Guenther, a Fair Exchange, Puts Poly Right on Track

Poly High qualified 13 individuals and two relay teams for Friday’s City track and field semifinals at Birmingham High.

Fairfax and defending City champion Belmont each qualified eight athletes and one relay team for next week’s meet.

Jerry Gilmore and Helge Guenther led Poly, qualifying in three individuals events.

Gilmore, a senior, had the best marks of the day in the long jump and triple jump with efforts of 20-11 and 44-8. His triple jump was a personal best.

He also finished second in his heat of the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 39.77.

Guenther, a junior foreign exchange student from West Germany, ran 15.61 to finish third in the second heat of the 110-meter high hurdles. He also threw the shot 46-3 and leaped 6-0 in the high jump.

Cary Perkins led the Poly sprinters with 11.35 and 22.91 clockings in the 100-and 200-meter dashes. The sprint times were hampered throughout the day by a head wind.

Perkins also ran the anchor leg on the Parrots 1,600-meter relay team, which finished second in it’s heat in a season-best of 3:24.32.

Poly coach Scott King was pleased with his team’s performance. “I think we have a shot at the City title,” he said. “But next week is the meet that counts. It’s nice to qualify this many kids for the semis, but you’ve got to get to the City finals before you can score points.”.