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Senior Cara Earlywine powered a Western sweep of the sprints to help the Panthers capture the 2009 Howard County track and field title at Northwestern High School Thursday.
Earlywine won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and also ran a leg of the winning 4x100 relay team to earn the meet’s high-points award.
Western won with 107 points with Northwestern (83.5) second, Eastern (35) third and Taylor (18.5) fourth.
The Panthers’ sprint dominance started with the 100-meter hurdles, where Nikki McCracken and Taylor Ruch copped first and second, respectively. Then Earlywine won the 100 in a meet-record time of 12.6 seconds with sophomore Alleca Kerker second.
Earlywine later added the 200 meters, tying the mark of 27.3 seconds, with Kerker second again. Before that, Taylor Young (1:03.9) and Allison Everetts finished first and second in the 400-meter dash.
Other than McCracken setting a new meet record in winning pole vault (10-0), those were Western’s only wins.
“With Nikki, the way she comes out and runs, and Taylor Ruch is really coming on and doing a great job, the two of them set the tone,” said coach Marvin Boswell. “The pleasant surprise was our 400 runners, Allison Everetts and Taylor Young, a freshman.
DOUBLE WINNER: Western senior Nikki McCracken competes in the 100 hurdles during the Howard County girls meet. McCracken won the 100 hurdles and she also won the pole vault.
“Taylor hasn’t gotten a lot of press and she’s never really even ran a 400 until I asked her a few weeks ago to start training for it. She comes out here as county champ. She’s doing a wonderful job there.”
In two relays and from 800 meters up, that was the Tigers’ domain. They started with Anna Sloss, Lauren Dewhurst, Nikki Hendricks and Hannah Ault cruising to the 4x800 title in 10:49.0 and went from there.
Hendricks, a senior, won twice more, capturing the 800 meters in 2:34.4 and coming back just two events later to win the 3,200 in 12:45.9.
“The 3,200 we weren’t sure about, but [Hendricks] came up to me and said, ‘I can do this,’ Northwestern coach Mary Clem said. “Plus, she ran five miles [Thursday] morning too. She’s quite the athlete.
“That was nice senior leadership for her. That’s the kind of leadership we need right now going into the [Mid-Indiana] Conference and [Madison-Grant] Sectional.”
While Ault won the 1,600 meters in 5:46.5, she and Dewhurst teamed with Rachel Lowden and Lauren Brun to win the 4x400 relay in 4:20.5. Lainey Sewell (15-2) won long jump for the Tigers and Allie Combs (94-7) won discus.
Zoe Wolfe was a double winner for the Comets. She captured the 300-meter low hurdles in 50.7 seconds and won high jump at 5 feet, 5 inches.
Senior Teri Oliver was the Titans’ only winner. She put the shot 34 feet, 2 inches and was also fourth in discus, fourth in the 200-meter dash and fifth in long jump.
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