Four Cardinals led Lawrence County at State Track and Field Meet

Action is picking up across the state on the diamond, but it was just as hot at the track and field state championships as four Miller Cardinals led the county. Aurora and Mt. Vernon both added two athletes in the class three competition.
Mt. Vernon
Mt. Vernon senior Wyatt Cordray opened competition for the Mt’neers with the 110M hurdles. He qualified with the ninth top time finishing at 16.21 seconds. That came in just one tenth of a second behind the eight-place qualifier to the finals, but unfortunately, only the top eight advanced. Capping off the day for Mt. Vernon was junior Kadence Krempges at the girl’s pole vault. Krempges finished with a 2.67M jump good for ninth in the competition.
Aurora
Two Lady Dawgs qualified for the state competition for Aurora and both found some success. Freshman Makenna Hall finished fourth in the preliminary round of the 100M hurdles with a 16.34 time. Hall improved on her time to 16.18 in the finals and finished seventh overall. Junior Maisie Phillips concluded the Lady Houn’s day in the 300M hurdles. She started in the preliminary round running a 49.18, good for seventh overall to qualify for the finals. Phillips improved by almost a half second in the finals running a 48.75 and finished sixth.
Miller
Miller boys had a solid showing finishing 23rd as a team for the event, but it was junior Beau Hall who started the Cardinals in the right way finishing second in his preliminary heat running a 10.99 in the 100M dash. That time would have been the fastest in the other heat, but qualified third as the winners claim the top two spots. Hall would have been in a photo finish had he run that time again as the state champion ran a 10.96. However, Hall would finish fourth as the top underclassmen running a 11.21.
Hall wasn’t done, as he and fellow Cardinal Brenden Thom both ran in the preliminary for the 200M dash, but neither one qualified for the finals of the event. Thom had other fortunes in the 400M qualifying for the finals. He finished fourth running a 50.85 to wrap up his day. The other Cardinal to participate was Logan Nield in the javelin throw. Both of his qualifying throws traveled 40.15M to finish 16th.
Senior Payten Richardson was busy on the girl’s side for the Lady Cardinals, as she started by running a 12.92 in the preliminary round for the 100M dash. Richardson was just a half second behind the top qualifier but in two tight races, she did not qualify for the finals. She would find more success in the 200M dash running a 26.18 prelim to qualify for the finals. It was another tight finish, but Richardson finished fifth running a 26.68. Richardson also ran in the 400M dash but finished just two tenths of a second from qualifying for her second finals of the day.