Boykin finishes 4th in 100, 200
Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 3, 2006
COLLUMBUS — It was a photo finish.
In one of the tightest finishes in meet history, Ironton junior sprinter Mandi Boykin was fourth in the 100-meter dash Saturday in the finals of the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II state track meet.
The top four places were decided by about one-half second.
Cat Humphries of Cincinnati McNicholas, who had the fastest qualifying time, nosed out the rest of the field to win the state title.
“All I could hear was the crowd screaming. There were a lot of good people in the race. I saw (Humphries) in the corner of my eye so I thought she won, but I didn’t know about anyone else.”
Humphries ran the race in 12.06 seconds. Shavae Wright of Lima Shawnee was second at 12.07, Jeanette Pettigrew of Cuyahoga Valley Christian was third at 12.10 and Boykin was fourth with a personal-best 12.14 clocking.
“It looked like Mandi was in the lead as they were getting close to the finish line, but it was too hard to tell. They didn’t announce the order of finish right away so we didn’t know until the word came from upstairs and they got up on the awards’ stand,” Ironton coach Tim Thomas said.
All four girls are underclassmen. Boykin and Wright are juniors while Humphries and Pettigrew are freshmen.
After her fourth-place finish in the 100, Boykin came up with another fourth-place medal in the 200-meter dash.
Boykin ran a personal-best time of 25.22 seconds. Her 12.14 seconds in the 100 meters was also a personal record to give her two records in two events at the biggest meet of the year.
“It was a good feeling. I was just happy to run my best. I didn’t run my best (Friday) so I wanted to run well,” Boykin said.
There was a tie in Friday’s preliminaries down to the 100-second, so nine runners were in the finals and Boykin was pushed out to lane nine.
“I couldn’t see anybody. I got a good start and I didn’t know where I was there in that race either,” Boykin said.