Falcons, Rangers on top at MSL-Buckeye championships

by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com

CARROLL — Circleville’s Faith Yancey and Hamilton Township’s Nadir Langston were among the top performers at Friday’s Mid-State League Buckeye Division Track and Field Championships. 

Langston claimed three individual running titles and was part of a winning relay team while Yancey won two individual titles, anchored a winning relay and was on a second-place relay.

Langston’s efforts helped his team to the boys championship while Circleville came in second on the girls’ side.

Fairfield Union won the girls’ title with 150.5 team points with Circleville scoring 128. Teays Valley was third with 111, Logan Elm was sixth with 53 and Amanda-Clearcreek was seventh with 43 points. 

The Rangers had 142 points for their win with the Fairfield Union Falcons second with 133. Teays Valley was fourth with 93 points, Logan Elm was sixth with 45, Circleville was seventh with 32 and Amanda-Clearcreek was eighth with 16.

For Yancey, her evening started with winning the 100 meters in 12.66 seconds, just ahead of Teays Valley’s Kaitlin Stiffler. She was more than a second faster than the competition in winning the 200 meters in 26.03.

The Circleville 400-meter relay team of Sydney Lattimer, Isabelle Perini, Payton Ford and Yancey got the win in 51.29 seconds — only .12 seconds faster than the Teays Valley quartet of Lauren Sharrock, Kathryn Ridley, Gabby Park and Stiffler. 

In the final event of the night, Yancey, Ellie Patrick, Bella Morningstar and Maddux Bigam came in second to Fairfield Union in the 1,600-meter relay. 

Click here to see more images from the MSL Buckeye championships.

Teays Valley grabbed two titles in the girls’ meet as well. 

Ryleigh McCoy won the 400 meters with a time of 1:01.38. 

McCoy joined with Ridley, Sharrock and Stiffler to win the 800-meter relay in 1:48.45.

Bigam claimed a title for Circleville as she ran the 3,200 meters 11:53.64.

Fairfield Union’s Anna Conrad finished in front of Bigam to claim the title in the 1,600 meters and she finished in front of Circleville’s Patrick to win the 800 meters. Conrad was also on the 1,600-meter relay team and was part of Tuesday’s winning 3,200-meter relay team. 

The other two events – the 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles – were won by Hamilton Township’s AnnMarie Whitson.

In the boys’ meet, Langston won the 100 meters by a mere hundredth of a second over Liberty Union’s Camden Manson. He also won the 110-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles and was on the winning 1,600-meter relay team.

Hamilton Township’s Matthew Noel won the 400 meters and was on the winning 800-meter relay team.

Fairfield Union’s Marcus Runkle took two titles as he won the 800 meters and 1,600 meters Friday.

After losing the 100 meters by .01 seconds, Liberty Union’s Manson came back to win the 200 meters over Hamilton Township’s Noel. 

Bloom-Carroll (44.47 seconds) edged out Circleville (44.73) and Teays Valley (45.03) to win the 400-meter relay. 

In the 3,200 meters, Fairfield Union’s Andrew Walton (9:42.35) finished ahead of teammate Nathan Phillips (9:42.46). They were 47 seconds ahead of the next finisher. 

Click here to see more images from the MSL Buckeye championships.

Up next for the teams are the district championships as athletes try to eventually earn a spot at the state championships. 

Circleville and Logan Elm will head to Washington Court House for the Southeast District Division II meet. Field events, running semifinals and the 3,200-meter relay will be contested on Tuesday with running finals on Saturday.

Teays Valley heads to Hilliard Darby High School for Central District Division I competition. Field event finals will be held Wednesday, running semifinals and the 3,200-meter relay will be run Thursday and running finals will begin at 3 on Saturday.

Amanda-Clearcreek will be at the Central District Division II meet at Westerville South High School. Girls will hold their field event finals on Tuesday and the boys will hold running events. They’ll switch on Thursday and then running finals will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday. 

Official results from the championships can be found here.