BY TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
ENDICOTT — A trio of Owego athletes and another from Candor are headed to the state championships after strong showings at the Section IV Boys Track & Field State Qualifier at U-E High School’s Ty Cobb Stadium here Thursday.
Senior thrower Colby Selover will advance to states in the discus after meeting the “super standard†earlier in the season. He was still required to compete at the qualifier to be eligible for states and finished with a third-place toss of 147-8 in the discuss.
Also heading to states is the Indians’ “dynamic distance duo†of seniors Nate Bowers and Cameron Szabo.
Bowers made a late surge to capture the 3200 title with a time of 9:30.46. He had previously qualified via the “super standard†with an earlier time of 9:23.19 and only need to enter the qualifier to secure a bid to states.
Szabo was the favorite in the 800 and although he came up short of a victory, he too had qualified at an earlier meet with a time of 1:56.92 and placed second in Division II in the state qualifier. He was third overall at 1:57.68.
Candor junior Lance Jensen qualified for states in the 400 hurdles, winning the event with time of 56.25 seconds. He also qualified for the finals in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.68 seconds. He was third overall and in Division II in the preliminaries.
Newark Valley junior sprinter Caden Bennett will compete in the 100 and 200 finals. He qualified seventh in the 100 prelims with a time of 11.54 seconds and eighth for the 200 in 23.62 seconds.
Bennett will also join senior Dan Cowulich, senior Micah Williams and sophomore Raidyn Ford in the 4x100 relay finals. The quartet qualified third with a time of 44.42 seconds after coming in seeded sixth.
Following is how other local athletes fared.
CANDOR
Senior Jeb Parillo placed ninth in the 400 hurdles (1:01.43).
Freshman Ben Dizer placed 19th in the 400 (55.04).
NEWARK VALLEY
Freshman Jonny Sherwood finished 14th in the 3200 (10:21.75).
Senior Steve Cowulich took 21st in the 400 (55.9) and Ford was 21st in the 200 (24.87).
OWEGO
Senior Lewis Race placed 11th in the 400 (52.8), edging junior teammate Derek Sarrge, who was 12th (52.83).
Sophomore Gus Cantella took 13th in the 100 (11.73) and 16th in the 200 (24.27).
Senior Gavin Watkins was 13th in the 3200 (10:20.52).
Senior Eaan Hackett finished 20th in the 800 (2:10.75).
S-VE
Senior Levi Mickelson took eighth in the 800 (2:01.77).
Junior Luke Simonton placed 11th in the discus (117-04) and senior Christian Kunzman was 14th (113-3).
The state qualifier concludes today at U-E, beginning at 5 p.m.
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IN PHOTO 1: Newark Valley’s Micah Williams (L) takes the hand-off from Dan Cowulich in the 4x100 relay. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
