It had been 29 years since Crawfordsville’s first girls’ track sectional title when the team captured their second sectional title at Lafayette Jeff last year. The Athenians decided not to wait that long to win another title as the Athenians outdistanced the field Tuesday night to claim their back-to-back titles.
That my friends is a rare feat for Montgomery County girls track teams.
How rare?
Each Montgomery County school has been able to win back-to-back titles at least once but it’s rare.
North Montgomery leads the pack as they not only won back-to-back titles, but the Chargers dominated the early track world and won back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Yep. The Chargers won four sectional titles in a row, beginning in 1975 and winning titles again in 1976, 1977 and 1978. And in case you are wondering, yes, the Chargers have won a sectional title since then — once in 1984.
While the Chargers were dominating the track scene in the 1970s, it was the Mounties’ turn to do so in the 1980s.
The Mounties won their first title in 1983, then skipped a year and came back to win the title in 1985 and again in 1986. The Mounties capped off their sectional titles as the school also captured the team title in 1997, the county team to do so until the Athenians last year.
The Athenians won their first girls’ track title in 1996 before working their magic these last two years. What makes this feat even more amazing is you must remember that track is one of the few remaining sports that do not have classes. There are no Class A, Class 2A or 3A teams. Everyone is lumped together, so for one of our county teams to go up there and compete again the “big boys” (or girls in this case) makes the feat even more impressive.
Hats off to the coaching staff, the girls and all the supporters and good luck when you travel back to Lafayette this week for the regional.
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And hats off to the North Montgomery Chargers’ baseball team as they came close but fell just short of claiming at least a piece of the Monon Athletic Conference championship. The Chargers beat Cascade on Tuesday and put themselves in a position earn at least a share of the title on Wednesday — needing a win against the same Cadet team.
Things didn’t go the way Matt Voorhees’ team needed them to Wednesday and the Cadets won to assure themselves a share of the title and deny the Chargers a shot at it. So why does this deserve a mention in a column that normally talks about the history of Montgomery County sports?
Had the Chargers won Wednesday it would have been the first conference championship for North Montgomery since 2000. Overall, the Chargers have won seven baseball conference championships since the school opened in 1971. The Chargers won the Wabash River Conference title in 1973 and then won the Sagamore Athletic Conference titles in 1985, 1987, 1989, 1996, 1997 and 2000.
Barry Lewis has been involved in Montgomery County sports for nearly 50 years. He has a passion for keeping its rich history and tradition alive.
