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The Dexter High School girls track team finished third in the Class 1A regional in Madison, Friday; qualifying five people for the state track meet.

Cedar Vale will also send one girl to state.

The two teams had been competing as one in previous meets during the season,but because of a Kansas State High School Activities Association rule, the two teams had to separate for the post-season meets.

But no matter what team the athletes from the two school represented, the results were good.

"Regional is always one of those meets that gives me a stomach ache," said Dexter head coach Pat Muntz. "I was worried because we seemed to have peaked early in the season, but we're back to our peak. The one thing you never know about Regionals is the best can fall to the bottom."

Dexter's Camille Kahrs and Tanessa McClure lead a double assault on both hurdling events.

Kahrs and McClure went 1-2 in the 100-meter intermediate hurdles and 1-3 in the 300-meter low hurdles. Kahrs also placed second in the high jump, tying the winner at 5-0, but taking second because she had one more miss.

Kahrs and McClure also combined with Candace Romans and Morgan Pudden to win the 4x400 meter relay with a 4:29.19 clocking.

Dexter's Jolie Butler also earned a trip to Wichita after placing fourth in the 3200-meter run.

Butler had just missed out on a double qualification as she was sixth in the 1600-meter run.

Macy Warburton will be the lone qualifier for Cedar Vale, as she placed fourth in the discus with a throw of 97-2.

She also placed sixth in the shot put, accounting for all five of Cedar Vale's team points.

"They can separate us physically, but not emotionally," said Muntz. "We were all cheering for Macy and very happy for her."

None of the boys from Dexter or Cedar Vale qualified for state, but several came close. Shane Helphingsteine was the lone placer for the Cedar Vale boys. He took sixth in the discus.

Muntz was very pleased with that performance.

"He had never thrown the discus before this season, but he showed an interest in it," Muntz said.

Cody Drake was sixth in the 3200-meter run and the Dexter 4x100-meter relay team of Asa Muntz, Steven Archambeau, Andrew Glasse and Marshall Pettigrew narrowly missed out on a state berth, placing fifth in 48.30.

But the positive thing about their performance is they wrote their names in the DHS record book.

"They broke the school record, so that was a very special time for them,"said coach Muntz. "They had one bad handoff that might have cost them the trip to state, but it was still very exciting. The neat thing was that wasn't even our original relay. Marshall Pettigrew was a pull in. Shane

Helphingsteine had normally been running on it, but we knew he couldn't run with us at regionals, so we had to get another runner."