Highland County sent seven athletes to last weekend’s Ohio High School Athletic Association State Track and Field Championships but none of them were able to place by finishing in the top eight of their respective events, according to results the OSHAA posted on MileSplitOH.

Whiteoak senior Lydia Kittner, who qualified for the Division III state meet in both the 100 meters and 400 meters, came extremely close to placing, and probably could have, but things did not turn out well for her.

In the 100-meter preliminaries, Kittner finished ninth in a time of 12.49, missing by one spot a place in the finals. The girl who finished just ahead of her to take the final place in the 100 finals was also timed in 12.49.

In the 400 meters, Kittner’s time of 58.39 was good enough for fourth place in the preliminaries and qualified her for a spot in the finals. But for some reason she was not able to run in the finals.

The other Division III state qualifier was Whiteoak sophomore Weston Blair in the 800 meters. He finished 17th with a time of 2:04.31. At the regional meet the week before he ran a time of 1:58.09, and if he could have ran the same time at the state meet he would have finished less than one second out of seventh place.

In Division II, the McClain 4 x 100-meter relay team of Luca Matesic, Ryan Butterbaugh, Katie Cook and Iva Easter finished 11th in the preliminaries with a time of 50.59, failing to move on to the finals.

Hillsboro senior Anthony Richards was the other Division II qualifier in the long jump. He finished 15th with a jump of 20-7.75.