Southwest Ohio track and field athletes who made their mark at the 2024 regional meets

There is just one week left in the Ohio high school track and field season.

The competition was whittled down over the weekend as the Division I regional meet was held at Dayton's Welcome Stadium, the site of next weekend's state meet. The Division II meet wrapped up on Saturday at Piqua High School.

Here are the biggest headlines from the second-to-last weekend of track and field.

La Salle, Colerain sweep DI sprint titles

A slight head wind was no problem for Koy Beasley and Summer Swartwout in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Beasley ran his second-fastest time of the season in both races to beat Wayne freshman Jamier Averette-Brown. He won his second straight 100-meter dash title in 10.58 seconds, the same time as last year. He crossed the line in the 200-meter dash in 21.54 seconds to improve on last year's regional runner-up result.

Beasley did not make the 100-meter podium at the 2023 state championships and did not start the 200-meter dash. Now, the Purdue football commit has a chance to place in both events.

Swartwout opened her meet by beating Wayne's Ric'Keya White in the 100-meter dash by 0.003 seconds. She returned to win the 200-meter dash in 24.50 seconds, edging Wayne's Te'aira Branham-Patrick by 0.09 seconds. Mason's Abby Love joins Swartwout in qualifying for state in the both races. Princeton's Mackenzie Givens gives Cincinnati three competitors in the 200-meter dash.

She had two top-three finishes at last year's state meet and can become the fourth girl to sweep the short sprints in as many years (Mentor's Paige Floriea in 2021, Lakota East's Azariah Bryant in 2022, Holland Springfield's Maira Scott in 2023).

Big throws lead to shot put gold in DI

Anderson senior Bobby Stanyard and Little Miami senior Sophia Ili both unleashed monster personal bests to win their first regional title.

Stanyard avenged a second-place district finish to Loveland's David Lorek. On his second of six attempts, he hurled the 12-lb. orb 53 feet, nine inches, improving on his previous personal best by almost two feet. That is also the 18th-best throw in DI this season.

Ili, who finished second in her district competition to Mason's Austin White, beat White at the regional meet with a new personal best of 40 feet, 10 inches. Her fifth attempt of the meet was her only throw over 40 feet, shattered her old personal best by two feet, 7.5 inches, and is the 20th-best throw in the state this year.

Cincinnati qualifies 4 for state in 5 DI events

Automatically advancing from the region meet to state is fairly simple. Just be in the top four in your event's finals. Athletes can qualify for the state meet with an at-large bid, but that depends on regional results from around the state.

The following events saw four Cincinnati-area athletes or teams automatically qualify for next week's meet in Dayton.

Boys 3,200 meters: Andrew Wilcox (Monroe), Evan Trapp (St. Xavier), Lucas Towne (Turpin), Alex Bruns (St. Xavier)

Girls 800 meters: Natalie Kiefer (Harrison), Caroline Murnan (Loveland), Hannah Glassmeyer (Lebanon), Kaitlin Kaszubski (Lakota East)

Girls 3,200 meters: Bentley Thomas (Ursuline), Efa Paschka (Mason), Lucia Rodbro (Talawanda), Alynna Wilson (Lebanon)

Girls 4x400-meter relay: Lakota East, Mason, Lakota West, Little Miami

Girls 4x800-meter relay: Mason, Loveland, Lakota West, Seton

Samantha Erbach gears up for state meet with three regional titles

The Waynesville three-sport star is squeezing every last ounce out of her high school career.

While she already owns the top time in Ohio in the 1,600 meters, she crossed the finish line in 4:57.93 to win at Piqua. She ran a season-best of 2:14.74 to win the 800 meters, where she was closely followed by her younger sister, Kendal. Finally, she won the 3,200 meters in her only regional appearance at that distance.

The Erbach sisters also paced the Spartans to a second-place finish in the 4x800-meter relay, just 0.71 seconds behind Ottawa-Glandorf. Waynesville is the defending state champion in the distance relay.

Erbach is planning on running all four events at the state meet, a schedule that amounts to four miles of races over two days. Scoring a significant amount of points in all four events could lead to the Spartans finishing among the top rungs of the team standings.

Batavia wins DII boys team title

The Bulldogs scored 45 points to win by a margin of 0.67 points over Carroll.

All four relays scored points. In the individual events, Marcus Hughbanks won the 300-meter hurdles and took second in the 110-meter hurdles. David Flandermeyer took fourth in the 800 meters and Austyn Shepherd took fourth in the 300-meter hurdles and eighth in the long jump.

The Bulldogs, who tied for eighth at the 2023 regional meet, will send Hughbanks, Flandermeyer, Shepherd, and the 4x400 and 4x800-meter relay teams to state.