Girard won the girls 100- and 200-meter dash events, while Jace Eich was the runner-up in the boys 400 and the anchor leg on the winning West Marshall boys 4×400 relay after the baton was passed between Dylan Thompson, Erick Rosas Canchola and Brevon Gibson.

Two more area girls punched their tickets automatically with top-two finishes on Thursday; East Marshall’s Morgan Neuroth won the girls 400 hurdles and West Marshall’s Kylee Schuler was second in the girls high jump.

Girard finished first in the 100 in 12.99 and won the 200 in 26.74. She won the 100 comfortably but was pushed by Dike-New Hartford’s Macie Graves in the 200, finishing 0.05 seconds ahead of Graves.

“I thought [the 100] was definitely my best race I’ve run all season,” Girard said. “I’ve been working toward breaking 13 the entire season, and I finally did it tonight.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - East Marshall’s Morgan Neuroth sets her sights on the finish line in the 400-meter hurdles during Thursday’s Class 2A state-qualifying track and field meet at Dike-New Hartford High School in Dike. Neuroth won the race in 1 minute, 6.60 seconds to qualify for next week’s state meet in Des Moines.

“In the 200, having [Graves] so close, that wasn’t exactly where I wanted to be, but my first 100 was really good, and that got me into that position where I could just stay strong in the finish and be able to stay ahead.”

Eich ran 50.55 to finish behind South Hardin’s Chizkiyah Richmond’s winning time of 50.26 in the open 400.

In the 4×400, only three seconds separated the Trojans’ winning time of 3:28.21 from South Hardin in fifth at 3:31.75. But West Marshall led for most of the race and Eich left no doubt.

“My teammates gave me a lot of energy,” Eich said. “We were really pumped up before we got out here, set our goals and got it done.”

Eich, a junior, was most happy to bring it home for seniors Thompson and Gibson. And he’ll relish the opportunity to share the Blue Oval with friends next week.

“Running the 400 down there alone kind of sucks,” Eich said. “I’m glad to have a team with me and we’ll get it done.”

Schuler was the first Trojan to chart her course to state, coming out in second place in a three-jumper tiebreaker between champion Ava Mills of Union and Mikayla Beisel of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows in third.

“I was really nervous,” Schuler said of the wait to learn if she had qualified. “It was really emotional when I found out, I’ve put a lot of work and effort to get this far but I was really excited at the same time. … I’d like to get at least to 5-1 [at state], and then getting past that would be amazing.”

Nobody was close to Neuroth in the 400 hurdles, as the East Marshall senior cruised to victory in 1:06.60.

She said she pushed herself nonetheless to try and get a spot in the fast heat in the 2A 400 hurdles at state.

“I knew I was going to have to push myself and do my best,” Neuroth said. “Just getting in the right mindset before every single race, pushing myself hard in practice and fueling my body with the right foods to help me out when the time comes.”

The rest of the area athletes are in wait-and-see mode until the at-large qualifiers are determined by the IHSAA and IGHSAU. In Class 2A, the next eight best performances from competitors outside of the top two in each event earn at-large bids.

East Marshall’s Kaleb Grant will be among those playing the waiting game, narrowly finishing third in the 2A boys 800 meter run in 2:03.69, a time he still thinks will be good enough to get him to state.

“At least, I hope so,” Grant said. “Most of our races tonight, we’ve run our best times. So that’s all we can ask for.”