Area Tracksters Compete at State Track Finals

CHARLESTON -- Four local track and field athletes advanced in Thursday's preliminary round of the IHSA Class 1A boys meet at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium.

Finals Qualifiers

Andrew McWhorter of Teutopolis and Brock Mammoser of Newton each cleared 13 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault to secure a spot in Saturday's finals; 13-3 turned out to be the minimum qualifying height, while attempting a vault of higher than 13-6 didn't turn out to be necessary for any competitors.

Trevor Beard's triple jump of 43-2 ensured the Cumberland leaper's spot in the finals; he was third in his flight and seventh out of 12 qualifiers. Joseph Stone, of Newton, turned in a time of 1:58.94 in the 800 meter run, which was third best in his heat and sixth among the 12 qualifiers.

There is no preliminary round for the 3200 meter run; Kort McClellan of Cumberland will compete in that event Saturday.

Other Area Competitors

Mitchel Stevenson of Altamont missed the finals of the 300 meter hurdles by a fraction of a second; his time of 41.06 seconds was just short of the ninth and final qualifying slot (40.52). Stevenson also participated in the long jump, turning in a leap of 18-7 1/4.

Teutopolis high jumper Mitch Hardiek topped out at 6-1 to miss the 6-3 threshold for Saturday's finals, while fellow Wooden Shoe Noah Blievernicht was about a half-second shy of qualifying in the 110 meter hurdles with his time of 16 seconds flat.

The Altamont 3200 meter relay team of Christian Freezeland, Hunter Barns, Jesus Flores and Logan Deadmond missed the finals at 8:35.32; that was sixth in their heat and 20th of 33 total entries.

A trio of discus throwers came up shy of the minimum qualifying toss of 146-9; Nicholas Cartright of Newton maxed out at 146-6, while St. Anthony's Ty Kinkelaar was just behind at 143-4. Nate Brown of Altamont finished with a 117-1. Cartright also participated in the shot put prelims, missing the finals with a best of 44-11.

Newton had two relay teams fall a bit short of qualifying; the 800 meter relay team of Mitch Bierman, Tim Weber, Rhett Kocher and Keith King had a time of 1:34.65, while the 1600 meter relay team of Brycen Dhom, Keith King, Joseph Stone and Tim Weber came in at 3:39.57.

In the 400 meter run, Cumberland's Dillon Howard put up a time of 50.97 seconds but wasn't able to move on.

Full results of Thursday's preliminaries can be found online on IHSA's website.

Class AA qualifying is taking place today. Effingham High School has two hopefuls; Alec Morrissey in the Pole Vault and Sean Zerrusen in the 800 Meter Run.