Neese places ninth twice
Greene County High School sophomore Megan Durbin won the state title in the 3A girls high jump.
The high jump ended at 5′ 5″. Two other competitors, junior Sunday Faya of Denison-Schleswig and sophomore Maria Gorham of North Polk, also cleared the bar at 5′ 5″. Durbin had missed one jump, her first attempt at 4′ 9″. She cleared the bar on her second attempt and finished without a miss until the three competitors were all at 5′ 6″.
Faya missed her first attempt at 4′ 11″ and her first at 5′ 3″. She cleared on her first leap at 5′ 5″. Gorham had no misses until her first attempt at 5′ 5″. She was good on her second attempt, but because Durbin and Faya had cleared 5′ 5″ on their first attempts, third place when to Gorham.
Durbin is the first individual state track and field champion for a Jefferson-based program since 1995, and the first female champion since 1994.
Durbin also ran in the 100 meter dash and placed 15th with a time of :13.29. The first eight places qualified for the finals. The fastest time in the prelims was :12.72.
Senior Max Neese missed qualifying for the finals in the 100 meter dash by .01 second. Neese placed ninth with a time of :11.41. The eighth place runner posted a time of :11.40. Fastest qualifying time was :11.13.
Neese also placed ninth in the 200 meter dash with a time of :22.72. The top eight qualified for the finals. Fastest qualifying time was :22.12.
Paton-Churdan freshman Megan Carey placed 16th in the 1A 400 meter run with a time of 1:02.25. The winning time was :58.08.
Friday’s competition will include Matthew Gordon in the shot put, Daric Whipple in the 400 meter hurdles, the boys 4 X 100 meter relay and the boys 4 X 400 meter relay. The girls 800 meter sprint medley relay will run Saturday.
