HUBER HEIGHTS – Boxed in early, Wilmington’s Simon Heys finished seventh Friday night in the 3,200-meter run in the Region 8 Track & Field Championships at Wayne High School’s Heidkamp Stadium.
Brett Brooks, the Wilmington High School freshman thrower, had two events to compete in at the Region 4 meet. On Wednesday he was in the discus competition and on Friday he was in the shot put.
He came in to the shot put off a 46-4.5 effort at the district meet but failed to match that in his final competition of the high school season.
Brooks’ first throw on Friday was 43-8.25 and, as things turned out, that was his best. He followed that with throws of 40-9.75 and 41-0.75.
For Heys, the race was his final in the orange and black. He graduated earlier in the day at WHS during a special ceremony since the graduation had been scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday night. Heys did not race until 8:30 p.m.
A half lap in to the eight-lap race, several runners, including Heys, ran into some congestion on the back stretch. Heys was in the top four for the first two laps, even leading for a time late in the second lap.
He was boxed in and fell back in the pack, though it was a tightly-bunched pack, and fourth was still in sight.
Heys was eighth after the third and fourth laps. However, as Fairmont’s Andrew Sarmir – the eventual race winner – began to pull away, Heys fell back by 30 yards after five laps. He was never able to close the gap on the fourth-place runner, which was the final spot to qualify for the state.
Heys made a strong finish, passing a runner early on the final lap and finished in 10:04. His time at last week’s district meet was 9:39.35.
