WEST LAFAYETTE – It was a mission.
The Crawfordsville boys track 4x800 team came into the West Lafayette Sectional seeded third. Not only did they hold serve, but bettered their seed time by nearly three seconds en route to advancing out of the sectional Thursday evening at Straley Field. The mark also was a new CHS school record, broken for the second time this year.
“We’re on a team that has put in a lot of hard work for a very long time,” sophomore Max Brumett said. “It’s evident how we’ve handled ourselves in the 4x800 and as individuals in the mile, the 800 and in the two mile.”
Brumett, Roman Contreras, Ryan Miller and Tyson Fuller ran the finals in 8:20.75. .Harrison won the event at 8:07.29. Lafayette Jefferson was next about 11 seconds back and less than two seconds ahead of the Athenians.
Crawfordsville finished sixth as a team and North Montgomery ninth. Harrison ran away with the team sectional championship over host West Lafayette and McCutcheon. The top three individuals or relay teams in each event move on to the Lafayette Jeff Regional May 25.
“This year on the guys side we have a lot of athletes that are just new to the sport – not necessarily young just new,” Crawfordsville coach Michael Jones said. “Big meets like this we haven’t really been exposed to them, but a lot of our veteran athletes, especially in the distance races, really came through.”
“Overall I thought our kids came out and competed well,” North coach Josh Thompson said. “We set some PRs tonight which is always our goal at the end of the season. Unfortunately, we didn’t get some kids out that we thought we would.”
Brumett also qualified for the regional in the 1600 meter run after taking second with a time of 4:34.76. He credits the team leadership and work of the underclassmen for helping him.
“We have two really solid senior leaders. But the rest of our team is juniors, sophomores and freshmen. I’m really proud of us as a team. My guys have been huge, pushing me to drop time and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Sophomore Alec Saidian has only been running hurdles one season for Jones. He kicked into high gear late in the 110 meter final to take second (15.94 seconds) and punch his ticket to the regional. He also took fourth in the 300 hurdles, one spot short of moving on.
“(Saidian) just threw last year. That’s all he did was throw shot and disc,” Jones said. “We just exposed him to hurdles this year and come to find out he has some serious untapped potential. Our hurdler coach, Jake Lowe, has worked really hard with him, critiquing some small things. We look forward to seeing him as a junior and senior to see how far he can go. We think he can get to state. He’s definitely got the potential, got the drive, got the work ethic.”
“I knew it was going to be a good race,” Saidian said. “I ended up (personal record) and got to thank Coach Lowe for getting me there. I caught up at the end of the race, the first place hit the hurdle and I went for it.”
Despite the personal bests, North’s only qualifier was high jumper Kelby Harwood. The sophomore leaped 5-feet-8, good enough for third.
The six athletes have a week to prepare for the next step.
“Smaller crowd coming out for practice day in and day out so we can focus those kids more in their specific events,” Jones said. “We’re still geared up as much now as before. It’s one of the fastest regionals in the state.”
“Kelby has put in a lot of hard work this season and now the goal is to carry that focus forward for a week,” Thompson added.
