Cougar relay teams advance to the finals

VW independent sports

COLUMBUS — Day No. 1 of the OHSAA track and field state meet saw a pair of Van Wert relay teams qualify for the finals at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

In the Division II preliminaries, the girls 4×200 meter team of Kendra Deehring, Macy Johnson, Danesha Branson and Sofi Houg broke a school record set at last week’s regionals by finishing third in 1:44.57. The previous record was 1:44.61.

The boys 4×400 meter relay team (Trey Laudick, Nate Phillips, Nate Jackson and Connor Pratt) finished fifth with a time of 3:23.68 and advanced to Saturday’s finals.

Deehring finished ninth in Friday’s 100 meter preliminaries (personal record 12.66).

The boys 4×200 team (Pratt, Phillips, Jackson, Laudick) ended the season by finishing sixth in their heat (1:30.38). In addition, the 4×800 team finished 11th (Gage Wannemacher, Rylan Miller, Laudick, Hunter Sherer, 8:13.20).

In Division III, Lincolnview’s Daegan Hatfield finished his career with a 10th place finish in the high jump (6-2) while the 4×800 team of Kreston Tow, Jackson Robinson, Conner Baldauf, Hatfield) finished 11th with a time of 8:20.17.