If you are a little confused on how the Division II track and field district is going to unfold this week, join the crowd.

A PhD would be required to fully understand it, but after weeks of talking to people and trying to make heads or tails of this, I think I’ve basically got it figured out.

The postseason of track and field opens today with the Division II preliminary day at both Meadowbrook and West Holmes High Schools. Division III is as simple as always. The meet opens Tuesday at Newcomerstown and wraps up Friday evening at Lee Stadium with the top four boys advancing to the regional at Navarre and the top four girls in each event advancing to the regional at Pickerington.

We’ll save that rationale for another day because this Division II mess at the district level is a little too complicated to throw another wrench into the plans and talk about the Division III split, which has coaches, parents, and even members of the media scratching their heads as to how they are going to be in two places at once.

Anyway, back to Division II.

There are 30 Division II boys schools in the eastern district and only 25 on the girls’ side. Those numbers go a long way in determining how many representatives the district takes to the regional. In year’s past, the Eastern District sent eight (four from Byesville and four from Millersburg) to the regional and the southeast district also sent eight, but the OHSAA has opted to ship four female qualifiers from Columbus, meaning the East got dropped to only four representatives to go along with the eight from the southeast.

However, the representation of boys stayed the same, leaving the Eastern District board with some confusion.

The confusion begins to sort itself out today when action heats up on the track in qualifying rounds, starting at 4:30 p.m. with the field events and 5:30 p.m. with the running events.

Athletes running today will qualify for spots in Thursday’s semifinal round and then Thursday will qualify for the Saturday finals, which sets the stage for the district finals on Saturday.

To ease the confusion when you head out to Byesville Thursday, keep in mind that there are two district boys meets running and one girls’ competition taking place. As in meets all season, the girls’ races will proceed the boys and Thursday’s action is established like a normal postseason meet in Ohio with the top four places in open events and the top eight times in relays advancing through to the finals.

The boys will run four heats of individual events on Thursday (two for Meadowbrook and two for West Holmes) and then on Saturday will run two heats of finals with the top four from each heat moving on to the regional, equaling the eight representatives.

The boys teams taking part in the Meadowbrook district are: Barnesville, Bellaire, Buckeye Local, Cambridge, Edison, Indian Creek, John Glenn, Martins Ferry, Maysville, Meadowbrook, Morgan, Philo, St. Clairsville, Steubenville and Union Local.

The boys teams taking part in the West Holmes district are: Beaver Local, Carrollton, Claymont, Coshocton, Dover, East Liverpool, Harrison Central, Indian Valley, New Philadelphia, Ridgewood, River View, Sandy Valley, Tuscarawas Valley, West Holmes and West Muskingum.

The Division III field consists of: Barnesville (girls), Beallsville, Bellaire (girls), Bishop Rosecrans, Bridgeport, Buckeye Trail, Caldwell, Catholic Central, Conotton Valley, Fort Frye, Garaway, Hiland, Malvern, Monroe Central, Newcomerstown, River, Shadyside, St. John Central, Shenandoah, Strasburg, Toronto, Tuscarawas Central Catholic, Union Local (girls) and Wellsville.

NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE

Whenever you think you’ve seen it all from Barnesville junior Stephanie Morgan she goes out and does something unreal again.

The Lady Shamrock phenom — who will enter this week’s postseason as the defending state champion at 1600 and 3200 meters — already has a Penn Relays and Nike Outdoor National title to her credit.

Running on her home track for the final time this season, Morgan entered the 800 meter run, seemingly on a mission. She ran the two laps in 2:07.2, which is a shade off of the all-time state record, but it’s the third-best time in the nation this season.

Taking it a step further, Morgan would have won the boys event at Barnesville by nearly a second.

Not only is Stephanie talented, but she’s a smart runner. She and her coaches mix her events during the season and very rarely load up with a full load of events. Her fitness level is off the chart and her speed goes without saying.

NCAA BOUND

Former Bridgeport High ace Brittany Hocker continues to tear up Mid-American Conference ovals this spring for the University of Akron.

Hocker is having a tremendous season. She added to her lore Saturday at the MAC Outdoor Championships at Bowling Green State University. She won the MAC 200 meter dash title in a blistering time of 23.85. She was second in the 100 meter dash at 11.73. Her 100 time is the fifth best ever ran at Akron.

To go along with her gold and silver medals, Hocker also punched herself a ticket to the NCAA Mid-East Regionals in both events. The NCAA Mid-East will be held May 30-31 at Fayetteville, Ark.

Staskey can be reached at sstaskey@timesleaderonline.com