Garcia gets the gold

Baldwin High senior Heather Garcia won the 3,200 meter run in Class 4A for the third straight year and has situated the Bulldogs in the thick of the hunt for a girls team title.

Garcia is scheduled to run in the 1,600 meter run today as the third seed – six seconds off the top time heading into the finals – and is the No. 2 seed in the 800 meter by a mere 0.74 seconds behind Tonganoxie’s Christy Weller.

Area throwers shine

Ottawa’s Kearsten Peoples had the lone gold medal from the area with her toss of 45-21â2 in the shot put. The throw actually bumped Roni Grizzle of Tonganoxie back to second with her distance of 42-8.

Peoples wasn’t the only Ottawa thrower to have success as Kara McFarland finished fourth in the discus with a throw of 129-3 while Sam Blecha and Brandan Turner finished second and fifth, respectively, in the boys shot put.

Mill Valley’s Mark Grinstead placed fourth in the Class 5A discus with a toss of 148-9.

Long jumping Linzy

DeSoto senior Andre Linzy set the standard in the Class 4A boys long jump on his first attempt before finals with a distance of 23-03â4. However, Paola’s Joe Stephens squeaked past Linzy at 23-13â4 to bump Linzy to second on the podium.

Pair of Bears finish 5th

Oskaloosa High junior Chase Tenpenny finished tied for fifth in the Class 3A boys high jump by clearing a height of 6-2.

Tenpenny’s classmate, John Thurston, also finished fifth in the long jump with his jump of 21-2.