TROY – Seven Covington athletes advanced to the state track meet with outstanding performances in the Region 12, Division III Track Meet at Troy.
Asher Long advanced to state as the regional champion in the 3200 meter run with a time of 9:28.27, a full 11 seconds faster than the second place finisher. He is looking to become a two-time state placer and hopefully a state champion in track after finishing fifth last season in the 3200 meter run.
Preston King, a junior, put together an historical performance by breaking the school record in the high jump with the height of 6’5″. The previous record was set by Ryan Craft in 2013 with the height of 6’4.75″. King finished second with his height of 6’5″ and advanced to the state meet.
Carlie Besecker also had a great day as she advanced to state by finishing second in the 400 meter dash with a time of 58.49. She also advanced to state as a member of the 4×800 meter relay team consisting of teammates Elyza Long, Ramse Vanderhorst, and Johanna Welborn who finished fifth with the time of 9:53.72. Although they didn’t finish in the top four, this group still qualified for state due to their finishing time being fast enough to earn a spot.
Sophomore Day’Lynn Garrett also advanced to state as he finished third in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 40.19 in what was a very controversial race. A runner was disqualified due to a miscue that affected other runners, so those runners were given another opportunity to run the race again. Fortunately, the end result never affected Day’Lynn Garrett from advancing to state as his finishing time was not surpassed.
Covington only had a few events where athletes came up short of qualifying for state, but all competed very well in a tough regional meet.
Elyza Long finished seventh in the 3200 meter run with an impressive time of 11:55.58, while Johanna Welborn finished eighth in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:23.60. Fortunately these two outstanding runners will be competing at state in the 4×800 meter relay.
The girls 4×400 relay team consisting of Lilian Mumford, Johanna Welborn, Ramse Vanderhorst, and Kassidy Turner finished 14th with a time of 4:28.70 and the boys 4×800 meter relay team of Asher Long, Austin Monnin, Chris Deaton and Beck Wilson finished 10th with a time of 8:41.86.
In the team standings, the Covington boys finished 10th with 24 points, while the girls finished 15th with 15 points.
