LOS ANGELES — North Montgomery Middle School’s Dane Utterback has advanced to the championship round in 200 meter hurdles and semi-final round of the 100 meter hurdles in the United States Track and Field Junior Olympics being held at Cerritos College.
The eighth grader will compete Saturday in the finals of the 200 meter hurdles and the semi-finals in the 100 meter hurdles after running personal best times in both of his events.
On Wednesday, Utterback placed eighth in the 200 meter hurdles with a time of 26.18. He participated against 46 qualifiers from all over the United States.
Utterback will run at 11:10 a.m. Saturday in the 200 meter hurdles finals against eight other athletes. The fastest preliminary time belongs to Adrian Williams who ran the event in 25.43. Williams is a member of the Dynasty Track Club out of Atlanta, Georgia.
In Thursday’s 100 meter hurdles, Utterback recorded the 16th best time of 14.79 and will race again at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. There are three heats for a total of 27 athletes in the semi-finals.
Once again Williams had the best qualifying time of 14.06 in the 100 meter hurdles out of 47 regional qualifiers.
The 100 meter hurdles finals are scheduled for 2:40 p.m. Sunday.
All runners had to qualify at earlier regionals. Utterback advanced out of the Illinois-Indiana Regional held at Indiana State University in July.
