Owosso Varsity Girls' Track and Field traveled across town to Corunna to compete against 15 other schools in the regional finals on Friday. We were able to place 10th overall, but came away with two state qualifiers. In track, an athlete must either finish in the top 2 places in her event or hit an automatic qualifying standard at the regional meet only. Both Claire Agnew and Libby Summerland hit the automatic qualifying mark of 9'3" in pole vault on their way to 2nd and 3rd place finishes respectively. Not only do they get to compete in the state finals in two weeks, but their heights put them tied for the 2nd highest vaults of all time by an Owosso girl, just 1 inch off of the school record. Both girls have worked very hard and couldn't be more deserving. 

On top of their great pole vaulting, Claire and Libby also earned a 4th place medal along with teammates Emma Johnson and Michaela Nichols in the 4x400m relay, running their fastest time of the season. A few events before that Libby attempted to qualify in the 400 meter dash, falling just short with a third place finish, less than a second from the automatic qualifying standard and with an enormous PR of 2 1/2 seconds. It was truly one heck of a race by a very talented young lady. Our final athlete that scored and metaled was senior Alaina Poggiali, who earned a 6th place finish in shot put, despite being seeded 11th going into the meet. After throwing a PR to make it to the finals (top 9), she set a new personal best throw with each of her three final throws. I can't think of a better way to end a career than continuing to get better until the very end. I (as well as the rest of her team) will miss Alaina very much next year. Our other senior, Kaitlyn Cummings, competed for the final time today as well. She competed in the 100, 4x100m relay and high jump. Kaitlyn's bright smile and desire to get better will also be missed a lot next year. 

We also had three other personal best performances on the evening. Emma Johnson dropped another 5 seconds off of her mile time, meaning that there was only 1 meet the entire season where Emma didn't drop time. Courtney Lott also set a PR in the 300 hurdles, cutting off a nice 2 seconds. Finally, Reghan LePior added a foot and 2 inches to her best discus throw of the season.

I am very proud of all of the work that all of my athletes put in this season. I will miss my seniors a ton next year, but I am also very excited about what they are leaving behind. The future is bright Owosso!

Claire and Libby will be back in action on June 1st at MSU in the Playmakers Honor Roll meet and again on June 5th at the state finals in Zeeland.