Published: May 12, 2008 10:51 am            

Duncan takes third at state track meet

Mettler sweeps three events in final high school meet

ARDMORE — After finishing Day 1 of the Class 5A state track meet in second place, the Duncan Demons finished third after Tulsa East Central picked up key wins in the sprint events.

East Central totaled 94 points for the win, while Ardmore took second with 78. Duncan was third with 62 and Shawnee was fourth with 60.

“We needed some help from Ada in the sprint relay, but they ended up getting disqualified in that, plus East Central won the 100 and the hurdles, so they got a big boost from that,” DHS head coach Todd Ledford said. “We did score everywhere I thought we would and we had a very good meet overall. I’m proud of the guys because finishing in the top three is pretty darn good.”

Duncan had two individual state champions in Casy Rowell, who won the pole vault on Friday with a 14-6 mark, and Dustin Mettler, who took home three medals.

“Casy steps up when the pressure is on, and he cleared 14-6 on his first attempt,” Ledford said. “He is only going to get better and he should jump in the high 15s next season. He’ll be fun to watch.”

Mettler added to Friday’s 3200-meter win with medals in the half mile and mile events. Mettler ran 1:58.05 in the half mile and set a personal record by eight seconds, and won the two mile by eight seconds.

“Dustin blew everyone’s expectations out of the water,” Ledford said. “He dominated everything he ran in this weekend. He just does what he has to do to win.”

Senior thrower Curtis Mulkey took third in the discus with a toss of 173-06, while Kyle Lee set a season-best height of 6-4 in the high jump and took second place on Saturday.

On the season, Duncan had three first-place finishes, four runners-up and two third places to go along with its Southern Oklahoma Invitational and regional meet wins.

“It’s been a absolutely super year,” Ledford said. “I don’t think the kids realize how good they did. I was impressed with every last one of our guys because they fought for everything the got and brought the standard back to where it needs to be.”

Ledford added that while DHS will miss seniors Mulkey, Mettler, Kyle Williams, Emmanuel West and Kris Vereen, they should be in decent shape with a large crop of underclassmen returning.

“A lot of experienced kids are coming back and we’ve got some talented eighth graders moving up,” Ledford said. “We had some guys step up this season and help us qualify in 15 of 16 events. The younger guys will help us make another run at it next season.

        

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