It was an eventful day for ACGC at the state track meet yesterday, as several Chargers placed in running events to put both girls' and boys' teams on the scoreboard.

Kate Crawford turned in a stellar performance in the 3000 meter run, just falling short of a state championship. She and the Hostetler girls from Mid Prairie-Wellman separated themselves from the rest of the competition as the race progressed. With 800 meters to go Crawford took the lead and extended it to about thirty yards at the 100 meter mark of the final lap. On the backstretch, Marie Hostetler began to close the gap on the Charger runner. As the twosome came into the final turn, the MP-W girl made her move and caught Crawford with about 50 meters to go, crossing the finish line about 5 yards and 1.1 seconds ahead of Kate. Crawford's time of 10:26.89 was a sixteen second improvement over her qualifying time of last week.

Although the drama of the race was the dual for first and second place, Charger senior Emma Swanson also turned in a good performance, finishing in eight place to pick up a point for the team. Swanson settled in at the ninth spot throughout much of the race before overtaking Heidi Hall of Avoca on the final lap to finish in 11:11.42, representing an eight second improvement over her qualifying time.

Shot putter Mady McDermott finished just "out of the money", as her best put of 37'1.75" landed her in tenth place, with eighth place being 37'2". The final girls' competition of the day was by the

Charger 3200 meter relay team, which made the cut as the twenty third qualifier. The team of Audrey Stowe, Sophie Danker, Rylee Sloss, and Lauren Embleton improved their stock by finishing twenty first with a time of 10:35.65.

Two Charger boys got on the scoreboard for ACGC, as Noah Nelson and Caden Wardyn both placed in their respective individual events. Nelson battled three other runners from MP-W, Garner-Hayfield, and Treynor for the top spot in the 3200 meter run. He ran much of the race in about seventh place before he moved up to run with the threesome, which had separated themselves from the pack after the seventh lap. With Nelson improving his time to 9:57.37 from 10:13.50 at the state qualifier, he managed a fourth place finish and garnered five team points for ACGC.

Wardyn finished in eighth place in the long jump, with his longest leap being. 20'5.25". His first jump was his best, while he fouled on his final two jumps. His point for eighth place was the sixth point scored by the Chargers.

The boys' shuttle hurdle team of Cole Boyser, Gabe Rowley, Caden Waryn and Grady Laabs met with some misfortune when Laabs tripped on his anchor leg, giving the boys a time of 1:08 flat.

The meet continues through Saturday, with the Chargers competing in four events today. Mady McDermott will throw the discus today at 2 PM; the girls distance medley relay with Mady Smith, Savana Fuller, Sara Schmeling, and Kate Crawford run at 2:40; the girls 800 medley relay of Reagan Rumelhart, Sara Schmeling, Mady Smith, and Savana Fuller will run at 4:30; and the boys distance medley relay consisting of Dylan Soper, Justin Plowman, Caden Wardyn, and Clay Billheirmer run at 5:40.