Ross’ Jeffrey Barnett jumps his way to state track meet

AMHERST – It’s been a long road to the state track and field meet, but Jeffrey Barnett finally made it.

The Fremont Ross senior long jumper punched his ticket to the state’s biggest stage Wednesday afternoon when he placed third at the Division I regional meet.

“I tried to break our school record, but I’m PRing almost every week,” Barnett said. “I’m just happy I’m going to state.”

Barnett made it to the final meet with a jump of 22 feet, 10 inches.

“It’s been three years, some disappointments,” Ross boys track and field coach John Elder said. “Little things here and there that just kept him from going to state his first three years. He’s our best athlete, by far. He should go to state.”

The meet was interrupted for an hour by a storm that swept through the area. Although Barnett’s first three jumps of the day came in sunny, hot and dry conditions, his final jumps, more than two hours later, came under cool and wet conditions.

“You had to re-warm-up. It’s a challenge to redo all that, but it doesn’t matter. You have to do what you have to do,” Barnett said.

A second weather delay stopped the meet for another 1:10, but all of Ross’ athletes had run their events, allowing the Little Giants to avoid waiting around to finish their night.

With the goal of qualifying for the state meet checked off his list, Barnett has one more meet to accomplish his final goal.

“To get that (school) record,” said Barnett, looking to top the mark of 23-6. “If I place or don’t place, it doesn’t matter, I can still say I went to state.”

Barnett was the only Little Giant to assure a place at the state meet, but several more put themselves in position to do so by qualifying for the regional’s final events Friday.

Elijah Johnson finished fifth in the preliminaries of the 110 hurdles, while the 4x200 relay team of Barnett, Tarvarius Simms, Tyler Grine and Jaylen Spencer finished sixth in the preliminaries to advance.

Simms filled in on the relay for Jalen Oman, who sprained an ankle in practice Monday and also had to scratch from the pole vault.

“We’re right where we want to be,” Elder said. “We got Elijah where we wanted in the hurdles, the 200 relay made it to the finals, which was our goal.”

Ross’ girls team got a top performance from Vanasha Elkins in the 200 preliminary. She’ll enter the final race as the top seed with a time of 25.31.

Elkins also helped the girls’ 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams qualify for their finals as well. The 100 relay, which also featured Imani Elkins, Derae James and Aeriana Whittaker, finished fifth in 49.38 while the 200, with Imani Elkins, James and Alexandrea Holmes joining Vanasha Elkins, finished eighth in 1:45.56.

Ross girls track and field coach Travis Bates said he believes the best is yet to come for his relay teams in their final races Friday.

“I didn’t think they looked like they were moving very fast but their times turned out to be pretty good,” Bates said. “The girls all said they didn’t feel that great in the 4x1 and 4x2. So, even though they were fast, they didn’t feel fast, so hopefully that’s a good sign for Friday.”

rmcgowan@gannett.com

419-559-7752

Twitter: @RMcGowan1