DANVILLE — Thursday and Friday all three Montgomery County track and field teams converged at Danville High School for the annual Sagamore Conference Track and Field meet. Thursday was field events while the running events took place on Friday. When the final points were added up the Southmont boys had a very strong showing taking third place with 88 points. Crawfordsville’s girls also finished in the top half of the conference with a fourth place finish scoring 83 points. The Athenian boys took 7th, Southmont girls 6th while North Montgomery placed 5th on the boys side and 7th on the girls.
All three county schools did produce at least one SAC champion over the two-day meet. Southmont on the boys side went 1-2 in the pole vault on Thursday as Tyler Petroski brought home the SAC title and Marlin Williams placed second. On Friday the Mounties as they have all season used their depth to place in nearly every event. They took fourth in the 4x800, Ethan Nelson placed third in the 100 and 400 meter dash, James Phillips took fifth in the 110 hurdles and third in the 300 meter hurdles, Mason Cass earned a fifth place in the 3200 and sixth in the 1600 meter runs, and the Mounties 4x400 relay team ended the night with a third place finish.
“We had a lot of good individual performances from a lot of different guys,” Southmont coach Desson Hannum said. “Coming in we felt like we could be in the top three and that’s what we placed. It was an all-around good effort. We fell to fourth near the end behind Tri-West and had to score some big points to get back to third. I was proud of our showing from the top down.”
Southmont’s Faith Allen took home the SAC title in the 3200 meter run while also taking second in the 1600 as she’s winding down what’s been a sensational career . Saylor Woods earned a third place finish in the 100 hurdles while earning seventh in the long jump. DeLorean Mason joined Woods on Thursday with a fourth place finish in the long jump. Alivia Williams also took second in the pole vault.
“The girls I think finished right about we expected,” Hannum added. “You had great performances from Faith obviously being the champ in the 3200. Saylor had a great race in the 100 hurdles. Then on Thursday we had some nice showings in the field events as well.”
Crawfordsville on the girls side has plenty to be excited about. The young Athenians had a strong showing both nights. Sophomore Na’arah Byard has burst onto the scene this season for CHS. After going 4-4 at the county meet, Byard followed that up by winning both the long jump and helping the 4x400 relay team to the SAC title. Byard placed third in the 100 and the 4x100 relay team was edged out by Lebanon by just .04 seconds for first place.
Riley Gardner on Thursday was also the SAC champion in the high jump with a height of five feet. Cville’s 4x800 relay team took fourth, Sophia Melevage earned third in the 1600 and 3200, Guinevere Schmitzer-Torbert took third in the 400 while Caroline Melevage rounded out the strong showing for CHS with a fifth place finish in the 800.
“Both Riley and Na’arah really set the tone for us on Thursday,” first-year Crawfordsville coach Mike Jones said. “Riley had high very high expectations for herself coming into the year. She’s stayed focus through some struggles and has that confidence with her yet again. Na’arah just continues to excel in every event we put her in. We have these high expectations for a lot of our girls because we know they can show up and compete like they did tonight. We’ve had some freshman and sophomores have to come in and fill some big shoes and they’ve made a big impact for us.”
Crawfordsville on the boys side saw their boys 4x800 team place second. Alec Saidian placed third in the 110 hurdles, Max Brumett fifth in the 1600, Tyson Fuller second in the 800, and Ryan Miller second in the 3200.
“A lot of our boys are still new and learning this season,” Jone said. “They know that if they didn’t have strong race tonight that they still have one more week left to shake off tonight. That’s what we’re telling our entire team is to be ready to race your best next week at sectionals.”
North Montgomery had a improved week from the county meet a week ago according to coach Josh Thompson. Owen Utterback brought home the SAC title in the 300 hurdle while placing fourth in the long jump and taking second overall in the 200 meter dash. Kelby Harwood placed third in the high jump, and Ben Eldridge fifth in the pole vault. The Chargers placed fifth in the boys 4x800.
For the Charger girls Ella McManomy took fourth in the 100 meter dash and sixth in the 400. The 4x100 team placed fifth as did Annabel Anderson in the 300 meter hurdles.
“Both teams competed a lot better than we did last so I have to give kudos to our kids for that,” Thompson said. “That’s what we talk about especially this time of the year is to compete with the person next to you and try to out-place your seed. It’s now about getting our kids ready to go out and compete as well as they can next week in sectionals. We have two good ones that we’ll be at. It’s about having the right mindset so they can go out and have a good performance.”
Next week the girls sectional will take place on Tuesday. Both North Montgomery and Crawfordsville will travel to Harrison while the Mounties go to Zionsville. The boys will compete on Thursday. CHS and NM will be at West Lafayette with the South traveling to Plainfield.
