The Reeths-Puffer track teams had some definite success on Friday at a Division 1 regional meet in Zeeland, with eight Rockets qualifying as individuals for the state finals.
Winning regional championships in their events and automatically qualifying for state were Mason Darke in the 300-meter hurdles and Marvin Moore in the 400-meter dash.
Darke, who finished fifth in the state in the 300 hurdles last year, won the regional title with a time of 38.35 seconds, beating out Mona Shores’ Ryan Opsommer, who took second at 39.95.
Regional champion Mason Darke
Moore won the 400 with a time of 49.03 seconds, beating Rockford’ Connor Mahar, who took second with a 50.60 mark.
Also earning bids to the state finals, by finishing in the top two in their events or meeting the state standard, were Jamichael Williams in the high jump, Evan McHugh in the pole vault, London Rankin in the 100-meter dash and Makayla Disselkoen in the girls high jump.
R-P’s 4x200 meter boys relay team of Rankin, Emcee McLaurin, Moore and Ethan Rolewicz also qualified.
R-P senior Jersi Bilek ran the 800-meter run in 2:19.17, a new school record, but missed the state qualifying standard by 0.17 seconds.
Regional champion Marvin Moore
Darke previously qualified for state in the 110-meterhurdles by meeting the standard earlier in the season.
The R-P boys did well in the team standings, finishing seventh out of 14 teams with 49 points. Grand Haven took first with 107.
The R-P girls team was 13th out of 15 teams with nine points. Rockford took first place with 162.
The Division 1 state finals will be May 30 at Rockford High School.