BLOOMINGTON – Highlighted by Whitko junior Kaitlyn Reed’s fifth-place finish in the high jump, a number of locals competed in the girls track and field state finals at Indiana University Friday. Reed, who advanced to the state meet with a third-place finish in last week’s Kokomo Regional, cleared a height of 5-5 Friday for her fifth-place finish. In other field event action, Warsaw senior Samantha Alexander finished 11th in the high jump with a leap of 17-6.5. Alexander was also a part of two relay teams that competed at state. She teamed with freshman Maygan Bellamy, sophomore Abbi Curtis and classmate Audrey Rich to finish seventh in the 4x100 with a time of 48.66 seconds. For the 4x400, Alexander teamed with Bellamy, freshman Remi Beckham and Rich, finishing 11th in a time of 3:57.31. Warsaw’s 4x800 relay team of seniors Hannah Dawson and Brooke Rhodes, sophomore Emma Bohnenkamper and junior Allison Miller finished ninth in 9:26.92. Rich competed in the 100-meter dash, but her time of 12.52 seconds in the prelims didn’t advance her to the finals. In the 1600 and 3200, the area was represented by Manchester junior Rae Bedke and Warsaw junior Mia Beckham. Bedke and Beckham were first and second, respectively, in both events at the Kokomo Regional. In Friday’s state meet, Beckham was 11th (5:05.59) in the 1600 and 20th (11:24.34) in the 3200. Bedke finished 15th (5:07.41) in the one-mile event and 17th (11:14.59) in the two-miler. Among the 60-plus teams that scored at least one point, Whitko was 48th with 4.5 points, while Warsaw finished 49th with four points. Warren Central won the team state championship with 70 points, followed in the top 10 by Pike (48), Penn (28), Ben Davis (28), Hamilton Southeastern (27), Carmel (23), West Lafayette (23), Homestead (22), Crown Point (21) and Fishers (20).
