Vinton County athletes finish strong, miss state berths at regionals

Naomi Boyd’s 2:20.34 in the 800 meters was a personal best and good for sixth place, but it still left Vinton County one step away from Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

That was the story across the 2026 Division III Region 8 Championships at Muskingum University in New Concord, where the county’s athletes finished strong on May 28 and May 30 but missed state berths by the thinnest of margins. Jackson High School finished 29th among 41 scoring teams with seven points. Vinton County High School tied for 31st with five, while Athens won the girls regional title with 60 points. The Division III state meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus was set for June 5 and 6.

All three local programs, the Ironladies, the Vikings and the Lady Vikes, came away with points in the final standings, a sign that the county is still producing athletes who can score in a meet that rewards depth as much as speed.

For Vinton County, Boyd provided the clearest regional breakthrough. She and Hope Goodson, Alexis Composto and Kylee Smith ran 4:16.33 to place seventh in the 4x400 relay, after qualifying in a school-best 4:10.67. Boyd’s sixth-place finish in the 800 showed how close the Lady Vikes were to pushing beyond regional points and into the state conversation.

Jackson’s Ironladies produced the meet’s most crowded list of top-eight results. Lillian Mapes placed eighth in the 100 meters in 12.75 seconds, eighth in the 200 in 26.33 and eighth in the long jump at 16 feet, 3.75 inches. Mapes, Gabby Palm, Kollier Fulton and Sydney Carpenter also ran 1:47.16 for seventh in the 4x200 relay, after setting a school record of 1:46.04 in qualifying. Parker Curtis added a seventh-place shot put of 35 feet, 3 inches.

The county’s teams reached the regional meet with five qualifiers each, and that kind of breadth gave both schools multiple chances to score. The next step is clear: turn school records, personal bests and near misses into state-qualifying finishes in the same events, in the same meet, when the margin is measured in hundredths and inches.