Baker clears 15-2 for first, Shelby 4x8 relays also win

By CHUCK RIDENOUR Daily Globe Sports Editor

ONTARIO — Shelby’s Garrett Baker continues to reach new heights.

The senior broke his own record twice en route to a first place finish in the pole vault during Thursday’s first day of competition during the Division II District at Ontario High School.

Baker was one of three red and gray winners on the day who punched their tickets for next week’s regional meet at Lexington.

Also claiming victory for the Whippets were both the boys and girls 4 x 800meter relay foursomes.

Additionally, SHS also advanced three individuals from the field events.

Baker broke the school record which had stood since 1996 of 14-9 by Greg Miller when he cleared 14-10 at the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference meet last week. He then went over the bar successfully at 15-0 and 15-2.

“I was shooting for 15 today and 15-2 came with it. I’ll take that, now I want to get up the mid to high 15’s,” said Baker.

When Baker entered the competition at 12-6, only he and Clear Fork’s Ethan Staley were left. The latter bowed out at 13-10 to finish second.

During the pole vault, Baker also took time out to run in the 100-meter dash preliminaries. He won his heat of the 100 and has the second-fastest qualifying time of 11.45 and second to Will Hager of Bellevue with 11.42.

When he returned after his 100 dash, he had a couple of misses before getting locked in again.

“I was out of my groove,” said Baker of the brief struggle after the 100. “It’s a lot easier to go straight through and keep a rhythm going. If I’m going to run anything, I’d rather run a 100 and come back to pole vault.”

Once action moved to the track Shelby’s girls nabbed a victory in the 4 x 800-meter relay with the team of Reyna Hoffman, Channon Cundiff, Emma Montgomery and Kayla Gonzales. They clocked in with 9:52.24 and held off a late charge by runner-up Huron with 9:54.66.

Not to be outdone, the Whippet boys followed up with a 4 x 8 victory in 8:11.63. Members of that foursome were Luke Dininger, Huck Finnegan, Mason Hendrickson and Marshall Moore. Likewise in this race, Huron was second with 8:21.19.

SHS long jumpers Connor Henkel and Andre Hill finished second and third, respectively, to nab regional berths. Henkel soared 21-5 1/2 while Hill went 20-10 3/4. Ayden Bath of Vermilion won with 22-0 1/2.

Shelby’s last regional qualifier from the first day was Xander Wilkins in the shot put with a third-place throw of 45-8. The top effort was by Vermilion’s Ben Rini with 52-4 1/2.

A number of races were held to determine qualifiers Saturday’s finals and those advancers included:

— Ava Bowman and Olivia Barnard in the girls 100 dash.

— Serena Ramsey, Bowman, Tessa Slone and Alainah Carmel in the girls 4 x 200 relay.

— Skyler Winters, Trae Smith, Grayson Heydinger and Brazure Roberts in the boys 4 x 200 relay.

— Barnard, Carmel, Stone and Bowman in the girls 4 x 100 relay. — Roberts in the boys 400 dash. — Cundiff and Hoffman in the girls 800 run.

— Moore and Indy Mayer in the boys 800 run.

— Carmel and Slone in the girls 200 dash.

— Smith in the boys 200 dash. — Roberts, Dininger, Moore and Ian Finnegan in the boys 4 x 400 relay.

After the first day of competition, the Whippet boys were in first place with 41 and the next four teams were Vermilion (33), Huron (19) and Liberty-benton (17).

The SHS girls sit in sixth place with 10 points. The top three teams are Libertybenton (24), Huron (18) and Bellevue (13).

Action resumed today at Ontario starting with the field events at 10 a.m. and the running finals at 11:30 a.m.