For the second consecutive year the Southmont boys and Crawfordsville girls track and field teams were named county champions. Friday night the Montgomery County meet took place at Southmont and saw plenty of excitement. The Mounties on the boys side used their depth and scored 72 points with the Athenians edging out the Chargers for second by a single point by scoring 48 to the Chargers 47. For the girls Crawfordsville scored 70 points with the Mounties earning second with 54 and the Chargers taking third with 42.
Crawfordsville also set two school records during the meet. The first came in the opening race of the night where the boys 4x800 relay team of Max Brumett, Ryan Miller, Roman Contreras, and Tyson Fuller ran a 8:23.54. On the girls side for CHS the 4x100 relay team of Lily Hummel, Parker Hartman, Campbell White, and Naarah Byard ran a 51.54 to put their name in the record books.
First year Crawfordsville coach Mike Jones spoke on how he continues to be proud of his young girls team as they defended their county crown.
“The fact that these girls are already stepping up the way that they are to be leaders for us is exciting to see and really awesome for them because they deserve it,” Jones said. “They’re really starting to see the hard work that they’ve put in pay off. What the best part is is that they’re only going to continue to improve in the next several years and really see what their potential can be.”
Byard added three more county titles to her name in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and took first in the long jump.
Southmont had some stonrg showings on the girls side with Saylor Woods winning the county title in the 100 meter hurdles, Faith Allen won both thte 1600 and 3200 meter runs and DeLorean Mason was the county championn in the 400 meter run. Shelby Chieppo won pole vault while Kelsey Thompson earned the county discus title.
Despite not having a ton of girls on the team, Southmont coach Desson Hannum was thrilled with how they performed.
“They out-performed what we expected out of them this evening,” Hannum said of his girls team. “To get second and put up as many points as they did with as small of a roster as we have, I’m super proud of their effort.”
The Chargers on the girls side had strong showings from a couple of different individuals. Piper Ramey was the county champion in the shot put and Annabel Anderson placed first in the 300 meter hurdles. Owen Utterback on the boys side for the Chargers took home first place in the long jump and the 200 meter dash and a pair of 2nd place finishes in the 110 and 300 meter hurdles. Kelby Harwood earned a county title in the high jump.
Charger coach Josh Thmpson did like how some of his kids were able to compete well against good competiton.
“Tonight was about going out and competing well,” he said. “Some of our kids were able to do that and the goal for us was to try and score two kids in every event. We were able to do in some events just notas many as we wanted to. Some of the leaders on our team did a good job of stepping up and I couldn’t be more proud of those kids. We still have some growing to do and we’ll work on it as we head into conference.”
The Southmont boys showed off their depth and that was the key reason they were able to defend their county title. Marlin Williams won pole vault, Wyatt Woodall the shot put, the Mountie 4x100, 4x400, along with Ethan Nelson in the 100 meter dash were all named county champions.
“We were able to score multiple guys in almost every single event,” Hannum said. “That really makes a difference even if you aren’t able to take first, just to get multiple scores can go a long way. The best part we really didn’t have to load anyone up in a lot of events. There were some that had to fill some voids and step up when they didn’t think they’d have to. It was an all-around great team effort from our guys.”
Crawfordsville had plenty of strong showings as well. Brumett added county titles in the 800 and 1600 meter runs to go along with his 4x800 title. Sophomore Alec Saidian was a three event winner winning the 110 and 300 hurdles along with the discus title. Fuller won the 400 to round out a successful showing for CHS.
“Our 4x800 team was so close to breaking that school record last year,” Jones said. “That’s been in the back of their minds every since then and all season long. That record is a result of a year’s worth of dedication and hard work.”
All three county teams have yet another big week ahead of them. Friday they’ll all travel to Danville to compete in the Sagamore Conference meet.
