Ten total events between the boys and girls track and field squads at Knoxville are headed to the Blue Oval next week as the Panther girls automatically qualified four events while the boys will take six auto bids to Des Moines. Girls who automatically qualified by either finishing 1st or 2nd in their events. Melanie Sullivan in the 400 and long jump, Ashlyn Finarty in the shot put, who also broke her own school record with a winning throw of 41-6.5 inches, and Ciara Heffron in the discus. Finarty tells KNIA KRLS Sports her record breaking throw felt good coming out of her hand.
Finarty: “I did what Bacon told me what to do and practiced it and it all came together today and it just flew.”
The boys will take six automatic events to Des Moines as T.J. DeJong qualified in the long jump, 400 and was a part of the 4×400 meter relay team with Austin Washington, Koby Higginbotham, and Kaden McGill. Also qualifying are Higginbotham in the 110 high hurdles, Cole Carter in the 400 hurdles, Kaiden Smith in the high jump. DeJong told KNIA/KRLS his hard work this season paid off.
DeJong: “Like I said at the beginning of the season, and I’ve been working day in and day out. It was a grind and this was a tough district to get through, but I’m happy to get 9-10 event to state and that’s just spectacular.”
Both girls coach Michael Splavec and Boys Coach Eric Kellar believe they will qualify additional events when the at-large entries are released on Friday.