The Lady Panther track team, despite its underclassmen heavy lineup, will send several athletes to the IHSA State Track Finals in Charleston starting Thursday. EP hosted an IHSA Sectional on Wednesday with the top two finishers and those meeting qualifying times and distances advancing to the state finals.
Sherrard won the sectional meet accumulating 102.5 points ahead of Futon with 90 and Riverdale with 84 The Lady Panthers placed tenth with 34 points.
EP qualified all four of its relays for the state finals, each coming in under the state qualifying times. Coach Liz Green thought this may be just the third time in her coaching career that all 4 relays qualified for Charleston. “We knew going into the meet that looking at our times, we had run qualify times or close to it, and it was definitely doable. We knew the competition was gonna be extremely tough and I told the girls it’s just gonna make you run faster and better, and it did.”
In the relays, juniors Ellah Brooks and Lexi Kapple competed in three of the advancing squads.
The 4x100m relay with Brooks, Lauren Malone, Faith Baar, and Kapple just got in under the qualifying time clocking a 51.79. The time was a mere .07 under qualifying time to take sixth place in the race.
A sixth place finish was good enough for the 4x200m relay to qualify for state as the quartet of Brooks, Malone, Kapple, and Lia Milem ran a 1:50.01 coming in better than the 1:51.25 qualifying time.
The 4x400m relay also made the grade as their 4:17.59 was two seconds better than the qualifying time. The quartet finished in seventh place with Brooks, Kapple, Milem and Sarah Link getting the job done.
The 4x800m relay placed fourth clocking a 10:10 well under the qualifying time of 10:35. Jennica Norman, Roz Mosher, Jessie DeNeve, and Link carried the baton.
Link, a junior,was the only individual to advance as her time of of 2:25.9 in the 800m was a few seconds better than the qualifying time of 2.28.25. She placed placed sixth in the race.
“I am ecstatic!, said Green. “It’s so fun to get to go to state. This group of girls is just amazing. They are positive, supportive, they get along, and are all true friends. For all of them to get to go is awesome.”
Complete IHSA Erie Girls Sectional Results
