3 Highland County relay teams race at OHSAA State Championships

COLUMBUS — Highland County had three relay teams race at the 2017 State Track and Field Championships on Friday morning and afternoon, and for the Fairfield Lions in their second straight trip to state, they improved greatly on their time from one year ago.

The three teams came from three different schools with not only the 4x800m Fairfield team, but the 4x200m McClain girls team and the 4x100m Hillsboro boys team racing on Friday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University.

The Lions raced first in the Division III finals with a time of 8:14.49 as the team of junior Noah Richmond, sophomore Brandtson Duffie, junior Matthew Mangus and senior Trent Swisher improved 30 seconds on their 15th-place finish of 8:44.43 from a year ago. This year. the Lions finished in 11th place.

“I’m proud of improving the time from a year ago, and the team gave great effort and had a good performance,” Fairfield coach Bill Mangus said. “We have three guys back next year from the team, and we look to improve even more.”

Going into the state race, the Lions placed fourth at regionals with a time of 8:22.41 last weekend. This season, the Lions were first place at districts with a time of 8:23.96 (a district record) and first place at the Southern Hills Athletic Conference Championships (SHAC) with a time of 8:35.20 at the beginning of May.

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Next was the McClain girls 4x200m relay team in the Division II prelims. where they finished in 15th place with a time of 1:46.72 from the team of sophomore Maddy Stegbauer, junior Hunter Scott, freshman Ashley Hardesty and junior Chayden Pitzer.

The McClain team raced in the first heat, where they were eighth, but this season has been a success for MHS with them setting school records multiple times this spring. At districts this postseason, McClain set a district record with a first-place time of 1:47.47.

Before state on Friday, last weekend the Lady Tigers were fourth at regionals with a time of 1:46.20.

The Hillsboro boys 4x100m relay team finished their state race in Division II prelims with a time of 44.69. The team of junior Austin Kimball, senior Jeremy Hayton, senior Luke Gallimore and junior Austin Goolsby finished in 16th place.

Earlier in the day, Goolsby won the Division II State pole vault championship with a height of 15-02.00.

As for the relay team, a week ago at the Athens Regionals they were fourth place with a time of 44.19, and earlier this postseason at districts, the Indians relay team was second at 44.46.