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Bulldog sports roundup
- Published: June 12, 2008
Bulldogs 4×8 fourth in state
The four athletes representing Yellow Springs High School at this past weekend’s state track meet at the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus brought home five medals and a lot of pride for their strong showing in the Division III events.
Returning from last year’s state record-setting foursome, senior Andy Peters and sophomore Alexis Onfroy joined juniors Brock GunderKline and Jake GunderKline for a fourth-place finish in the 4×800-meter relay on Friday, June 6. Onfroy led off with a split time of 1:58.7 to put the team in third place for Brock GunderKline, who held the position until the handoff to Jake Gunder-Kline for a steady third leg. The team had fallen behind a few places, and it was up to Peters to bring it home. Peters went after it, clocking a 54-second first lap to regain the team’s position and go head-to-head with Dayton Christian rival John Luttrell. Dayton crossed the finish just one second before Yellow Springs, who settled for fourth with a 1:58.9 split for Peters and an overall time of 8:05.65.
After last year’s performance at state, and a second place finish at the previous week’s regional meet, the team had hoped to beat its Dayton Christian rivals again for a second place finish.“We had a great day, but we were hoping for a perfect day,” Peters said.
As it was, the Yellow Springs squad improved its own record by six seconds, and three of its members will be coming back next year. Peters has accepted a combined athletic and academic scholarship to attend St. Xavier College in Chicago in the fall.
“It was a superb team effort and the second or third fastest foursome of all time for Yellow Springs,” Coach Vince Peters said of the race.
The following day, Saturday, June 7, Onfroy improved a bit on his qualifying time in the 1600-meter run to finish sixth in 4:26.14. And Jake GunderKline ran a slower than usual 3200-meter race and still took 11th in the state in 10:09.24.
This is the sixth year out of the last seven that the Bulldogs have qualified a 4×8 team for the state meet. Last year, the 4×8 team of Sam Borchers, Evan Firestone, Peters and Onfroy won the event in 7:48.39 and Borchers went on to win the state championship in the 1600 in 4:16 and set a state record in the 800 in 1:51.
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