DAYTON — Twin Valley South girls’ track team won its third straight district championship on Saturday.
This time, though, the Panthers had to share the title with The Miami Valley School for the Dayton Division III District title, at Welcome Stadium.
The Panthers, who have won 15 district titles under Mabry, finished with 95 points.
“I thought we rebounded well and performed well enough to won the tournament,” South girls coach Glen Mabry said. “Tuesday we won only one event but we took a bunch of second and thirds, particularly for Mylan Crews who took second against that state champion (Taylor Middleton). We might change something up for the regional tournament, but overall we have the same strategy. There’s a fine balance you play as a coach to get your atheletes as far as you can to get people into state, but at the same time, there’s a team title to win. So there’s a fine balance to get people through and to get people to win find a way to win the championship. We are not looking so much about the team title, but to get people more so into state.”
The South boys’ team finished a strong with 97 points, second behind Dixie, who scored 100 team points, in a field of nineteen total teams.
Tri-County North finished sixth in the boys field, and eighth for the girls. Preble Shawnee’s girls’ team scored 14 points for 14th place, while National Trail boys took 13th place. The top four finishers in each event advance to the regional tournament preliminaries on Wednesday, while the top eight placers in each event earn team points for the district title.
“Definitely a good performance overall,” said Richie Faber, coach of the South boys team. “A few things could have been better, but you get that in every track event. For being as banged up as we are and had a few illnesses, but a good meet overall and we’ll take that. Definitely some good looks coming into the regional meet.”
South girls won the 4×800 relay, as did the boys. National Trail boys were able to qualify in the 4×800 relay by finishing fourth.
Hailey Thies won the 100-meter high hurdles for Tri-County North, wih Abby Beneke of South took second with only .02 of a second in front of Antwaynae Boyd of Jefferson. Beneke also finshed second in the 300-meter low hurdles.
Drake Coleman of North advanced to the regional tournament by finishing second in the 110-meter high hurdles, Josh Chapman and Luke Stoner of Twin Valley took fifth and seventh respectively; scoring six total points for the Panthers in the event.
Mylan Crews finshed second in the 100-meter and 200-meter races behind returning state champion Taylor Middleton of Miami Valley. Troy Bowers and Sammy Shockey, of TVS, managed seventh and eighth place in the 200-meter dash, while Chase Sochacki took sixth in the 100-meter dash to help contribute six team points.
South’s girls team finished second in the 4×200 relay and 4×100 relay races with a fifth place finish in the 4×400 relay. The boys were fourth in both relays respectively, and second in the 4×400 relay.
South’s Megan Wright placed second in the 1600-meter run, and third in the grueling 3200-meter race. Madison Wright contributed by finishing second in the 800-meter run, while J.J. Utz finished seventh in the boys 800-meter run.
In the field events, senior Aaron Deaton continued his stellar performance, winning the discus and shot put. Haily Keener and Taryn Haynes place sixth and eighth in the discus throw, while Payton Gates managed fourth in the boys long jump.
Preble Shawnee girls finished third in the 4×100 relay in a very tight race.
North managed a seventh place finish in the boys 4×800 relay, eighth in the 100-meter dash from Jason Wood, eighth in the girls 4×200 relay, and sixth in the boys 4×200 relay, adding team points to their efforts despite missing out on qualifying spot for regionals.
Josh Bishop took eighth in the 1600-meter run for the Blazers.
Rachael Dempsey narrowly missed qualifying in the 300-meter low hurdles, while Drake Coleman edged out a fourth place finish for North in the boys hurdles ahead of National Trail’s Iam Miller.
The Blazers’ Josh Cook finished sixth in the 800-meter run, while Lane Unger and Weston Haws placed fourth and eight in the 3200-meter finals for National Trail.
In the field events, Sean Tomlin finished second in the discus throw.
North standout Hailey Thies walked away with the gold in the girls high jump, while Jason Wood finished fifth in the boys long jump. Elise Walker of Preble Shawnee earned third in the girls high jump, while Lizzy Free tied third in the girls pole vault.
Junior Sammy Shockey, who participated in the winning 4×800 relay, 4th in the 400-meter dash, 8th in the 200-meter dash, for South.
“Our goal all season long was to get Elise (Walker) back into the state track meet in the high jump as she did in her freshman year. Hopefully next week in regionals, she will have a great day of jumping,” said Stephanie Hurley, coach of the Preble Shawnee girls team. “My relay team also did well. Alivia Reek, Sidney Hacker, Jane Feck, and Elise Walker ran their best time of the season and finished third. Finishing in third was better than what we expected. I’m very proud of these girls and how hard they have worked this season to get better.”
The regional track semifinals will be held at Troy Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, May 25, with the finals set for Friday, May 27. Some field event finals will be held on Wednesday, as will the final of the boys and girls 4×800 relay. Each event will field sixteen total participants with the top four in each event qualifying for the state tournament next week.
