Yancey back in 200-meter finals

by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com

COLUMBUS — Circleville’s Faith Yancey has run her way back to a Division II championship race at the 48^th OHSAA Girls Track and Field Championships. 

The junior qualified to Saturday’s finals in the 200-meter dash – an event she placed in last year. 

She ran the 200 meters in 25.53 seconds Friday, which was fourth-fastest in her heat. Overall, she had the sixth-fastest time. 

Yancey’s Friday time of 25.53 is a little slower than her school-record time of 25.31 she ran at last week’s regional meet but faster than last year’s finals time 25.98 seconds which earned her seventh in the state as a sophomore. 

St. Clairsville junior Emma Henry was the fastest of the competitors in the two heats as she ran the 200 meters in 24.75 seconds. 

Yancey also competed in the 100 meters where she finished sixth in her heat with a time of 12.49 seconds — four one-hundredths of a second shy of the school record she set last week at the regional meet. That time placed her 12^th overall with the top nine advancing to Saturday’s finals. 

St. Clairsville’s Henry won Yancey’s heat and had the fastest overall qualifying time of 11.81 seconds. 

Yancey will return to Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium Saturday looking to be one of the eight runners to make the awards podium. Her 200-meter race is set to begin at 2:40 p.m.

She won’t be the only area athlete competing at the state championships Saturday. 

Logan Elm senior Tayla Tootle will be the first when she competes in the pole vault starting at 9:30 a.m. She placed fifth in the state last year.

Circleville sophomore Maddux Bigam will be in the 1,600 meters at 1:35 p.m.

Westfall has a pair of athletes competing in the 800 meters.

Junior Caitlyn Shipley will be running in the girls’ race at 2:30 and sophomore Josh Trapp will take to the track right after.

Complete results from the three main divisions as well as seated events can be found by clicking here.