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Michael Phelps, eight-time gold-medal winner, move over.
Make room for Jerel Hall.
Hall, a Western senior, won four events for the Panthers during Tuesday’s Mid-Indiana Conference track and field championships at Northwestern High School, just five days after turning the same trick on the same track in the Howard County meet Thursday.
As in that meet, Hall’s amazing efforts earned him the boys meet’s high-points award as Western scored 178 points to win easily. Defending champion Northwestern was second with 103 and Eastern was third with 82 1/2 points.
“It’s an awesome experience, you know, the athletic ability I’ve come to have and just grown into,” a beaming Hall said. “I’m proud of myself and my team. I’m just extra happy.”
Hall set a meet record in winning the 100-meter dash in 11.07 seconds, just a whisker ahead of Hamilton Heights’ Zach Copas (11.08). Hall came back with easier victories in both the 400 (52.38) and 200 (22.99) dashes before one more jaw-dropping performance.
Taking the baton for the anchor leg of the Panthers’ 4x400 relay team, Hall made up a 10-meter deficit on Eastern’s Brett Buckmaster and brought the Western team of Jake Askren, Zac Martinez and Lucas Luckey home first in 3:30.61.
“I said, ‘Jerel, use your stride and see what it does for you,’” Hall said of his anchor leg of the relay. “It caught me all the way up and then I used my [speed] to pass [Buckmaster]. At first I wasn’t going to try and catch him, but as I got closer I thought I might as well run him down.”
FAST AND FURIOUS: Hamilton Heights’ Zach Copas, front, Taylor’s Shawn Fogleman, middle, and Western’s Jerel Hall run in the boys 100 dash final in the Mid-Indiana Conference meet Tuesday night at Northwestern. Hall won the event in a meet-record time of 11.07 seconds, edging Copas by one-hundredth of a second..
Western coach Marvin Boswell said it has been a pleasure to watch Hall develop from first just a 100 and 200 sprinter into an excellent 400 runner.
“That’s fun to see what [Hall] is able to go and do,” said Boswell. “I told Lucas Luckey going into that race, ‘All you gotta do is get [Hall] close. Give him a chance,’ and if he can have a chance, things like that will happen.
“He is still getting better and stronger, and when he figures out that the 400 is his race and just turns it loose one time, we’ll see him go below the 50-second mark and be really phenomenal.”
Corey Scott also was outstanding for Western’s boys. He held off a stiff challenge from Peru’s Aaron Garretson to win the 1,600 meters in 4:30.74 and later beat Northwestern’s Kory Kennedy in the 3,200 in 10:01.80.
The Panther boys victory coincided with a convincing performance by the girls, who won with 149 points. The Purple Tigers of Northwestern were second with 104 and Cass was third with 85.
It was sweet redemption for both Western squads, who missed a chance to capture both meets in 2008 when bad weather forced a one-day postponement of the MIC to a Friday — the night of their prom. Most of their athletes were forced to choose between the two.
“The kids just felt so bad about the circumstances last year and they wanted to come in here and make a statement,” said Boswell, who coaches both teams. “This is who Western really is and how strong they are, just the depth they have. We tried to score two people in every event and we weren’t far off of that [Tuesday] night.”
While Heights’ Caity Murdock was the girls’ high-point earner with 23 points, Western seniors Nikki McCracken and Cara Earlywine weren’t far behind with 22 1/2 apiece.
McCracken recorded three first-place finishes, winning the pole vault (10-0), the 100-meter high hurdles and teaming with Danae Rittmann, Alleca Kerker and Earlywine to win the 4x100 relay in 52.80 seconds.
Earlywine was second in the 100 meters and won the 200 meters in 27.41 seconds. She helped the 4x400 relay team finish second.
“Both of them really had great nights,” Boswell said of McCracken and Earlywine. “Nikki kind of struggled in the pole vault but still came out on top. Cara just got stronger and stronger as the night went on. The 200 time she ran was really strong for her.”
Taylor’s Austen Conwell collected three victories for the Titan boys. He won the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.36 seconds, the 300 hurdles in 41.46 and led off the 4x100 relay team of Walt Wheeler, Seth Stockdale and Shawn Fogleman.
Hannah Ault was a three-time winner for the Northwestern girls. She won the 1,600 meters ahead of Murdock in 5:24.98 and ran legs of the winning 4x800 and 4x400 relay teams.
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