kam Browning, Sarah Cotter

300 m hurdles – 4. Ella Webb 49.95. 6. Alli Hill 51.55.

4x400 relay – 5. Albany 4:28.20. Ella Webb, Kam Browning, Sarah Cotter, Brylee Moore.

Boys Area Results

High jump – 1. Cole Chapman 6-02.

Pole vault – 1. Tye Edgar 12-06. 5. Jayden Lucas 10-06.

Long jump – 1. Cole Chapman 21-01.50.

Triple jump – 1. Jaheim Newton 42-08. 2. Cole Chapman 41-05.50. 3. Luke Ivy 41-02.50.

4x100 relay – 3. Albany 45.10. London Fuentes, Everett McWhorter, Luke Ivy, Cole Chapman.

110 m hurdles – 3. Adam Hill 16.62.

400 m dash – 5. Everett McWhorter 53.73.

300 m hurdles – 2. Adam Hill 42.81.

4x400 relay – 1. Albany 3:32.83. Zach Parrott, Adam Hill, Luke Ivy, Everett McWhorter.