Columbus North’s Lily Baker (129) takes off for the start of the 1600 meters during the Girls Track Sectional at Franklin High School on Tuesday, May 16,2023.
Rob Baker | For The Republic
FRANKLIN — It was a record-setting night for the Columbus North girls distance runners.
The Bull Dogs set sectional records in three of the four distance races to lead the way to a fourth-place overall team finish in the Franklin Sectional.
North opened the meet by breaking its own sectional record in the 4×800-meter relay. Carys Glyn-Jones, Julia Kiesler, Julie Klaus and Lily Baker ran 9 minutes, 17.47 seconds.
Lily Baker came back to set a sectional record in winning the 1,600 in 4:59.60.
“I had high hopes for our 4×800,” Baker said. “I was hoping we were going to come out and run something crazy. Then for the 1,600, my goal was to be sub-5. I’ve been focusing a lot of my attention on the mile this year, so going out faster is something that I need.”
Kiesler ran a sectional-record 10:42.71 in winning the 3,200.
“Everyone ran really fast today,” Kiesler said. “I’m pretty happy with it. There’s still room to grow, but that’s what these next two weeks are for.”
“They ran lights out,” North coach Rick Sluder added. “We’ve been working them hard, and they’ve been responding, so we’re really excited with all of our performances. We went PRs in almost everything for the season, and to set sectional records, which were mostly from our alumni anyway, that’s awesome.”
Klaus finished second (10:59.18) in the 3,200. Glyn-Jones took second (2:16.09) and Baker third (2:16.38) in 800 to also earn automatic berths to Tuesday’s Franklin Regional.
Beyond the top three, the next-four fastest performances from the four feeder sectionals to the Franklin Regional earn call-backs. The Bull Dogs have a few in line for those, including Kyleigh Wolf, who finished fourth in the 1,600 (5:19.89), and Sierra Newell and Marieme Niang, who tied for fourth in the pole vault (8 feet, 6 inches). Moana Steele took fifth in the shot put (37-10), Ava Collier was fifth (1:02.44) and Maggie Russell sixth (1:02.63) in the 400, Niang finished sixth in the 100 hurdles (17.71) and North took fifth in the 4×100 (53.68) and 4×400 (4:13.13) relays.
“We’re still growing as a team, and we’re still pretty young in some events,” Sluder said. “We probably should have been a little closer to second and third, but we ran our best.”
Columbus East gained one automatic berth with a third-place finish in the 4×100 relay. Emma Gray, Kenzi Cheek, Carson Schlehuser and Taylor Scott ran 51.06.
“They had great handoffs and had a great time,” East coach Glen Brown said. “They’ve been working all year for this, and that’s what they wanted.”
A few other Olympians are positioned for potential call-backs. Gray finished fourth in the 100 hurdles (16.61) and 300 hurdles (47.46) Scott took fifth in the 100 (12.98), Megan Tracy was sixth in the discus (110-6), Carson Schlehuser finished sixth in the 200 (28.25) and East was sixth in the 4×800 (10:23.64) and 4×400 (4:17.06) relays.
