FREDONIA — Keegan Hill saved his best for last.
The Iola High freshman, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the state track meet in the 1500-meter run, had one final shot, in Friday’s 3200-meter run at the Class 3A Regional Meet.
And for the first three laps of the eight-lap race, it looked like another fifth-place finish was a possibility as the top five runners ran as a pack at the front of the race.
But at the midpoint Hill and Girard’s Houston McGown had established themselves as the ones to beat. McGown maintained a full stride advantage over Hill, who had pushed ahead of his nearest pursuer by 7 full seconds at the completion of the fifth lap.
By then, it became a matter of withstanding Friday’s warm, humid conditions with temps in the low 80s.
Hill had no such problems, ending the race with his second-fastest lap of the day to finish in second place at 10 minutes, 47.77 seconds.
“It was a nice way to finish,” Mustang head track coach David Daugharthy said.
HILL will run Saturday evening at the state track meet in Wichita’s Cessna Stadium. He will be the only Mustang competitor advancing to state.
Not that others didn’t come agonizingly close.
Freshman Keysha Smith missed out on qualifying in the 200-meter dash by .01 seconds — less than the time it takes to blink an eye.
Smith’s time of 27.67 seconds was a personal best, but it came an eyelash after Cherryvale’s Maycee Dean, who finished in 27.66 seconds for fourth.
The top four finishers at regionals go on to state.
“That was a tough race,” Daugharthy said. “We were hoping she snuck in there at the line.”
Hill narrowly missed qualifying in a second event, the 1600-meter run.
Hill’s personal best time of 4:45.52 was about 5 seconds off the fourth-place runner. Girard’s Gabe Onelio ran a blistering time of 4:18.63 to win gold.
