Clarion Area Track And Field Teams Fair Well At Districts, Zerfoss MVP Leads Contingent To States (05/20/18)
The Clarion Area Track And Field Teams had a fine showing at the 2018 District Nine Championships, held at Brookville, on Friday (May 18th), with the Bobcat Boys placing fourth (53 points) in the Class AA team standings out of twenty-four schools and the Lady Cats placing ninth (30 points) out of twenty-four schools. The top six in individual events and top three relays in each event, won medals.
Brendan Standing atop the medals stand after receiving medal for 400 meters
The Bobcats were led by Brendan Zerfoss, who won the Boys AA Meet, James Manners MVP Award.
Zerfoss qualified for the PIAA Meet, to be held at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium, next Friday and Saturday (May 25th and 26th), in three events. He won the 200 and 400 and finished second in the 100, automatically qualifying in each event. First and second place finishers, as well as, athletes meeting or exceeding State Qualifying Standards advance. Zerfoss won the 200 in 22.27, well under the State Meet qualifying time of 22.88 and the 400 in 50.28 again well under the qualifying time of 50.70. His time in the 100 was 11.42 (11.49 in prelims).
Zerfoss is seeded third in the 200 and ninth in the 400. He won’t be running the 100, choosing to concentrate on the other two events.
Laken Lewis finished second in the Girls pole vault, to automatically qualify for States. She cleared 11-0 in the event, exceeding the qualifying standard of 10-6. Lewis is one of nine girls to qualify at 11-0 or better, with only six girls with better qualifying heights.
Lewis won three other medals, finishing fourth in the long jump at 16-3, fifth in the high jump at 5-0 and fifth in the triple jump at 34-1.75.
Two other Lady Cats qualified for States. Phylicia Hockman earned an automatic berth, finishing second in the 800 with a time of 2:27.60. Lexi Lauer finished fourth in the high jump with a State qualifying leap of 5-2.
Don Cunningham, Austin Hummel, Marshall Powers and Zerfoss took the third place medal in the Boys 4×400 relay, with a time of 3:32.10. Cunningham, Noah Schill, Nick Shill and Hummel finished third in the 4×800 relay, registering an 8:25.56 time.
The Bobcat Boys had three fourth place finishers. Hummell finished fourth in the 800, with a time of 2:o2.81. Powers finished fourth in the 300 hurdles, recording a 41.14 time and sixth in the 100 at 11.95. He ran an 11.59 in the prelims. Nathaniel Lerch was fourth in the 3200, running a 10:16.43.
Kyara Girvan earned a fifth place medal in the Girls 200, finishing in 28.50.
Clarion had three seventh place winners. Nick Shill finished seventh in the Boys 1600, with a time of 4:54.15. He also finished ninth in the 3200, going 10:44.56. Tom Hearst cleared 11-6 for a seventh place tie in the Boys pole vault. Gabby Weaver was seventh in the Girls 100 hurdles, with a time of 18.28.
The Lady Cats 4×800 relay finished eighth, with a 12:00.11 time. The team is made up of Grace Matson, Gabriella Flemming, Ali Troese and Hockman.
Noah Schill finished ninth in the Boys 800, at 2:12.91. Gavin Brinkley was thirteenth in the triple jump, going 38-1 and Frank Weber posted an 11:04.71, to finish sixteenth in the Boys 3200.
State Meet event information involving Clarion Area Athletes:
Boys AA 200m – 29 Competitors – Preliminaries – Friday 4:00 pm
Brendan is seeded 3rd
Boys AA 400m – 25 Competitors – Preliminaries – Friday 2:00 pm
Brendan is seeded 9th
Girls AA 800m – 25 Competitors – Preliminaries – Friday 3:30 pm
Phylicia is seeded 24th
Girls AA High Jump – 32 Competitors – Event is Friday 9:00 am
Lexi is one of 21 girls that have jumped the SQS of 5-2
Only 7 girls are seeded ahead of her.
Girls AA Pole Vault – 24 Competitors – Event is Saturday 9:00 am
Laken is one of 9 girls that have jumped 11-0 or better.
Only 6 girls are seeded ahead of her.
(Thanks to Coach Nate McClaine providing information for this article. GREAT WORK, BOBCATS AND LADY CATS!!!! HAVE A GREAT STATE MEET BRENDAN, LEXIE, LAKEN AND PHYLICIA!!!!)