Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

ROCKSPRINGS — It was moving day.
Four boys and one girl were early qualifiers for the regional track meet while others area athletes advanced during the first day of the Division II district track meet at Meigs High School on Tuesday.
The top four finishers in each event advance to the regionals. The first day of the district meet had finals in five events while all other events were preliminaries for Saturday’s finals.
Ironton Fighting Tigers’ Eli Willis led the way as he took home first place by clearing 13-feet to win the pole vault event and advanced to the regional meet for the fourth straight year.
Two other area pole vaulters advanced as Fairland’s Robbie McFarland cleared 12-6 to finish second and South Point’s Ryan Brown also went 12-6 and was fourth.
Fairland Dragons’ Drake Cox advanced to the regional meet as he finished fourth with a toss of 131-5.
Ironton’s duo of Hunter Humphreys (111-7) and Ryan Bryant (109-11) were eighth and ninth, respectively.
Fairland Lady Dragons’ Allie Marshall was second in the high jump with a leap of 4-10 to advance to the regional meet.
Fairland’s Hunter Ashton (19-8) and Wyatt Morris (18-10.5) were fifth and sixth in the long jump as they just missed a regional trip.
The Lady Dragons’ Kelsey Warnock (30-11) was fifth and Rock Hill’s Maddie Scott (30-10.5) was sixth as they were edged out for a trip to the regional meet in the shot put.
Fairfield Union won the 4×800 meter relay with Sheridan second, Warren third and Gallipolis fourth. All advance to the regional meet.
Fairland was sixth in the 4×800 relay as McKenna Pannell, Deanna Hall, Olivia Lewis and Haleigh Fuller ran an 11:16.90 time.
Ironton’s Loralei Griffiths ran a 17.22 in the 100-meter hurdles to place fourth in the preliminaries and qualify for the finals. Fairland’s Ciarra Brown was sixth at 17.78 and made the finals.
Fairland’ Chase Watts was fifth at 17.52 in the 110 hurdle preliminaries and made the finals.
Qualifiers in the 100-meter dash was Lady Tigers Kyleigh Pauley who ran a 13.28 and was fourth while Lady Dragons Melia Tubbs was eighth with a 14.0 time.
In the boys’ 100-meter dash, Donte Wright was second at 11.38 and Fairland’s Ty Staten fourth at 11.64 as they made the finals.
Qualifying for the finals in the 4×200 relay was the Lady Dragons quartet Tubbs, Karli Fuller, Julie Price and Allie Marshall at 1:54.23.
The Dragons’ 4×200 team of Wyatt Morris, Drew Blatt, Robbie McFarland and Staten was fourth at 1:34.63. South Point’s team of Joel Morrison, Ryan Brown, Chris Tatlonghari and Wright was eighth at 1:35.89.
Making the 1600-meter run finals was Fairland’s Bryce Day who ran a 4:58.28 to place third in the preliminaries.
Making the 4×100-meter relay finals was the Lady Dragons’ team of Tubbs, Fuller, Tori Hall and Taylor Webb with a 54.3 time.
In the boys’ 4×100 prelims, Morris, Blatt, McFarland and Staten ran a 45.36 to place third and South Point’s quartet of Morrison, Brown, Tatlonghari and Wright was fourth at 45.53.
Marshall was seventh in the 400 meters at 1:08.41 and fourth in the 200 meters at 27.92.
In the girls’ 300-meter hurdles, South Point’s Lexie Sharp was fourth at 50.92 and Fuller ran a 52.31 to place sixth.
Fairland’s Greg Keeney ran a 44.80 to finish eighth in the boys’ 300 hurdles and make the finals.
In the 200 meters, Wright was sixth at 23.27 seconds.
The Chesapeake Lady Panthers 4×400 relay team was fifth in the prelims as Kelly Romans, Mariah Ramey, Kylie Johnson and Kelsie Hegemeyer ran a 4:32.06 time.