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Ava Qualifies Two Athletes For State Sectional Track This Friday, Saturday

For the last time, the Ava Bears and Lady Bears Track squad competed in the Class 3 districts at the level as they are now.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association has adopted a five class status for district, sectionals and state track championships. This move will keep Ava as a Class 3 school in track but will mean that instead of competing in a class that has high school attendance counts from 450 – 1200, it will drop the class size to 250 – 650.
Ava High School has 450 students enrolled in high school.
There are currently only four classes in track in the state of Missouri.
Despite several personal bests at the district championships on Saturday, only two athletes moved on to the Sectional competition.
Juniors Kane Thompson and  Dustin Womack placed in the top four in events at Districts to qualify them for the sectional championships to held in Eldon this coming Saturday.
Thompson qualified in the open 100-meter dash, placing 3rd during the finals with a time of 11.39.  Kane had a personal record of 23.25 in the prelims of the open 200 after hurtling his body across the line and picking up some road rash on his shoulder.  His effort however earned him a spot in the finals.   Kane went on to finish 4th with a time of 23.27.
Dustin Womack jumped 20’2″  to place 2nd in the finals of the long jump.
Other Ava athletes that placed 8th or above and earned district track points are as follows:
In the 4×800-meter relay both the girls and boys teams placed 5th.  Each ran personal bests for the season.  The boys team ran a time of 8:56.  Senior Jordan Dimirsky, sophomores Caleb Stillings and Logan Sicilia and freshman Jacob Luebbering make up that relay team.
The girls’ 4×800 team of sophomores Bailey Ray and Kayla Cooper and juniors Kim Copeland and Megan Cooper ran a time of 11:41, also a personal best for their relay for the season.
Junior Maranda Yost made the finals in the shot put and tied for the 4th place spot.  To break the tie however, the official pulls the next best throw of the two athletes and a heart break later the thrower from Bolivar qualified since she had the  next best throw.  Maranda threw a 33’3″ shot put, which was her best of the season by a foot and a half.
The girls’ 4×100 relay team of sophomore Hailey Herrell,  freshman Sandra Buff and juniors Kim Copeland and Megan Cooper placed 8th with a time of 57.44.
Sophomore Bryan Withers placed 8th with a new PR of 45.66 in the 300 meter hurdles.
In the 3200 meter run, Stillings barely missed the qualifying place coming in 5th with a time of 10:50.
The 4×400 boys relay team of Kane Thompson, Dustin Womack, Logan Sicilia, and Jordan Dimirsky placed 8th with a new personal best of 3:48.23.
Thompson and Womack compete on Saturday at Eldon High School in the Sectional championships.  They will meet the District 5 athletes who qualified at St. Francis Borgia High School.  The top four from each event will then qualify for the State Track Championships held at Lincoln University in Jefferson City on Friday, May 30, and Saturday, May 31.