By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Of the seven Centre High School athletes who qualified for state competition in the regional track tournament Friday at Burlington, two placed in the 3,200-meter run. They had to finish in the top four to qualify.

Sophomore Shelby Makovec had a repeat performance of the previous year, finishing third. Her time was 13 minutes, 44.69 seconds. Freshman Nellie Kassebaum finished fourth with a time of 14:21.98, setting a new personal record by more than 30 seconds.

They will run at 7:45 a.m. Friday.

Sophomore Brenna Shields competed at state last year as a member of the 4x100-meter relay team.

This year, she qualified in two individual events, placing fourth in the 100m dash at 13.85 and fourth in long jump at 15 feet, 7.5 inches. Her former personal record in long jump was 15 feet.

She will compete in the 100m preliminaries at 8:30 a.m. and long jump at 3 p.m. Saturday.

The boys’ 4x100m relay team also qualified for state, placing fourth with an improved time of 46.69. Team members are Grant Srajer, Justin Deines, Conner Montgomery, and Houston Svoboda.

“For the second year in a row, this same group of boys qualified for state coming out of the first heat,” Coach Alan Stahlecker said. “That is the hard way to do it, but they beat the fifth place team by a mere .06 of a second to qualify.”

Their preliminary competition is at 10:05 a.m. Saturday.

Other placers at the regional meet were Ty Simons, fifth place, 110m hurdles, 17.02 (a personal record); Cacey Simons, fifth place tie, high jump, 4-8; Houston Svoboda, sixth, 100m, 12.30; and the girls’ 4x100m relay team — Simons, Abigail Svoboda, Ally Basore, and Shields — fifth place, 55.23, a record for the year.

Several other athletes did not place but set new personal records.

“That is what you want to see during the championship part of the season,” Stahlecker said.

“I look for all of our athletes to compete at the highest level they are capable of. With a few more personal records, I look for us to have some outside chances for state medals.”