The county track scene in Montgomery County is picking up steam and in a very quick way. Next week all eyes will be focused on the county meet at North Montgomery, but first all three county schools competed at the annual Athenian Invite on Thursday night. With the invite being a non-scoring meet, that allowed the area coaches to mix up their lineups a little bit while also making sure they are fine tuning their lineups and athletes for the weeks that follow.
The host Athenians on the girls side were led by freshman Sophia Melevage and her first place finish in the 1600 meter run. CHS also took home second place on the girls side in the shot put, distance medley relay, 4x800 relay, and 4x400 relay. For the Athenian boys they took home a first place finish in the distance medley relay and third in the discus, shot put, high and long jump, pole vault, and 4x800 relay.
“These are meets where you put some people in some different spots and different relays,” Crawfordsville coach Sean Gerold said. “We had a good night overall I thought. It was cold and a little wet and that did affect some things. We’re a little banged up on the girls side right now so we didn’t compete in some things to try and rest them for next week. Next week is when it really starts to matter when we get into the county meet. Sophia ran a really good mile and our boys distance medley also took home first by 15 seconds so both of those performances were good to see.”
The Mounties just like the Athenians are tad bit banged up but that didn’t stop them from going out and having another strong showing. On the girls side Faith Allen took home second behind Melevage in the 1600 meter run. The Mounties also got performed well in the long jump, pole vault with first place finished on the girls side there as well. Along with those performances, the Lady Mounties also took home second in the 100 meter hurdles, 4x200 and 4x100 relays along with third place finishes in the 4x400 relay.
South’s boys took first in the high jump, pole vault, 4x800 relay, and 1600 meter run.
“Tonight was probably the best that I’ve seen our girls compete all year and you love to see that,” Southmont coach Desson Hannum said. “We placed very well in the relays and I thought Saylor (Woods) in the hurdles and that was probably her best race of the year. You’re starting to see a lot of people really start to fine tune some things as we’re coming down the ladder part of the season and this is the time you want them to be at their peak form.”
North Montgomery just the like the Mounties and Athenians had strong showings on both sides. The Chargers brought home first place finished in the girls shot put and discus on the girls side and also added third place finishes in the pole vault, distance medley relay, and 4x800 relay,
The Charger boys were winners in the 4x200 relay and earned second place in the long jump, distance medley relay, and 4x800 relay, Rounding out the strong performances for the boys was their third place results in the 100 meter hurdles, 4x400 meter relay, and 1600 meter run.
Chargers coach Josh Thompson, who always wants his kids to perform well in the big meets, was pleased on both sides with some of his athletes.
“We won both the shot and discus so obviously that was good to see. At meets like this with multiple schools involved, you want to see your kids perform well and overall I thought we had some good performances. We did struggle to put some relays but on the boys side we were second in the DMR and 4x800. There are some definite bright spots from tonight but also some things that we’ll have to work on.”
The Chargers will host next week’s county meet and that is now where the focus will shift for all three teams. The Chargers do have a Invitational on Saturday at Covington, while CHS will host Benton Central for a dual meet on Monday. Southmont will host Danville on Tuesday before Friday’s county meet.
It’s shaping up to be an exciting time for our local track teams with county, conference and the sectional all on the horizon.
