Harper only qualifier for Uniontown

HILLSBORO -- Uniontown freshman Shalina Harper will be the only Eagle participating in the Class 2A State Track and Field Championships this season.

Harper finished third in girls' javelin in the Hillsboro Class 2A Regional here Friday to qualify for the State Meet, which will be held at Wichita State University Friday and Saturday.

Harper won a second medal as did John Reed and the Eagles' boys' 4x100-meter relay. Although the top six medal, only the top four in each event go on to State.

"It was a tough day for us," Uniontown head coach Jackie Hall said. "It rained most of the meet and we did have two weather delays due to lightning."

Harper's best throw in javelin was 96 feet, 9 inches. Two Berean Academy throwers finished in front of her: champion Sarah Hoover, a senior, at 104' 8" and Elizabeth Landis, a freshman, at 100' 10". The fourth qualifying spot went to Moundridge senior Brooke Holloway, who went 95' 6".

Harper finished fifth in the girls' 1,600-meter run in 5 minutes, 59.94 seconds. The winner was Hillsboro junior Emily Sechrist in 5:29.69.

Harper finished eighth in the 800-meter run in 2:40.58. Berean junior Tiffany Wiebe was the winner in 2:29.32.

Reed took sixth place in the boys' 100-meter dash in 11.83 seconds. Lyndon senior Joshua Owens was the winner in 11.49. Uniontown's Josh Wisely was 15th in the preliminaries and did not advance to the finals.

The boys' 4x100 relay with Cole Schafer, Gavin Miller, Wisely and Reed finished in fifth place in a time of 46.54. Berean Academy was the winner in 45.67.

"The 4x400 missed fourth place by 2/10ths of a second," Hall said. "It was close at the finish line. They ran their best time of the season." Canton-Galva was the fourth-place team, finishing in 46.34.

Wisely was 10th in the boys' 200-meter preliminaries in 24.94 seconds while Schafer was 13th in 25.04. Neither advanced to finals, which Colgan senior Tucker Hoffman won in 23.84.

Harper will compete in Class 2A girls' javelin at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morining on the field just outside the southwest corner of Cessna Staduim and south of Koch Arena. Harper's Regional mark is 14th among the State qualifiers.

The defending 2A champion, Madison Wolf of Bennington, has graduated. Last year's runner-up Demi Murray of Oberlin will be back as will the third-place finisher Katie Bailey of Wichita County.

Murray, a junior this year, had the best Regional mark of 137' 1" at the Smith Center Regional. Allison Zerve, a junior from Eskridge-Mission Valley, has Class 2A's best throw this season of 147' 7" and was second-best among qualifiers at Regionals, throwing 127 feet even in winning at Herington.

Only two other qualifiers from last season's meet are back in javelin. They are McKenzie Heft of Kiowa County and Brooke Tuma of Washington County.