DANVILLE — The three Montgomery County squads produced a handful of champions in the Sagamore Conference Track Meet Friday, and all six squads left feeling that they had done well, even without a team championship.
Highlighting the meet for the three local teams was Trent Jones, as the Southmont junior stood on the champions stand four times.
Wins in the 100, 200 and 400 meter dashes was capped with a 22-foot long jump, giving Jones the quad-fecta to match the same four wins last week in the county meet.
“He’s just amazing, South coach Desson Hannum said of Jones, who won the 100 comfortably, had a three-step lead at the end of the 400, and was 30 yards in front for the 200. His long jump was more than a foot better than the next jumper.
Jones led his Mounties squad to a second-place finish behind Danville’s 166 points. South had 111, while Crawfordsville finished third at 92.5. North Montgomery had 31.5 in the boys race.
“We knew it would be a battle with Crawfordsville for second,” Hannum said. “Danville is just too deep, but we exceeded our points for both the boys and the girls. We had guys get us points we weren’t counting on. I”m really proud of both the boys team and the girls team. We competed hard all night”
South also got a first-place when Brianna Heninger won the pole vault with an 8’ even vault. Dylan Lauy won the boys pole vault, going 12-6, a foot better than second, and Faith Allen won the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:36.03.
“A freshman, Marlin Williams, got third in the pole vault, and Delorian Mason, another freshman, got second in the 400, and Abigail Korhorn was second in the long jump,” Hannum said. “We had a lot of kids step up.”
The Mounties finished sixth in the girls event with 67 points, behind Lebanon, who ran away from the conference with 190 points. The Chargers finished fourth with 71 points and the Athenians had 33.
“We have had some injury issues on the boys side,” North coach Josh Thompson said, “but a lot of them jumped their seeds (moved up from prelims to finals) and they, along with the girls, never stopped competing. The girls have more experience, and that experience showed up tonight. We got two into the 100 finals, another two in the 200 finals, and in the hurdles. We had some young kids really produce and have a great meet. We preach getting better and being our best at the end of the season, and that is what they are doing.”
The Chargers had only Sydney Campbell as an individual champion, as she won the 100 hurdles with a time of 17.44. The senior took second in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 52.30.
“We had James McClerkin get a second in the pole vault, and then on both sides we had a freshman in Owen Utterback who just had a great meet and Grace McClaskey, who is one of our senior leaders. Grace had a third, two fourths and ran on a relay team that finished fourth. That is a lot of points.”
The Athenians jumped out to a large early lead on the boys side with a win in the 4X800 relay of Ian Ryan Miller, Hunter Hutchison and Tyson Fuller, and a first and second from Nate Schroeter in the throwing events.
The senior won the discus with a toss of 127-02 and grabbed a second in the shot put with a throw of 43-10.25.
“Nate and all four guys on that relay are just workers,” Athenians coach Sean Gerold said. “Those relay guys have worked their tails off all year, and it paid off for them tonight. Nate was great.”
Crawfordsville also got a first place finish when Hutchison ran his 800 meters in 2:07.16. The Athenians got one more first when Ty Lynas was first across the line in the 110 hurdles at 15:89.
“Hutch just got up front and stayed there,” Gerold said of the senior, “And Lynas is just fun to watch. He is such a competitor, in both basketball and track, and has grown into such a good hurdler, which is a really tough race to run.”
Crawfordsville also was second in the boys 4x100 relay, as Morgan Ziair, Alex Kellerman, Fuller and Mikale Willis had a 45.44 time.
“I couldn’t be happier with how hard we competed,” Gerold said. “Our girls were a little short-handed, but they gave it their all, and every single one of our kids were great competitors tonight. I’m really proud of them as we get ready for sectionals next week.”
That postseason meet, with chances to qualify for the state finals, will see the local teams scattered.
South’s girls go to Zionsville, and the boys to Plainfield.
The Charger and Athenian girls head to Lafayette Harrison while the boys meet is at West Lafayette.