By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
ST. JOSEPH - Junior pole vaulter Ann O'Keefe broke her own school record in winning the Big 16 Conference Track &Field Championships Wednesday afternoon at Dickinson Stadium.
O'Keefe cleared 10-feet-2 to capture the league title for Dowagiac.
O'Keefe was also a member of Dowagiac's 400-meter relay team which finished fourth.
Kalamazoo Central won the girls' meet with 118 points. Battle Creek Central was second with 80.5 points. Dowagiac finished 10th with 29 points.
Joining O'Keefe on the relay team, which posted a time of 51.83, were Sada Nealey, Katy Stuppy and Ashley Urbanski.
Urbanski, despite running with a foot injury that forced her to scratch from the 100-meter family, took Dowagiac from sixth place to fourth place on her leg of the event.
Urbanski also finished second in the long jump with a personal best effort of 15-11.5. Nealey, a freshman, finished third in the long jump with a personal best jump of 15-11.
Urbanski also took ninth in the pole vault with a personal best jump of 8-6.
Nealey also reached the semifinals in the 100-meters, while Stuppy, a freshman, reached the semifinals of the 200-meters.
Kalamazoo Central also won the boys' meet with 118 points.
Portage Northern finished second with 103.5 points. Dowagiac took 12th with 16 points.
Division 2 regional champion Niles finished third with 65.5 points.
Rounding out the top five were Benton Harbor and Battle Creek Central with 59.5 and 47 points respectively.
The Chieftains grabbed a pair of second place finishes as Isaiah Jones had a personal best jump of 21-2.75.
Kyle Bennett, also a senior, cleared 12-6 to finish second in the pole vault.
Sam Preston finished ninth in the 800-meters,while Elijah Caldwell reached the semifinals of the 200-meters.
Niles had a pair of Big 16 Conference champions as Kurt Poehlman won the high jump with a height of 6-feet-3 and Isaiah Glaze won the 100-meters with a time of 11.08.
Otis West finished second in the 200-meters with a time of 22.6.
Logan Todd was second in the 800-meters with a time of 2:03.41.
The Vikings were third in the 3,200-meter relay with a time of 8:23.03. Niles was also third in the 800-meter relay with a clocking of 1:33.7. The Vikings finished eighth in the 400-meter relay with a time of 46.37.
Placing fourth was Andrew Wuthnow in the 800-meter with a time of 2:03.92.
West finished fifth in the long jump with a distance of 21-feet, while Ricky Phillips was tied for sixth in the high jump with a height of 5-10.
Niles' Stephen Scally finished ninth in the 3,200-meters to round out the Top 10 finishers for the Vikings. Scally posted a time of 10:27.54.