Right next to home

DUNKIRK — With the cleathouse project and installment of a turf football field, the Patriots were forced off of their home track.

The former site of Dunkirk High School hosted the Patriots to give them an opportunity for a home meet, and the girls didn’t disappoint.

The Jay County High School girls track team put together a strong performance with three girls capturing multiple first-place finishes to help take down the Bluffton Tigers 77-46 Tuesday at West Jay Elementary School. The boys were overpowered in a 97-26 loss.

“The girls did really well, just how I expected,” JCHS coach Joe Imel said. “Looking at the boys, Bluffton has a really strong team, but I’m really pleased with some of the performances.”

Morgan DeHoff, Jenna Dues and Alexis Sibray led the way for the girls, accounting for seven individual victories. At least one of them was on each relay team that won.

Each of the three girls succeeded in a different kind of event as DeHoff ran in the hurdles, Dues in the sprints and Sibray in the distance.

“We’re really a well-rounded team on the girls side,” Imel said. “We don’t have a lot of standouts, but we’ve got some really good girls on the team and we’ve got them everywhere which will really help us when it comes tournament time.”

Molly Muhlenkamp smiles as she reaches the 300-meter mark of the 4x800 relay on Tuesday. With the meet being the only home competition for the Jay County High School track team, it acted as their senior night and several of Muhlenkamp’s friends showed up and cheered her to prompt the smile. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Dues and Sibray both competed in the regional meet last season — in the 200-meter dash and the 800 run, respectively.

Sibray won the 800 run on Tuesday with a time of 2 minutes, 42 seconds, and the 1,600 run in 6:28. She also ran on the 4x800 relay and the 4x400 relay that each took first place.

Dues’ times of 28.95 seconds and 13.29 seconds earned her the top spot in the 200 and 100 dash. She tied for first place with Molly Muhlenkamp and Mya Kunkler in the high jump, reaching 4 feet, 8 inches.

Dues also ran the second leg for the 4x100 relay team that included DeHoff as the first leg.

DeHoff’s victories came in the 100 hurdles and the long jump (15 feet, 3.5 inches). She added a third place finish in the 300 hurdles, while Makenzie Murphy claimed the victory in 53.56 seconds.

DeHoff’s year ended at the sectional last season, but she was knocking on the door after missing an automatic berth.

“It was overall just good with all of the events,” DeHoff said. “Hurdles has been going good this year, but long jump especially. I was really close to regionals last year with my best at 15 feet, 4 inches. This season I’ve already jumped to 15 feet, 9 inches, so we’re looking good.”

The Jay County boys struggled to score against the Tigers. They only captured two victories, with one going to Adam Alig in the high jump. He tied with Bluffton’s Austin Geimer and Eli Bertsch at 5 feet, 10 inches. Bertsch scratched his first attempt at 5 feet, inches, to fall to third while Alig and Geimer stayed tied at top.

The only other first-place finish came from first-year track athlete Caden Gambill. The junior who is starting to learn more about sprinting ran the 100 dash in 11.72 seconds to beat out his opponent from Bluffton by 0.03 seconds and secure his first high school victory.

“I feel really good,” Gambill said. “I’m working on getting off the blocks faster. If I can get off the blocks faster I can accelerate faster and it’ll get better.”