DAUGHHETEE, GROVES STAR AT DISTRICT MEET

A small, but impressive contingent of area track athletes pitted their skills against the district's best and advanced to next week's state meet.

Two local athletes, in particular, rose above the competition with outstanding performances at the Class 2A, District 1 meet held at Southeast Missouri State University's Abe Stuber Track Complex on Saturday.

Scott City's Loren Groves in the girls division and Kelly's Adam Daughhetee on the boys side, will make the trip to Jefferson City as qualifiers in three events each.

Groves, the freshman phenom who was undefeated in every event entered this season, remained perfect with three wins. Participating in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles and the discus, she captured all three in relatively easy fashion.

Groves was the only triple winner on the day.

"Loren's a fantastic athlete, but she's also a super worker," said Scott City coach Randy White. "I mean, the kid's got a tremendous work ethic."

On her whopping three-second margin of victory in the 300 hurdles, a beaming Groves said, "I just gutted it out."

Adam Daughhetee, the defending state 1600-meter champion, won his specialty in 4:33.4, as well as the 3200 meters (10:08.9). He finished fifth in the 3200 at last year's state meet.

"I'm going for it," said Daughhetee on defending his state title, "and I'm going for a lot faster time this year."

Daughhetee also teamed with Adam Lofton, Lance Ferrell and Ashley Hahn on Kelly's 800-meter relay team which qualified with a second-place finish (8:28.8).

As a team, Kelly finished a strong third in the boys and girls divisions, behind dual champion Lutheran North and Malden, which garnered seconds in both divisions.

Other individual girls qualifiers were Jennifer Vandeven and Lindsey Everett of Chaffee and Dana Essner of Scott City in the pole vault. Vandeven, barely edged by .06 seconds, and Everett were runners-up in the 400-meter dash and 3200-meter run, respectively.

Essner won the pole vault competition, clearing 7 feet, 6 inches.

Lofton's second-place in the 1600 (4:49.4) gave Kelly a sweep in that event, while teammate Travis Braun qualified with a second in the pole vault (8-6).

LaShanta Teaberry of Lutheran North, Angela Dalton of Grandview and Rachel Rowe of Charleston were the other double winners in the meet. Teaberry captured the 100- and 200-meter dashes; Dalton bettered the field in the 800- and 1600-meter runs; and Rowe won the high jump (5-0) and long jump (16-6).

For further results, see Scoreboard on 6B.