COLUMBUS — Yellow Springs senior DeAndre Cowen and the Beavercreek girls 3,200 relay team both scored points during the first day of the state track and field championships.
Friday was the first day of two for the Ohio state meet for all three levels held at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University.
Cowen completed his first-year ever competing in the high jump by advancing to the D-III state finals and having a strong showing. He finished in a five-way tie for third by clearing 6-feet, 4-inches, to score two points.
He was one of the 11 competitors to successfully complete the two initial heights up to 6-feet on their first attempt. Cowen then needed to use all three of his allotted jumps at two and four inches, but was unable to clear the 5-inch height which two others successfully accomplished.
In D-I, the team of Grace Dailey, Jamie Confer, Abby Roberts and Macie Roberts also scored two points for Beavercreek with a seventh-place finish in the long relay race. They ran a time of 9:24.92, which bested its time from regionals by just under six seconds.
Two other finals involving Greene County athletes were run in D-II on Friday and both were also in the 3,200 relay.
Ruby Gross, Maggie Poor, Sophia Bruhn and Grace Braun of Carroll finished 17th with a time of 9:58.15 in the girls race. Sam Powers, Noah Sylvester, Max Powers and Zeke Powers represented Greeneview on the boys side and came in 14th after running the race in 8:15.20.
During the preliminary races, Maddy Merritt pulled double duty early in the day and had little rest between her two competitions. The junior qualified for the finals of the D-III girls 400-meter dash on Saturday with a third-place finish in a time of 58.30. Less than 40 minutes afterward she took part in the 200 meters, finishing 11th by running a 26.13.
Also finding success in the girls 400 meters at the D-I level was Kayleigh Keyes of Beavercreek. The freshman won her heat and finished second overall with a time of 55.98 to advance to Saturday’s final. Keyes came in to the event with the fastest time from regionals.
Saturday’s events begin at 9:30 a.m.
