DIVISION III REGIONAL TRACK & amp; FIELD Area's top athletes ready to make a 'state'-ment

LaBrae's Laura Kreft qualified for state in three events.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NAVARRE -- Jackson-Milton senior Luke McCluggage stepped off the track, held his hands over his head and said -- between breaths -- "I hate the two mile."
A few feet away, South Range sophomore Dan Nemergut was sprawled out on the grass, trying to catch his breath. How was he feeling?
"Good," Nemergut said. "Just keeping my healthy lunch down."
Not the prettiest image, but distance runners are about as glamorous as the guys who hold cue cards on the Tonight Show.
They're a special breed.
McCluggage specializes in the 1600 -- he placed second in the event at Friday's Division III regional at Fairless High School. He ran the 3200 about 30 minutes later, but finished sixth. The top four advance to next week's state meet in Dayton.
"I wanted to make it out in the two [mile]," McCluggage said. "I just didn't have anything left."
Nemergut prefers the 3200. He placed third, although he was pretty winded toward the end.
"I was just trying to get top four and live," he said with a smile.
Nemergut placed fifth at last year's regional. He tried not to think about it in the off-season.
"I only think about it when this time of year comes around," he said. "Some kids graduated from last year and I was hoping it wouldn't be as tough. But it always is."
One of area's best
McCluggage has been sort of a surprise. He's pretty much the only distance runner at Jackson-Milton, but over the past year he's emerged as one of the area's best.
Like his hero, Steve Prefontaine (who is just about every runner's hero), he comes from a small school. His shirt has a Prefontaine quote on the back. His hair even looked like Prefontaine earlier this spring.
"But this isn't the 'Pre' look right now," he said. "This is the 'Too lazy to get it cut' look."
Both runners are looking forward to the state meet. Nemergut is focusing on the 4x800 relay -- the Raiders qualified on Wednesday -- while McCluggage would like to finish in the top five in the mile.
"The mile is definitely my event," he said. "Today proved it."
Warren JFK sprinter Shane Golden won the 100 and placed second in the 200.
"There are some good runners here," he said. "I'm just trying to compete with these guys."
LaBrae's Kyle Dalton also has high hopes -- in a manner of speaking. Dalton placed first in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 4 inches.
"I could high jump every day for the rest of my life," he said with a smile. "I just love to do it."
Girls
LaBrae's Laura Kreft placed first in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles and finished second in the long jump.
"I was really nervous," said Kreft. "I tried not to be too nervous and just keep up with the other girls."
Keep up? No, no, no. Kreft doesn't try to keep up with other hurdlers. They try to keep up with her. Kreft's only problem on Friday was making sure her glasses didn't slide off.
"It was hard," she said with a laugh. "I was about to grab them and throw them off. But I didn't want to do that. They're too nice."
Western Reserve junior Emily Johnson placed third in the 400, which helped make up for a so-so showing in Wednesday's preliminaries.
"I'm really excited; this is the first time I've made it to state," she said. "Wednesday I didn't do so well. I thought I ran a lot better today."
Her favorite event is the 200, but she missed qualifying for the finals in that event. But she wasn't complaining.
"It was a relief [after the 400] because I knew I was done for the day," she said. "I knew I could relax."
scalzo@vindy.com