May 19, 1999

Second season begins today for area track teams

By Ed Fox
Sports Writer

The second season in track begins today for area teams at three different sites.

Columbian will head to neighboring Fostoria Stadium for the Division I District Meet while Lakota boys will head to Oak Harbor in Division II action and Fostoria and Upper Sandusky will venture to Bucyrus, also in Division II.

The meet will begin at 4:30 p.m. today with prelims and finals in five field events including the boys pole vault, girls high jump, boys shot put, boys long jump and girls discus.

At 5 p.m., the finals will be held in the girls and boys 4 x 800 meter relays, followed by prelims in the other running events. The finals in the remaining field events (boys discus, girls shot put, boys high jump, girls long jump) and all running events, with the exception of the 4 x 800 relays, will be held Friday.

The top four finishers at each district will advance to regional competition next week with Division I being held at Amherst and Division II at Lexington.

Area teams will be involved in three Division III districts on Thursday with Bettsville, Calvert, Hopewell-Loudon, Mohawk, New Riegel, Old Fort, St. Wendelin and Lakota girls competing at Eastwood High School while Seneca East goes to Bucyrus and Carey will participate in the Ada District.

The same time schedule applies to the Division III districts on Thursday. However, Saturday's schedule for Division III will be different. The remaining field events will be held at 11:30 a.m. with the running event finals at 12:30 p.m.

Area Division III teams will head to two regional meets with Seneca East going to Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea and all the remaining teams will be at Fostoria Stadium.

The top four finishers in each event at the regional will advance to the state meet which will be held June 4-6 at the University of Dayton Welcome Stadium.

In Wednesday's field events at the Division I district, Columbian senior Wayne LeGrant will be one of the top competitors in the long jump. He placed ninth at state last year and has already went 22-5 1/2 this season. He has consistently been around 22 feet the last half of the season.

Dan Picciuto will also be looking for a regional berth in the pole vault. He is tied with Seneca East's Kory Siesel for the second-best effort at 13 feet.

Columbian boys and girls will also be looking to finish among the top four in the 4 x 800 relays. The boys lead the area with 8:01.1 and the girls stand fourth in the area with 10:10.6.

Lakota's Matt Rickard is right behind LeGrant in the long jump with a best of 22-0 3/4 and should be in the thick of things at Oak Harbor. The Raiders also have a shot in the 4 x 800 relay after posting a best of 8:21.7 during the regular season.

At Bucyrus, the Upper Sandusky girls will be looking for a fast start in hopes of securing the district team title.

Emily Herring is tops in the area in the high jump with a leap of 5-7 and teammate Mindy Glick leads in the discus with 127-8 1/2. The Rams also have the fastest time in the girls 4 x 800 relay with 9:48.8.

Fostoria senior Cory Echelberry has one of the state's top efforts in the shot put with a heave of 58-6 and should win the first of two district titles today. He also has a Division II state record throw of 202-4 in the discus which will be held on Friday.

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