BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Union County High School’s Amia Bethea won the 100m championship and qualified for state in two events at the Region 1-2A track and field meet, which was held May 2 at Pensacola’s Pine Forest High School.
The top two finishers in each event automatically qualified for the state finals, which will be held at Jacksonville’s University of North Florida Hodges Stadium. At-large state berths will be announced later.
Bethea crossed the finish line in the 100m in 11.93 seconds, which broke her previous school record and put her ahead of Paxon’s Jaida Callahan, who had a time of 12.20. Jackson’s Danielle Hagans was third at 12.21.
The Bethea-Callahan-Hagans trio took the top three spots in the 200m as well. Hagans won the race with a time of 24.70, while Bethea was runner-up at 24.85 — another UCHS record. Callahan ran a third-place time of 25.02.
Bethea will run the 100m at state at approximately 11 a.m., while the 200m race will take place at approximately 12:50 p.m.
This will mark Bethea’s second straight year competing at state. She qualified last year in the 100m.
Bethea teamed up with Holly Halfacre, Faith Sirmones and Brianna Taylor to run the 4x100m relay at the Region 1 meet, with the team posting a 10th-place time of 51.17, which broke the school record of 51.40 set in 2008.
Halfacre earned a 10th-place finish as an individual with a distance of 33 feet, one-quarter of an inch in the triple jump. She also competed in the long jump, finishing 18th with a distance of 15-2.
