Whitko’s Kaitlyn Reed, center, and Tippecanoe Valley’s Sarah Tucker lunge for the finish line during the 100-meter dash finals at Tuesday’s Rochester Girls Track Sectional. Tucker got Reed by .01 and the final guaranteed regional berth in the event. (Photos by Mike Deak)

ROCHESTER – To win a state championship in girls track, you don’t have to win a sectional, or a regional, for that matter. But you do have to qualify from sectionals to regionals, and that was quite a challenge at a very balanced Rochester Girls Track Sectional Tuesday night.

Whitko had a pair of titles to lead the area teams at Rochester, but one glaring omission might be just as big a story. Three Rivers Conference 100-meter dash champion Kaitlyn Reed missed out on the regional after finishing fourth, getting leaned out by Tippecanoe Valley’s Sarah Tucker at the line. Tucker’s 13.30 claimed the automatic ticket, Reed’s 13.31 wasn’t one of the regional-qualifying times among area call-backs.

Reed will be in Kokomo regardless, winning her signature high jump with a leap of 5-6, an inch higher than her seed height. Reed set a personal best with the jump, which tied a Whitko school record, and also enters the regional as the top seed. No one else in any of the feeding sectionals cleared higher than 5-4.

Whitko’s Suzi Sickafoose will run in two events at the regional, highlighted by a championship run in the 400 meters, crossing the line at 1:00.57, less than a second off the school record. Her 27.62 in the 200 meters was good for third.

Whitko’s Brigit Nemitz got the call to run in the regional, after taking fourth in the mile at 5:31.45 but getting in as one of the top feeder times. Nemitz was fifth in the two-mile at 12:13.85.

“It’s been really nice,” stated Whitko head coach Gary Sims of Sickafoose. “This is her first year of doing track. When she first started out, she was a distance runner and Brigit Nemitz came up to me and said, ‘you’ve gotta see her sprint.’ I needed another sprinter, and was just amazed. Her distance ability lends well to the 400, which I was very proud to see her win that tonight.”

Tucker wasn’t the only Valley athlete to qualify for regionals. Lexi O’Connell bounced back from a rough TRC meet to finish third in the 100 hurdles at 16.37 while fighting off some illness. Makayla Ruiz also broke a Valley school record in the shot put, sending the pill 35-6, breaking the old mark of 35-5.25. Ruiz’s toss was second overall.

“I’m so excited about Sarah,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Alysha Wachtmann. “She been improving every single meet and did a great job, especially in that 100. I was just counting places and didn’t see who she beat. That’s very impressive to catch Kaitlyn like that.”

Triton’s lone automatic qualifier was Katie Hepler in pole vault. Despite landing almost in a sitting position on the bar on her final attempt at 8-6, the bar never fell off the standards, sending Hepler to third place with the good attempt. Teammate Alysha May took fourth at 8-0. Triton’s 4×100 relay team placed fourth as well at 53.70. Abigail Powell finished fifth in both the 100 (17.42) and 300 hurdles (50.32).

“Katie Hepler worked hard all year long to improve her strength and her pole vaulting methods,” said Triton head coach Ryan Meister. “It showed and she got third. She was leading the event for a while. But she will be moving on to the regional. Very proud of her hard work and efforts.”

In a unique moment for Meister, his daughter, Jaela, finished her prolific career as a Triton athlete alone in the shot put area. After running a leg of the night’s final track event, the 4×400 relay, Meister went to the shot put area and finished her final two throws with all the other throwers and spectators long since vacated. Jaela, who was hampered by a knee injury her entire senior year, took up shot put as a result and finished eighth at 30-3 as well as running two legs of relays for the Trojans.

After her final throw, a handful of Triton supporters closed in as Jaela and her mother, Carmen, embraced signifying the close of one of the most decorated careers in Triton girls sports history.

Bremen, jumping into the sectional this year after spending years running with many of its mates in the Northern Indiana Conference, claimed the team title with 120 points, knocking out defending champion Plymouth’s 108 points. Whitko was sixth at 44, Valley seventh at 37 and Triton eighth at 34.

Full results from the sectional can be found here.