MENTONE -ÊAlthough Plymouth won the sectional at Tippecanoe Valley Tuesday night, Manchester surprised everyone including themselves by finishing in the second spot by advancing girls to the regional in nine events next week in Bremen.

"I never dreamed that we would do this well at the beginning of the season," said Manchester coach Keith Metzger. "I am ecstatic. It is tremendous what these girls have done, especially in the past two weeks."

Manchester's Adaku Onyeji placed first in the 100- and 200-meter races, winning the 200 by a full second over her closest competitor. Manchester's only other first place finish came in the 4X100 relay when the team crossed the finish line less than a second before second-place Tippecanoe Valley.

Ann Harms advanced to the regionals for the Squires in three individual events, the 100 hurdles, the 300 hurdles and the long jump, while her teammate Tina French advanced in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Also moving on for Manchester were Muriel Speicher (400-meter) and the 4X400 relay team.

"Our whole program is built around personal bests and cutting our times," said Metzger. "As long as our girls give 100 percent, that's all I ask."

Another surprise at the sectional was Triton's third-place overall finish.

"We are starting to make a name for ourselves," said Triton coach Jason Hunter. "Three years ago we were seventh or eighth, last year we were fourth, and now we are third. I really think we surprised some people tonight."

Triton advanced to the regionals in seven events, with Sisteen Christian earning the lone Trojan first place. Christian hurled the shot put 37-4 1/2 to win the competition. Shelly Miller (1600-meter), Reghan Kreft (3200-meter), Melody Kuhn (300 hurdles), Rachel Speicher (high jump) and Amber Feldman (discus) each advanced to the regional in individual events while the 4X800 relay team moved on as well.

Tippecanoe Valley came in fourth place as a team in the sectional with the highest Viking individual finishers Kristi Rudd, Sarah Kindig and Brenda Rose placing third in the 100 meters, the 400 meters and the discus respectively. Rudd also placed fourth in the 100 hurdles to advance to te Bremen Regional.

All three of Valley's relay teams earned the chance to compete at Bremen after placing in the top three in the sectional.

"Overall, I think we did pretty well tonight," said Tippecanoe Valley coach Terry Screeton. "We came back well from running the conference meet Friday to compete in the sectional tonight.

"All four of our relay teams did a real nice job and they all qualified for the regional.

"Probably the biggest surprise of the evening was Brenda Rose in the discus. She came up to third place and surprised just about everyone."

Whitko placed ninth overall and advanced one runner to the regional. Angel Puckett shaved 15 seconds off her personal best in the 1600 to run a 5:40.66 and placed fourth. She also took seven seconds off her 3200 time to place third and move on to the regional in that event as well.

"I feel really good about our performance," said Whitko coach Jennifer Frieden. "I am very pleased with our overall efforts. We just missed advancing in several events. We placed fifth in a couple events and just missed the cutoff."

Now each team faces the challenge of preparing for Tuesday's regional at Bremen, and each coach has a different idaea of how to prepare for the competition.

"We are going go and have fun at Bremen," said Metzger. "We'll celebrate with a team dinner and then get back to work."

"The rest of the week we'll work pretty hard, and hopefully we can step things up mentally," said Screeton. "We want to improve our times and be ready for the next step."

"We are not going to settle for just qualifying for the regional," said Hunter. "We want to go in there and be competitive and get some people to state. It's not over with yet." [[In-content Ad]]