Stephanie Effken

    After a long day at districts on May 8, Malcolm is preparing to take four athletes to state next weekend.
     "We're happy with what we got," said Coach Jack Tarr. "It's what we expected."
     With many athletes making it to the finals, it ultimately came down to four–Ryan Meyer, Anngela Dunbar, Morgan Densberger and Emily Lostroh.
     Sweeping first and second in girls' pole vault, Densberger placed first and Lostroh took second, both with a height of 9-6.
     Meyer will represent Malcolm in boys' state pole vaulting after placing second at districts with 12-6.
     "I feel good," said Meyer, after his jump. "It wasn't my best, I could have jumped better."
     Close behind Meyer in the pole vault was Kyle Ridder who took fourth at 12-6 and missed going to state by one attempt.
     "It was disappointing because he made it all week in practice," Tarr said.
     Malcolm's fourth representative at state is Dunbar after jumping 5-1 in the high jump and placing third.
     Dunbar said she is both nervous and excited about state competition.
     "I'm not used to starting out at 4-10," Dunbar said.
     Overall, the girls' team came out in seventh of nine teams scoring 39 points and the boys' team ended in eighth with 35 points.
     For boys' field events, Jess Meredith took sixth in the long jump with a jump of 19-6.75.
     In discus, former state qualifier Dan Slepicka placed sixth with a throw of 128-5. Cody Williamson also took sixth in the shot put with a throw of 44-8.5.
     In boys' running events, Meredith and Slepicka both ran in the finals of the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Meredith placed fourth in both with a time of 11.4 in the 100-meter and 24.0 on the 200-meter. Slepicka placed fifth in both the 100- and 200-meter dash with times of 11.5 and 24.3 respectively.
     Gary Burruss ran the 1,600-meter at a steady third or fourth place throughout. Burruss took fourth in the race at 4:46.2.
    (continued on 3B)
     Jacob Bolte placed sixth in the 3,200-meter in 11:13.2.
     The boys' 4x400-meter relay placed fourth with a time of 46.2.
     In the girls' running events, Deidre Slepicka came up third in the home stretch of the 1,600-meter run with a time of 6:03.8. Breezy Dowd came up sixth in 6:08.1. Dowd also placed third in the 3,200-meter run at 13:15.3.
     The girls' 4x100- and 4x800-meter relay teams came in sixth with times of 55.4 and 11:48.6 respectively.
    Upcoming action
     Meyer, Dunbar, Lostroh and Densberger will head to state competition at Burke in Omaha on Friday and Saturday, May 16 and 17.
     Dunbar will be jumping at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and Meyer will compete Saturday at 9 a.m. Densberger and Lostroh will both compete in the pole vault at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.