DAYTON – The answer was blowing in the wind.

Sunday, June 03, 2001

DAYTON – The answer was blowing in the wind. Heavy winds may have slowed Rock Hill Redwomen junior hurdles Jessica Kerns, but they didn’t stop her completely at the Division II state track and field meet.

The thin, smallish Kerns ran into stiff winds in Friday’s preliminaries but still managed to reach the finals of the 100 meter hurdles. She then battled the bad weather again Saturday to take a seventh place finish.

"I’m excited," Kerns said of placing in the state meet.

"That’s a great accomplishment," Rock Hill coach Missy Bailey said.

Kerns ran a 17.65 time in the preliminaries and was fourth in her heat to qualify for the finals. The top four times in each heat advance, not the top eight times overall which left Kerns concerned whether or not she had made the finals.

Jeanne Osborne of Oak Harbor ran a 16.77 and Amanda Cedoz of Genoa Area 16.79 in the first heat but placed fifth and sixth, respectively.

"I had to five-step two of the hurdles. I was struggling to three-step. I felt like I wasn’t going to make it," said Kerns. "It was calm until we started. I came out of the blocks pretty good."

But Kerns came back stronger in the finals with a 16.35 time and was just edged out by Krysta Douds of Sparta Highland who was sixth with a 16.22 clocking.

Junior Kacie Vavrek of Bellaire won with a 14.89 time. Sophomore Anyi Onyido of Granville was second at 15.9 and junior Jackie Inkrott of Ottawa-Glandorf was third at 16.06.

"I’ve been working all week and I haven’t had time to practice since the regionals," said Kerns.

Several other area athletes earned trips to the state meet but did not place among the top eight.

Chesapeake junior Ryan Slone ran in the 800 meters but did not place. Slone had the unfortunate draw of sharing lane eight.

Papis Joh of Cleveland Benedictine won the race with a 1:53.33 clocking. Jacob McCauley of Springfield Greenon was second at 1:54.46. Both are seniors.

South Point junior sprinter Donte Pennington ran an 11.8 in the 100 meter dash preliminaries Friday, also into a strong wind. He also was resting next to Tim Davis of Sparta Highlands who suffered a false start.

"The wind hit me the first 10 steps and it hit you hard," Pennington said. "I was concerned with the times coming in. I knew I had to run real hard in the preliminaries to get to the finals. I expected 11.0 or 10.9 to win it, but I didn’t expect the weather to be this windy."

Fairland’s Brittani Keeney competed in the girls Division II discus but did not place. Her best toss was 113-6 after throwing a 115 in the regional finals.

Lisa Evanich of Alliance Marlington won with a toss of 131-4. Rene D’Aloiso of Springfield Greenon was eighth with a throw of 117-11.

In girls Division III, Chesapeake seniors Laura King and Jenelle McQuaid also completed. King was in the discus and McQuaid the shot put.

In Divsiion II, Portsmouth’s Jeremy Hamrick was second in the 100 meter dash and third in the 200. The Portsmouth 4-x400 relay team was third.