Staff photo / Greg Macafee Girard’s Sieasia Triplett wins the 200-meter dash at the Division II district track meet at Lakeview on Saturday.

CORTLAND — Sieasia Triplett didn’t miss a beat Saturday at the Division II district meet at Lakeview High School.

The Girard senior won all four events that she ran in and won them handily, earning a trip to the regional meet next weekend at Austintown Fitch.

She won both the 100 and 200-meter dashes, adding to her mantle after winning the 400-meter dash at the district meet last season.

“It feels good knowing that I’m going somewhere and that I can keep getting better, running against faster kids and knowing that I can do it,” Triplett said.

Triplett started her day with a win in the 100, clocking a time of 12.76 seconds, just ahead of Woodridge’s Anna Rorrer (13.02) and teammate Mia Malito (13.18). Triplett then turned right around in the very next girls event and teamed up with Airianna Clardy, Olivia Coman and Ar’Marna Wilson to capture the 4×200 relay.

Triplett ran the anchor leg of the relay and clocked in at 1:48.18 seconds, just over three seconds faster than second-place finisher Streetsboro. The Indians also won the 4×200 relay at the district meet last season.

Triplett, Coman and Wilson added Malito into the mix for the 4×100 relay midway through the meet and the Indians earned another victory with a time of 50.49 seconds. The Indians held off the Lakeview relay team of Eliza Farr, Stasia Hall, Joscelyn Burkey and Brooke Schneider who recorded a time of 51.63.

On top of her individual wins, Triplett said that advancing to regionals next weekend with her teammates was just as important to her.

“It feels really good knowing we’re moving on to regionals and I get the team to come with me,” Triplett said.

The Indians’ success has also been a team effort as they’ve worked throughout the season to get to this stage and take it one step further.

“We’ve just been getting better and better and we’ve practiced hard because we knew that we wanted to come here,” Triplett said. “We knew that we were going to make it here as long as we kept doing what we were doing.”

Triplett finished off her day by recording a 26.62 in the 200 meters, less than half a second ahead of Wilson who finished with a 26.97.

With all of the success that Triplett had at the district meet, she said she felt like she was going to have a good day after the weather cleared up just before the start of the meet. The day started off with rain, which delayed the meet start by an hour. But just before the start of the meet, the rain cleared and Triplett dominated on an overcast day.

“Once the weather started to get better — because this weather is like my weather, I felt like it was gonna be good,” Triplett said. “I knew it was going to be hard with the back-to-back but I knew that I could do it.”

LEAPS AND BOUNDS

Just like Triplett, Malito had a special performance at the district meet.

After capturing the high jump on Thursday with a jump of 5 feet, 2 inches, Malito went on to win the long jump Saturday with a jump of 16-03, just ahead of Lakeview’s Brooke Schneider and Champion’s Taylor Gearhart, who jumped 15-09.50 and 15-06.74, respectively.

Malito repeated as district champion in both events, but she knows that she still has room for improvement. She earned the top seed in the event with a jump of 17 feet but said that she was “off” on Saturday.

“I did great in both but I still feel like I can do better in both,” Malito said. “Like today I wasn’t really touching the board in long jump, which takes away from what I could’ve got, but altogether I feel like I did pretty good.”

In order to fix those things, Malito said that it all comes down to consistency for her.

“I just gotta make sure that my approach is very consistent,” Malito said. “Consistency is the biggest thing when it comes to the long jump and I think it was a little off today. So I just have to practice a lot this week and make sure my steps are perfect so I can jump well at regionals.”

After winning at districts last season, Malito went on to qualify for states in the high jump at regionals with a 5-2 jump, but came up short in the long jump on an off day.

Now Malito is prepared for another trip to Austintown and with her trip there last season in her back pocket, the Girard junior is a little more confident heading into next weekend.

“I think it just all comes down to how I perform,” Malito said. “I can be confident for sure heading into it but I just need to make sure I’m consistent and I have good form.”

BACK TO FORM

An injury earlier this season set Champion’s Kennady Grace back a little bit, but the Golden Flashes junior returned to form at Lakeview on Saturday with a district title-winning performance in the discus.

Grace recorded a toss of 118 feet,1 inch to capture her first district title after finishing second in the event last season with a toss of 112-02.

“It feels great,” Grace said. “I’m definitely blessed to be in this position. My goal just for today was to get first so I’m definitely saving that (best) throw for regionals.”

Midway through this season, Grace said she suffered a lower back injury, but after resting, she was able to bounce back this season. Although she said it made her a little bit stressed at times, she knew that once she competed in a few meets and got throws under her belt she would be in a good position for this point of the season.

“I was like ‘what if I can’t get back to where I was?” Grace said. “But I have just made sure that I’ve rested, I’ve definitely learned how to rest, and that’s just kinda got me through.

“A couple of meets ago I finally got to where I was before and I’ve just kinda been trying to get back up there and keep trying to increase my PR.”

Grace knows that she still has room for improvement though. With a personal-best throw of 122-03, Grace said it’s all about putting in the extra work in order to have her best next weekend.

“I’m definitely going to get some weighted throws in to try and get that last-minute strength and just really refine my technique,” Grace said.

3200 BATTLE

Lakeview’s Zac Haley did everything he could in the 3200-meter race. The Bulldog senior battled at the front of the pack with Woodridge’s Sam Su for a majority of the race, jostling back and forth for position. But a final kick by Su in the final 100 meters was the difference as Haley took second place with a 9:53.00 clocking. Su recorded a 9:52.12 finish while Jefferson’s Stephen Sly came in third just four seconds later.

HURDLING TO REGIONALS

Girard’s Nic Bengala has been on a tear this season in the hurdles and it looks like he’ll be hurdling for at least another week. Bengala took home the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 39.90 seconds after placing second in the 110-meter hurdles earlier the day with a 15.37.