By NICHOLAS KIMBALL

Staff writer

To earn a spot at this week’s prestigious state track meet, athletes must finish in the top four spots at a regional meet.

A total of 21 Marion County athletes did just that at regionals last week.

Smaller classes of schools will have preliminary races on Friday afternoon at Cessna Stadium on the Wichita State University campus.

Finals and awards will be Saturday when the top 16 finishers in preliminaries will compete, and the top eight will receive state medals.

Marion

A handful of Marion athletes qualified for state Thursday at regionals in Eureka.

The Warrior boys placed fourth out of 15 teams. The girls were eighth.

The boys 400-meter relay team will be advancing to Wichita State after winning its regional event.

Luke Wessel won in the 800 and placed second in the 1,600. Kellen Waner won in the pole vault. Kenna Wesner won first in the triple jump.

Dylan Kraus placed second in the 400, and Taryn Kraus was fourth in the 300 hurdles.

All will compete Friday in their respected events.

Hillsboro

The Trojans also were in Eureka Thursday for regional competition.

The girls team placed sixth, and the boys were ninth.

In all, seven Trojans qualified for State.

The girls won in the 800-meter relay team. The boys relay team placed fourth in the 100.

Addison Jost, part of the girls relay team, was second in the 800 as well. Emily Gilkey was second in high jump, and Anders Weisback was second in discus.

Both Abbigail Williams and Angel Rivera placed third in girls and boys shot put. Quinlyn Funk was third in the 3,200, and Riley Richert was fourth in the 1,600.

All of these athletes will compete Friday in their respected fields.

Goessel

The boys and girls track teams from Goessel placed third place out of 21 schools at regionals Friday afternoon.

Eli Gaeddert won the 3,200 meter race with a time of 10:37.96. He placed second in the 1,600 and participated along with Brayton Base, Levi Olson, and Javin Schmidt in 4x800 relay team, which placed fourth.

Eli Boden won the triple jump with a leap of 41 feet 2 inches. He just missed qualifying for state in the 200 with a fifth-place finish.

Jake Flaming collected third place in both the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles. Javin Schmidt was third in the 800.

Cheyenne Sawyer qualified in four events. She won the 100-meter hurdles and placed third in pole vault and fourth in the 300-meter hurdles.

She also participated along with Logan Bryant and Aimee and Abbigail Funk in the winning 4x100 relay team.

Aimee Funk also collected second place in the 100 and fourth in long jump.

Abbigail Funk finished fourth in the 100. Brooklyn Wuest was third place in the 200 and finished fifth in long jump.

Wuest, Bryant and the two Funk sisters finished second in the 4x400 relay.

Centre

Only one athlete from Centre is heading to state this weekend after regionals Thursday in Lola.

Kaitlynn Bina placed second place in the 1600, just three seconds off her personal record, and will be competing at 1:25 p.m. on Saturday for the State finals.

Bina will be a senior next year and has qualified for state each year of her high school career.