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FAIRMOUNT — Led by a record-shattering performance by Ashley DeWitt, the Kokomo girls track and field team exceeded the expectations of coach Dave Barnes and captured the Madison-Grant Sectional championship here Tuesday, its 14th sectional crown in 16 years.
The Wildkats tallied 135 points to easily outpace defending champ Western (97). Oak Hill (82) was third with Howard County teams Northwestern (64) fourth, Eastern (24) ninth and Taylor (5) 12th.
The top four finishers in each event now advance to the Bremen Regional next Tuesday.
“We asked [the girls] to hold their seeds, improve if they could, and I didn’t see many instances in which they didn’t improve,” a jubilant Barnes said.
DeWitt, a senior who took up the throws only last season, hurled the shot put 45 feet, 5 inches to smash a 30-year-old sectional record and Kokomo-area best held by Taylor’s Tina Addison (43-2).
DeWitt also won the discus with a 113-foot, 4-inch effort, helping the Kats to 34 points, along with Clarissa Woodward (2nd, discus) and Kelly Hopkins (3rd, shot put).
“It feels great,” said DeWitt, who will defend her regional title at Bremen next week. “It’s been great spending time with the two girls from the basketball team, Clarissa and Kelly. That’s all I wanted.
“I wanted the sectional championship and I got one, thanks to the team. Western got it last year, so I didn’t get to be a part of it then.”
Barnes had maintained beforehand he wouldn’t risk extending his girls too far in order to win the team title. Case in point: pulling all four girls who had earned the No. 2 seed in the 4x800 relay to allow them to concentrate on other races.
The result: a last-place finish for Kokomo in that event.
“As a coach, you roll the dice sometimes and I did that with the 4x800,” said Barnes. “I know I’ve probably got the best 4x8 here, but what people don’t realize is that three of them run the 4x400 and the fourth [Annika Taber] won the 1,600 and the 800.
“If I put that [4x800] on their legs, I don’t think I get away with it. Early on, I kept telling [the girls] to make me look good.”
Make that, look like a genius.
Taber, only a freshman, slipped past the 1,600 field to win in 5:41.90 and came back to capture the 800 in 2:28.52. Barnes has scratched her from the regional 1,600 in order to focus on the 800.
“Most freshmen,” Barnes said of Taber, “when you say don’t get caught up in the race in the 800 — I knew those girls were going to run out too fast — I told her she had to run a 73-[second first lap] and she ran a 73.2, then she went to work. Most girls would panic; she ran her race, and that’s beautiful when it happens.”
Madi Cassidy was second to Peru’s Shyann Szabo in the 400-meter dash and then led off the winning 4x400 relay team that included Whitney Weir, Emily Keller and Courtney Gilman.
Weir was third in the 300-meter low hurdles behind runner-up and teammate Brielle Bonnafon, who had a tremendous meet.
Bonnafon, in addition to the 300 hurdles, was fifth in the 100 high hurdles, ran the anchor leg of the second-place 4x100 relay team and leaped a personal-best 17 feet, 1 inch to win long jump.
“This was fun as a coach,” Barnes said with a smile. “I’ve said all year these are some of the nicest girls you’d ever want to meet, and the majority of them come to work everyday and they give you all they’ve got.”
Panthers coach Marvin Boswell tipped his cap to the Wildkats and to Barnes.
“I’ll tell you what, Dave deserves it,” Boswell said. “He really put together a nice team and those girls deserve it. They came out and performed well. I think they’re going to be sitting pretty well in the regional to be able to get some girls downstate too.”
Boswell’s ladies received their usual outstanding performances from Cara Earlywine and Nikki McCracken.
Earlywine defended her 100-meter dash title, winning in 12.85 seconds, although she had to settle for second in the 200 behind Betsy Floyd of Madison-Grant.
McCracken won the pole vault on Monday at Kokomo’s Walter Cross Field, clearing 10 feet, and was third Tuesday in the 100 high hurdles.
Earlywine and McCracken teamed with Danae Rittmann and Alleca Kerker to win the 4x100 relay in 52.74 seconds.
“This is probably one of the better nights Cara has had this year, just the way she came out and raced,” said Boswell. “She looked real strong in the 100. That was a great race for her, and the 200 she still had a good time. So, I was real pleased with Cara’s effort.”
Senior Jenn Elliott finished fourth in the 3,200 meters and, as a result of Taber and Oak Hill’s Jenna Norris scratching, will advance to regional in the 1,600 as well. Caily Tanner was fourth in shot put and Corinna Cottingham was fourth in pole vault.
Northwestern’s 4x800 relay team of Lauren Brun, Lauren Dewhurst, Nicki Hendricks and Hannah Ault won with a school-record time of 10:11.90, less than half a second off the meet record set in 1997.
Ault came back to finish third in the 1,600 and ran a leg of the second-place 4x400 relay team. Hendricks was fourth in the 800 and Dewhurst and Brun also ran legs of the 4x400 relay. Kylie Ballard was third in high jump and Ashley Miller snapped her own school record to finish second in pole vault.
Tuesday’s meet was the first for Brun, typically a sprinter, to run the 4x800 relay.
“The 4x800 did a great job [Tuesday] night,” coach Mary Clem said. “We put Lauren Brun in there and she was nervous. She did a good job.”
Eastern’s Zoe Wolfe wasn’t able to defend her 300-meter hurdle crown, finishing fourth in 49.43 seconds, but was able to capture high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 4 1/2 inches.
Teammate Emily Wilcox ran second for the longest time behind Hendricks in the 800 before finishing third to qualify for next week.
“She has been really sick in the middle of the season and is behind in her form as far as running is concerned, so we’re going to focus on high jump [at regional],” Comets coach Michael Goodspeed said of Wolfe, a sophomore. “She had a thrilling last-jump win and it was a state standard, so if she does that next week we’ll really be in good position.
“That was a fantastic race for [Wilcox], five seconds faster than her [personal-best]. She just ran a fantastic race, a really a good job.”
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