Kokomo Tribune - Wednesday, May 19, 2010

FAIRMOUNT — The Kokomo girls track and field team turned back the upstart Eastern Comets to claim a second straight IHSAA Madison-Grant Sectional championship here Tuesday, the Wildkats’ 15th title in 17 years.

Kokomo led the 12-team field with 147 points, topping runner-up Eastern (102), Lewis Cass (76) and Northwestern (64).

Locally Western (57) was sixth, Maconaquah (54) seventh and Peru (24) ninth. Taylor did not score.

The Comets, winners of the Howard County and Mid-Indiana Conference meets, won six times but lacked enough depth to upend the Kats, who picked up four first-place finishes and had two athletes score in 7 of 13 individual events to only three for Eastern.

That included Clarissa Woodard and Allie Waters finishing 1-2 in discus, Brielle Bonnafon and Morgan Kemper finishing 2-3 in long jump, and Madi Cassidy and Courtney Gilman going 3-4 in the 400-meter dash.

All top-four finishers advance to the Bremen Regional next Tuesday.

“I was just so proud of so many different people who stepped up,” said longtime Kokomo coach Dave Barnes. “We said coming in that we had to score twice in a lot of events. Any time [the Comets] win an event we’ve got to score twice.”

Bonnafon was huge, considering she’s been sidelined, nursing a tender left knee that forced her to alter her long-jumping and drop the 300 hurdles altogether.

Instead, Bonnafon easily captured both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and ran anchor for the second-place 4x400 relay team.

“We know what kind of athlete Brielle Bonnafon is,” Barnes said. “She takes one jump right-footed and gets second. No matter what [event] she runs, she’s a great athlete.”

Bonnafon said it was difficult to sit out the two weeks since the injury, almost as difficult as the grueling schedule Tuesday.

“I just said a little prayer and did what I’m supposed to do,” she added.

Also victorious for the Kats was the 4x800 relay team of Emily Keller, Erica Goodman, Gilman and Weir.

All good things come to an end, as Eastern suffered its first loss since March, but the future is bright for the Comets, whose lone senior Lindsey Reprogle was forced to miss the meet due to an injury.

So after scoring no points in Monday’s pole vault and scratching the 4x800 relay, it fell upon veteran juniors Zoe Wolfe and Emily Wilcox and the freshman Neeley twins to pull through.

Bethany Neeley collected four first-place finishes, including her unusual double of the 100 hurdles and — just two events later — the 1,600. She came back to smash the 800 field and ran a pivotal second leg of the 4x400 relay team that won in 4:08.91.

That time by Wilcox, Bethany Neeley, Wolfe and Brittany Neeley shattered the Kokomo Tribune’s all-time all-area best.

Wolfe picked up a first in the 300 hurdles and second in high jump while Brittany Neeley captured the 400 meters, was second to Bonnafon in the 200 and fourth in long jump.

Freshman Sarah Wagner was fourth in high jump, fifth in the 1,600 and sixth in the 3,200.

“I’m very proud of my girls,” said Comets coach Michael Goodspeed. “We did everything we could. Every athlete we put on the track did an outstanding job.

“I’m really pleased. For us to even be in the running is a huge turnaround for us.”

Northwestern senior Kara DeFabritis leaped 16 feet, 101⁄2 inches to win long jump while freshman teammates Amanda Kuffel and Addison Dubbels finished second in the 100 and 400, respectively.

Kylie Ballard tied Wolfe for second in high jump and Gretchen Catron was fourth in the 3,200. Allie Combs finished third in shot put.

“That’s nice to have [DeFabritis] back [in the regional] as a senior,” Purple Tigers coach Mary Clem said. “We’re very pleased with our scores [Tuesday]. I’m glad to see the seniors move on and we’ll go to Bremen and see what we can do.”

Sophomore Corinna Cottingham won Monday’s pole vault for Western at Kokomo High School and the team of Alleca Kerker, Allison Everetts, Taylor Young and senior Jennifer Dale shaded second-place Kokomo by 3/100ths of a second in the 4x100 relay.

Everetts was third in pole vault and Dale will advance in the 200, benefiting from a pair of scratches in that event; as well as the 4x800 relay team, which finished second.

“We felt like we could get the 4x100 through and they sure did,” Western coach Marvin Boswell said. “Jennifer Dale did a nice job battling [Kokomo’s Brayana Fowler] just to beat [the Kats]. All four girls, this is what they really wanted to do and I’m happy for them.”

Kassy Sprinkle won shot put for the third-place Kings while Emily Beckley won high jump and Ashley Baber won the 3,200.