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Springfield sister act gets to state
By CHARLES GROVE
NAVARRE
Fourth place in regionals is good enough for state and for a number of area teams, four was the magic number at the Division III regional meet.
The Cyrus sisters of Springfield punched their tickets to Columbus in two of the most dramatic ways possible.
Courtney finished fourth in the 100 hurdles to start the day while Caitlyn finished in fourth by 0.03 seconds in the 100 dash and fell to the ground in emotion after seeing her lane pop up on the board. Both just managed to secure their spots in Columbus.
“I had my fingers crossed and was just praying, ‘Please, please,’” Caitlyn said. “One official came up to me and told me unofficially I was fourth and I was just waiting for my time to come up on the board and when I saw fourth i was just euphoric.”
Springfield is also sending the girls 4x200 team to state again finished fourth by narrow margins, 0.14 seconds, to just make it through to state.
“This is where we were hoping to be,” Cierra Latronica said. “The atmosphere of state is so awesome. It’s so different and exciting. It’s a big track and so many people. It’s what we’ve been looking towards all year.”
Crestview’s Maura Belding qualified for state in the 400 dash by finished fourth in her final. For her, it was a fitting final regional chapter to the senior who is heading to her first state meet.
“It feels awesome,” Belding said. “I came to regionals in the 100 and got smoked before. So it feels really good to be going in this. I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it but I was good enough to go through.”
For each athlete finishing fourth, there was an athlete to just miss out. Mineral Ridge’s Jarred Miller was one of those fifth-place finishers. He was 0.21 seconds behind fourth in the 400, but there were no regrets.
“I was hoping to do better but I can’t complain,” Miller said. “It was a good race I just wish I could have had a better finish. I had a personal record so I ran the best I could. It’s all you can do.”
McDonald’s Danny Loomis was another fifth-place near miss. Loomis was one of five runners in the 3200 that was running away from the field, but Loomis didn’t have enough to challenge on the final lap.
“After the first 100 on my final lap I thought I could make it and catch the two in front of me but my legs just died down the backstretch,” Loomis said. “I’m happy I got my best time this year though and that was my goal today.
“I was trying to get top four but I’m still going to state in the 4x800 so I’m happy with that.”
McDonald had a strong finish as the girls 4x400 team finished third in their final, qualifying for state and shattering their personal best time by over six seconds. The Blue Devils were first as the anchors took their places, but St. Thomas Aquinas powered through to take the win.
“We knew it was going to be rough to get out of our region and we had to run our best to get out,” Iva Domitrovich said. “We hadn’t really run together too much this year but we were able to pull it together to move on.”
United is moving on in the 4x100 after the Golden Eagles came in fourth in their relay. The team missed out on third by 0.01 seconds, but the girls were more than happy with their state-qualifying performance.
Emily Ellyson and Grace Maroscher both said that simply qualifying for state won’t be enough for them, a spot on the podium will determine the success of the state meet.
“We need to run faster if we want to get on the podium,” Ellyson said. “That’s the goal but we need to work on handoffs still. Normally one goes wrong each time. But our mistake was small enough to day.”