BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Union County’s Leah Clark won two events, giving the Tigers two of their seven total of Region 1-2A berths at the April 19 District 3 meet, which was held at Tocoi Creek High School in St. Augustine.
The top four finishers in each event earned the right to advance. The Region 1 meet will be held Wednesday, May 3, at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
Clark’s first event of the day was the 100m, which she won with a time of 12.49 seconds. That put her ahead of Santa Fe’s Destiny McBroom, who had a time of 12.61.
Union’s Amia Bethea placed third in the race with a time of 13.01 to qualify for regionals.
It was Clark and McBroom placing first and second again in the 200m, which Clark won with a time of 25.87 to McBroom’s 26.20.
Like Clark, boys team member Auntrell Ross qualified for regionals in two events, with his highest finish occurring in the long jump. Ross’ second attempt of 21-4.25 eventually resulted in a third-place finish.
Ross also ran the 200m, finishing with a fourth-place time of 22.73. He grabbed the last Region 1 qualifying spot ahead of Santa Fe’s Kaleb Johnson, who had a time of 23.11.
The girls 4x100m relay team of Bethea, Clark, Holly Halfacre and Ny’asia Jones placed third with a time of 51.84, while the boys 4x100m team of Ross, Dayquan Diston, Rayvon Durant and Thomas Williams placed fourth with a time of 43.98. The Tigers grabbed the last Region 1-qualifying spot in the boys race ahead of Beachside, which had a time of 45.20.
Union just missed qualifying for regionals in the boys 4x400m relay. The team of Brycen Boney, Deonte Jones, Blake McCoy and Bo Thomas ran a fifth-place time of 3:41. Tocoi Creek earned the last qualifying spot with a time of 3:34.
McCoy and Williams also earned points for the boys team in the long jump, placing sixth and seventh, respectively. McCoy jumped 20-4.25, while Williams jumped 20-3.75.
Both boys and girls teams placed sixth in their respective team standings.
The boys team got top-10 finishes from McCoy in the triple jump (36-2.25, ninth place) and Diston in the 100m (11.53, ninth).
Union also had the following boys results: 100m — Durant 11.81, Williams 11.82; 200m — Jabari Young 24.89, Treyjan Tyson 25.48; 400m — Jones 54.39, Thomas 55.69, McCoy 56.63; and shot put — Jacob Jenkins 32-10.25, Anthony Holmes 30-9.
Emma Jeffers earned two top-10 finishes for the girls team, placing ninth in the 800m (2:39) and 10th in the 1600m (6:04).
Halfacre placed ninth in the long jump (14-1.25), while Mia Odum just missed the top 10 in the 400m, placing 11th (1:07).
Other girls results: 200m — Jones 28.67; long jump — Odum 12-6.5; and shot put — Gracie Manning 21-10.
