CHARLESTON (WCIA) — Judah Christian’s Daryl Okeke hit every hurdle on his way down in the 110 meter hurdles, winning his heat, but getting disqualified for knocking a hurdle into another lane. With a bloody knee, he had to regroup to walk down the field to win the 100 meter dash.

“I hit every single hurdle with my trail leg and my leg got beat up pretty bad,” Okeke said. “Had to just turn it off, go back, walk right back, and run the 100 and get in the right mentality for that. A little blood never hurt anybody. I can still walk so I can still run.”

But while one race ended in a DQ, Okeke has three races to focus on Saturday, coming in first overall in the 200 meter dash and 300 meter hurdles. His competitor in the 300 hurdles, Schlarman freshman Jerrius Atkinson is on his way to Saturday’s final in the event.

“Feels good,” Atkinson said. “I put in a lot of work to do this so I came out here, so let’s hope I do good on Saturday too.”

For only his second time running the 110 meter hurdles, Salt Fork’s Nathan Kirby punched his ticket to state after winning his heat, finishing second overall.

“I almost fell like five times in that race and I still ran a good time,” Kirby said. “For only my second time this year so still happy, just have to clean some stuff up and might be able to bring home some hardware.”

The Storm may be a front runner for a team win on Saturday, winning the 4×100 and 4×200 in their heats. Shelbyville and St. Joseph-Ogden also won their heats in the 4×200, with St. Teresa coming in first in their heat in the 4×100.

The Class 2A and 3A prelims run Friday morning and afternoon at EIU, with the finals for all classes Saturday.

View all the results from the Class 1A boys prelims here: https://results.adkinstrak.com/meets/25917