Lancaster’s Purcell jumps to regional girls track title
- Hope Purcell missed just once during the meet until she attempted to clear a personal-best 5-7.
- Lancaster’s 4x800 ran a season-best time of 8:01.53 to qualify for state.
PICKERINGTON – Even as Hope Purcell continued to climb Wednesday she was sure to take nothing for granted.
The Lancaster freshman, however, gave herself reason to relax and smile. Purcell continued her impressive season, clearing 5-feet-6 and winning the high jump during the Division I regional meet at Pickerington North.
“I have been doing good at most of my meets, so everybody has been telling me I could go to state,” Purcell said. “I knew I still had to work hard to achieve it because there are a lot of people who have been working four years for this.”
Also qualifying for the state meet Wednesday was the Lancaster boys 4x800 relay.
Purcell competes in the state meet at noon June 6 at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Purcell had just one miss during the competition until her three failed attempts at 5-7, which would have been a personal best.
Six competitors cleared 5-4, but just four cleared 5-5, ensuring state qualification for Purcell. Purcell and Newark’s Tana Barrett both cleared 5-6, and Purcell earned the title based on fewer misses.
“Everybody else does pretty great, so it’s good to push me,” Purcell said. “I don’t really think about (being in the lead). I just jump.”
Purcell has been in a bit of rut after bursting onto the scene early in the season. The state meet, however, could be the perfect stage for one more breakthrough.
“I have been doing like 5-4, so this is the best I have done in a while,” said Purcell, who cleared 5-6.5 early in the season.
Purcell (15.25) and Erica Campbell (15.41) also qualified to Friday’s finals in the 100 hurdles, and Campbell did as well in the 300 hurdles (45.27). Madison Allen placed fifth in the shot put (36-11.5), and the 4x800 finished 12th (10:06.88).
In the boys meet, the Golden Gales knew they would be in for a battle if they wanted to advance in the 4x800. They maintained solid position throughout and set a season-best time of 8:01.53 to qualify for the June 5 state race.
Dublin Coffman pulled away for the title. The next four teams were separated by three seconds.
“Coming into it, we thought we were were about fifth or sixth, maybe fourth,” said senior Nick Bosser, who was joined by classmate Matt Young and juniors Noah Ball and Mason Kieffer. Sophomore Andy Ferris also has frequently been on the relay this season.
“It was really a toss-up just because we really haven’t run all of our best races on the same day, so our seed time wasn’t necessarily true to what we were capability-wise. The game plan was to have these guys get us in the top 3 or 2 and have me just hold on.”
Lancaster has quite a legacy in distance running, and no team was better in 2012 when the Gales won the state title in the 4x800.
Winning the state title next weekend is a lot to ask, but all of the current Gales will be making their first state appearance and are proud to be continuing the tradition.
“There is always an expectation for Lancaster to be good at distance,” Bosser said. “We really pride ourselves on our heritage, so it is definitely good to be back at the state meet.”
Isaac Goss (140-3) and Christian Herold (138-2) finished ninth and 10th in the discus. Harrison Taylor qualified for Friday’s finals in the 100 (11.44), but he fell short in the 200 (23.24).
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