Maplewood, Badger qualify track athletes to regional

Staff report

INDEPENDENCE

Badger qualified two athletes, and Maplewood qualified an individual and one relay after the opening day of the Division III district track and field championships, hosted by Independence High School.

The meet is divided into sections. Section A includes Badger, Bristol and Warren JFK, and Section B includes Maplewood.

In Section A, Badger’s Taylor Baumiller, a sophomore, advanced in the high jump with a best leap of 4 feet, 10 inches. Meghann Wright of Berkshire won the event at 5-0.

Baumiller’s teammate, senior Stacy Deraway, qualified fourth in the shot put with a distance of 29-10.5. Carly Stock of Cuyahoga Heights won the event at 39-2.5.

Gilmour led Section A with 27 points, followed by Cuyahoga Heights with 21 and Berkshire with 20. Badger was fourth with 18 points, Bristol was eighth with four points and JFK was ninth with two points.

In Section B, Maplewood was fifth with 16 points.

The Rockets’ Krystal Williams, a senior, finished fourth in the discus (94-9) to qualify for next week’s regional. Amber Heitzenrater of Rootstown won the event with 109-0.

Maplewood’s 4x800 relay qualified by finishing in second place. Members of the relay were freshman LeAnn Penn, sophomore Erin Pavick, Williams and sophomore Alanna Shamrock. They finished in 10 minutes, 7.81 seconds. Hawken won the event in 10:05.14.

Rootstown leads Section B with 33 points, followed by Pymatuning Valley with 25 and Hawken with 17.