The Gilmour Academy girls track and field team continued their march to the OHSAA State Championships without missing a beat as the Lancers won the Lexington Regional title this past weekend.
Gilmour topped the field of over three dozen schools in the team score portion by tallying 71 points. The 24 points that separated the Lancers from the runner-up team was the same point differential between second place and 10th place in the standings.
A pair of Lancers won individual regional championships during the two-day meet.
Amy Weybrecht '24 led the way for Gilmour by qualifying for the state meet in two individual events and helping two GA relays reach the pinnacle weekend as well.
Weybrecht won the 1600-meter run in 5:13.57. She was in fifth place with just one lap to go but split a race-best 1:13.64 in the final lap to rally for the win. Mia Polisena '22 also scored in the event for Gilmour, finishing sixth in 5:30.47.
Weybrecht came so close to adding a second regional title but was just edged out at the line. She took second place in the 800-meter run in 2:18.14, just .01 seconds behind the winner. Mary Lombardo '22 also scored in the event, placing sixth in a new personal-best 2:21.10.
Karah Henderson '22 was Gilmour's other regional champion as she claimed the top spot in the 100-meter hurdles. She won the regional title in 15.28 seconds and is poised to be one of the top competitors in the event at the state meet.
Henderson also was part of one of the more impressive efforts by the Lancers at the meet.
Gilmour's 4x100 relay entered the finals as the eighth seed out of eight teams. However, the Lancers rallied when it mattered the most. Bella Lasecki '22, Henderson, Kaleigh McNamara '22 and Mariyah Moore '24 combined to finish in 50.49 seconds, good enough for a third-place showing and a berth to the state meet.
As it turned out, the 4x100 relay was one of three from Gilmour that earned a trip to the state meet by virtue of a top-three regional finish.
The 4x800 opened the track portion of the meet by finishing as the regional runners-up. Clare Valenza '23, Weybrecht, Polisena and Lombardo combined to finish in 9:39.22.
The 4x400 relay closed the meet with a strong runner-up showing. McNamara, Moore, Lombardo and Weybrecht combined to finish in 4:04.81, more than eight seconds faster than Gilmour ran the race a week prior at the Bedford District meet. With GA in fifth place in the final stages of the race, Weybrecht went three lanes wide on the turn and pulled the Lancers up three spots over the final 60 meters to earn a trip to states.
Mackenzie Palinski '21 rounded out Gilmour's state qualifiers with a new personal best in the shot put. She tossed the implement 39 feet, 4.75 inches to place fifth in the event. After results from other regionals were finalized, Palinski would claim an at-large berth to the state meet courtesy of her strong performance.
Moore and Valenza, both of whom helped relays qualify for states, just missed out on qualifying for the state meet in an individual event. Nevertheless, both still earned valuable team points for Gilmour.
Moore took fifth in the 100-meter dash (13.22 seconds) while Valenza was fifth in the 3200-meter run (11:39.28).
Lombardo, Moore, McNamara and Kai Logan '22 worked together to score for Gilmour in the 4x200 relay. The quartet took sixth place in 1:47.38.
The team championship was the third consecutive and 12th overall regional title for the Lancer program.
Henderson, Palinski, Weybrecht and the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800 relays will compete at the OHSAA State Championships for Gilmour. The two-day meet will take place at Pickerington High School North on the first weekend of June.
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