Blair girls continue improvement at Regional Championship

FEB. 14, PG SPORTSPLEX–

The Blair Indoor Track team competed amongst its toughest competition at the Western Regional Indoor Track Championships today. Blair placed highly in several events, with three athletes qualifying for State Championships before a power outage ended the meet prematurely.

For Blair, the highlight of the meet was when sophomore sisters Halsey and Ashlyn Sinclair finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 1600m. Halsey had a time of 5:19 and her sister was close behind at 5:22. Both sisters advanced to States in the event. The only other girl to advance was senior Tyaishia Jackson, who ran the 55m with a time of 7.68.

Sophomore Josh Uzzell ran a 4:46 mile, a personal best, but did not qualify for the State Championship. "I think I ran well today, but I had really hoped to advance to States," stated Uzzell after the meet. Uzzell missed the cutoff by a mere 4 seconds.

Uzzell was not alone in coming close to advancing. Junior Thomas Dugan placed 13th in the 55m dash with a time of 6.98, but due to a system of rules based not only on time, but also on position in each heat, three runners with times over 7.00 advanced, while Dugan did not. "I ran one of my best times today, but that is not enough to get to States because of a complicated rule system," said Dugan. "Overall I had a great season, but it's too bad that it comes down this kind of end where I was so close."

Coach Carl Lewin felt that the team competed at close to the same level as at the County Championships. "Most people ran exactly where we predicted with little change," said Lewin. He continued, "The people that ran well earlier have continued the trend with slight improvements overall."

Most runners on the Blair team though did not compete today due to a severe power outage which began at 7:30 p.m. and continued sporadically for over an hour before the meet was finally postponed. This same power outage has prevented all official times from being released as the times are still only saved to computers at the PG Sportsplex.

According to Lewin, the rest of the events have been rescheduled for 10:00 a.m. this Wednesday. The remaining events include the 3200m, 4x400m and 4x200m.