TROY – Four great Covington athletes competed in the Division 3 Region 12 track meet and three of them advanced to state – Elyza Long, Preston King and Day’Lynn Garrett.

Elyza Long won the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:07.63, which shattered the school record she had previously set in the time of 5:11.53 earlier this season. Her performance was extremely impressive as the race was delayed for nearly 40 minutes due to a report of thunder, which happened as the entire competition was near the starting line. After the delay, there was a decision made by the officials that the scheduled time between events would be eliminated, which held up more time for Elyza to regenerate energy for her race in the 3200 meter run. Amazingly, Elyza was able to show so much grit and toughness as she finished second in the 3200 meter run in the time of 11:28.18. For her to advance to state in two long-distance events under unfortunate circumstances is extremely impressive.

Day’Lynn Garrett, a junior, qualified for the state meet by placing third in two events, the long jump and the 110 meter hurdles. In the long jump, he jumped the distance of 20-5.50 and his time in the 110 meter hurdles was 15.26.

Preston King, a senior, advanced to state in the high jump by finishing fourth place in a very stiff competition where seven athletes were still in contention as the bar raised to 6 feet, 6 inches. Six of the athletes cleared the bar at 6-6 and only three more were able to clear the bar at 6-7, a height Preston King failed to clear. Fortunately, Preston finished fourth due to failing to miss a leap at 6-6.

Another senior, Beck Wilson, competed in the regional meet in the 1600 meter run and finished 11th place with the time of 4:41.12. Beck had a quality high school career in track and cross country, which set him up for the collegiate level at IU East.