Westerville North High School junior Jeff Hannaford finished second in the Division I boys regional meet last Saturday at Pickerington North in 17 minutes, 11 seconds to advance to the state meet for the third time.

Pickerington North's Daniel Garleb won the regional in 17:04.

Garleb and the hosts won the team title with 75 points, followed by state qualifiers Reynoldsburg (118), New Albany (139) and Dublin Coffman (147).

North was 14 points and one position shy of its first team appearance at Scioto Downs in 13 years, finishing fifth (161).

Westerville South finished 11th (238) and Westerville Central was 13th (252).

Brian Hannaford missed qualifying for his second consecutive state appearance by three spots. He was 19th (17:54) and North's Jacob Dumford (18:13) was 28th.

"I thought if we got out with Pick North we'd be good to go," Westerville North coach Dave Weaner said. "We just got a little behind them and the whole field collapsed over towards us."

Weaner said he positioned himself at the one-mile mark and realized his team was in trouble as he saw the field come through.

"Jeff came through, and then I was waiting, and waiting," Weaner said. "Then Brian comes through and I'm waiting, and waiting. I thought 'Oh boy, we've got a ways to go.'"

The Division I boys state race is at 2:50 p.m.

South coach Jimmy Gaul did not have a runner with regional experience on his team and thinks the strength of the field might have been as a shock.

"I don't think they were fully prepared for what it was going to look like when anyone who is anyone in the area is taking off at the same time," said Gaul, whose best individual finisher was Hasso Opitz (18:21) in 34th.

The conditions made it particularly difficult to make up ground from the back of the field. The course in Pickerington received significant rain the previous 24 hours, and the boys race was the sixth of six races that day.

"It was pretty treacherous," Gaul said. "Our guys were working as hard as they could, but after a mile or two there wasn't a whole lot of change."

Westerville Central sophomore Brandon Shirey finished 26th in 18:11.

•Central's Sara O'Brien was the only Westerville representative in the girls regional race last Saturday. She finished 74th (22:42).