WARSAW – Alex Morales picked a pretty good time to run the best time of his high school track career.

The Whitko hurdler punched his ticket to the State Finals Thursday night in record-setting fashion.

Morales, a junior, earned a third-place finish in the 110 hurdles in the Warsaw Regional. His time of 14.98 was a new school record.

Morales entered regional action seeded third in his specialty with a time of 15.10. He posted the fastest time of the night in the prelims with a 15.24. He then returned in the final to capture the third and final qualifying spot for the State Meet with his record performance. NorthWood senior Derek Parker won the regional title with a 14.83 and Goshen junior Josael Sanchez was runner-up in 14.85.

The Wildcats will also be represented by Walker Hobbs at the State Finals on June 4 at Indiana University. The senior strong man was third in the finals of the shot put with a best effort of 51-05.25 to earn his spot in Bloomington. Hobbs entered the regional as the No. 2 seed with a throw of 50-03.50.

Peter Wiegand, a senior from South Bend St. Joseph, won the shot put crown with an effort of 55-09.00. Northridge senior Mikey Kyle placed second with a throw of 51-06.00.

Whitko, which won the Bremen Sectional team title last week for the second straight year, had a pair of competitors fall just short of a trip to State. Junior Gavin Howard was fourth in the shot put with a toss of 51-02.25 and junior Conner Sherwin was fourth in the discus with a throw of 142-08. The top three finishers in each event advance  to State.

The Wildcats scored 25 points on the night to tie for ninth place in the final team standings. Warsaw won the regional title with 57.5 points with Goshen and NorthWood tying for second place with 52 points each.

Whitko also got a season best effort from its 4 X 100 relay team. The foursome of Garrett Elder, Brady Weeks, Alex Wilson and Gavin Powell placed sixth in a time of 43.67.

“Our guys did a great job tonight, yet the evening was bittersweet as well,” said Whitko coach Ron Cherry. “I’m very happy that Walker and Alex qualified for the state meet and that Alex set a new school record in the 110 hurdles. However, Conner and Gavin, two great throwers for us this year, finished in fourth place. I feel bad for them because they had terrific seasons and finished as close as they could get to a state finals berth and not qualify.

“Also, our 4 X 100 relay team had run in the low 44s the last few weeks and tonight they had a season best time of 43.67. Hats off to Garrett Elder, Brady Weeks, Alex Wilson and Gavin Powell.”

Triton senior Trey Watkins was the only other area athlete to place Thursday night. He finished in seventh place in the discus with a throw of 133-02.00.

Wawasee had a pair of individuals compete in the regional with Cole VanLue in the 100 and Luke Griner in the 300 hurdles. The Warriors also had its 4 X 800 and 4 X 400 relay teams in the regional.

Tippecanoe Valley senior Neil Clampitt closed out an outstanding prep career by competing in the 200 for the Vikings. Sophomore Gavin Good was a qualifier in the long jump for the Vikings.