Kokomo wins first sectional title since 2006

Kokomo Tribune - Friday, May 21, 2010

Kokomo — A maddening dry spell of sectional championships came to a soggy and joyful end for the Kokomo boys track and field team Thursday, capturing the Wildkats’ own sectional at Walter Cross Field, their first since 2006.

Kokomo tallied 145 points to runner-up Eastern’s 112. Oak Hill (96.5 points) was third and Western (63) was fourth.

Locally, Northwestern (35) was sixth, Maconaquah (30) seventh, Lewis Cass (24.5) ninth, Taylor (20) 10th and Peru (8) 12th.

It was the longest drought of sectional titles for the Kats since 1997-2000 and their 56th overall.

“It’s wonderful,” said junior John Alsup, who garnered four wins for Kokomo, including the 100- and 200-meter dashes and long jump. The top four finishers in each event return for the Kokomo Regional next Thursday.

“We haven’t had a team sectional [championship] since 2006 and it was good to bring it back to Kokomo High School where it belongs.”

Alsup dominated his individual events, leading a 1-2 finish with Tony Moses in the 200. Moses won the 400 and the two teamed with Michael Clifton and Adrian Glover to nip the Comets by 6/100ths of a second in the 4x400 relay.

“It took a lot of hard work to get to where I am now — a lot of discipline and hard training,” Alsup said. “Coach [Tom Byrnes] was with me through it all and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Byrnes praised Alsup, who admitted still feeling some tenderness from a slight knee injury.

“I’m really proud of John,” said Byrnes. “He’s been that [focal] point we could count on and his toughness has helped us quite a bit.”

Alsup was anything but a one-man show for Kokomo though.

Hurdlers Robert Lancaster and Taylor Killings finished 1-2 in the 110 high hurdles, Glover anchored the 4x800 relay team that finished second to Eastern’s record-shattering 8:09.43 victory, and the 4x100 relay team won in 45.01 seconds — another split-second win over runner-up Eastern.

“I’m proud of the kids who believed in the things we’ve been doing for three years. I told them we could put it together and we did it,” Byrnes said. “We had to take advantage of what we had. ... Things went very well [Thursday] night.

“Coach [Paul] Nicholson had a great team over there at Eastern and we had to do everything we could to stay in front of them.”

The Comets, who had yet to lose outdoors this season, couldn’t gain any ground on the Kats after the 1-2 finish by Kokomo in the 110 hurdles, despite an unseeded Blake Thomas finishing fourth in the 100.

Braden Barnett and Blake Donson went 2-3 in high jump to provide a spark, and Donson added a second-place finish in the discus with Kelly Kingseed third in long jump.

A 3-4 finish by Hansen Martin and Mitch Padfield in the 800 wasn’t nearly enough to catch Kokomo. That duo also ran legs of the 4x800 and 4x400 relays.

Kevin Jackson was the Comets’ other winner. He easily topped the pole vault field, clearing 15 feet — 3 feet higher than runner-up Chris Vas of Northwestern.

“[The Wildkats] are a great track team,” Nicholson said. “Tom has done a good job with them. My guys have fought valiantly through a season and never tasted defeat until [Thursday] night. We were beaten by a good team.

“Some things didn’t go our way and you’ve got to have a few things like that go your way in a meet of this proportion. We gave it everything we had and I’m so proud of my guys. They have no reason to hang their heads.”

The two-time defending champion Panthers just couldn’t get any traction. Their lone win came from Trevor Buckalew, who threw the disc 154 feet, 2 inches.

Indy Mathew was second in the 300 hurdles, fourth in long jump, sixth in the 110 hurdles and a member of the third-place 4x100 relay team.

Austin Young scratched the 1,600-meter run to concentrate on the 3,200, where he was third, as was Chris Love in the 1,600.

“He had good throws throughout the whole night too,” Western coach Marvin Boswell said of Buckalew, a senior. “It’s something he’s been working on. His form is starting to improve and he’s putting it all together.

“It was good to see the kids come out and battle the way they did. We advanced quite a few people to the regional that we were expecting to advance, and that was our goal.”

Taylor senior Austen Conwell had a trying night. He finished third behind Lancaster and Killings in the 110 hurdles and stumbled, then pulled out while running alongside Mathew midway through the 300 hurdles.