Kokomo Tribune - Tuesday, March 30, 2012

— Kokomo athlete John Alsup Jr. won the long jump competition at the 2011 IHSAA boys track and field state finals.

Alsup has graduated, but Howard County still has some athletes capable of making big noise on the big stage of the state finals.

Kokomo returns four athletes with state experience — hurdler Taylor Killings and sprinters Tony Moses, Armon Bridgeforth, Harvey Lenoir and Michael Clifton. Killings is off to a strong start in 2012, taking runner-up honors in the 110 high hurdles in the indoor state meet earlier this month.

In addition, Eastern has higher jumper Braden Barnett and thrower Josiah Price. They won titles in the small-school division at the indoor state meet.

The following are looks at the five Howard County teams, in order of how they finished in the 2011 sectional.

Kokomo

The Wildkats had a banner year in 2011, winning the Kokomo Relays for the second straight year, winning North Central Conference and Kokomo Sectional titles and taking runner-up honors in the Kokomo Regional. The Kats have to replace Alsup, Adrian Glover (1,600 state qualifier) and some other key performers, but the cupboard is far from bare.

Kokomo coach Tom Byrnes pointed to the sprints as an area of strength. Seniors Killings, Moses and Bridgeforth anchor the sprint crew.

“I think that it’s going to be built around the sprinters,” Byrnes said of this year’s Wildkat squad. “That’s going to be our strength this year. We have a pretty solid group of kids there. They have some state experience and I feel they’re getting better and better and better.”

Killings, who finished ninth in the 110 high hurdles at the state meet last year, will run the 110 and 300 hurdles and also contribute to the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Moses is back after missing his junior year. He was a state qualifier in the 400 and 4x400 two years ago. Moses clipped off a 51.09 400 time in the first meet of the season.

“[Moses] has a goal of medaling in the state meet and that’s going to take probably under 49 seconds, but for this time of the year that’s a pretty good time, and he’s only two weeks out of basketball,” Byrnes said.

“Taylor Killings was all-state last year, placed ninth in the state meet had a really, really good indoor season and was not beaten but still ended up second in the state indoor meet. He has a goal of doing very well this year, maybe being a state champion.”

Bridgeforth, senior Clifton and junior Lenoir bolster the sprint crew. They joined Alsup on the Kats’ 4x100 team that finished 17th at the state meet last year.

Byrnes noted sprint depth comes from Jaylin Waldon, Bryson Sparks, Christian Benjamin, Demune Topps, Tyler Gaillard, David Florian, Tyler Pigg, Troy Solomon and Zacc Truman. And, there are a handful of newcomers beyond that group.

The Kats’ distance crew is light on numbers, but has promise. It is led by Jeremy Breedlove, Waylon Coulter and Jordan Fivecoate.

In the field events, Lenoir and Topps lead the long jumpers. Coulter, Avery Barrett and Truman are pole vaulters. Coulter, Bridgeforth and Moses are the Kats’ high jumpers. And, Darrion McAlister, Christian Collins, Michael Zehner, Anthony Collins and Jesse Shelton form the throwing crew.

“We’re not very deep, I think we’ve got four throwers on the team but three of the four have a lot of experience and should be very good,” Byrnes said. “Same in the distance group, we don’t have a lot of numbers but the kids there are very good.”

Western

The Panthers return little from their 2011 sectional runner-up team.

“It’s like a brand new team this year. We have a lot of new faces out there,” coach Marvin Boswell said. “As far as seniors, we have two who are returning, a newcomer and two foreign-exchange guys for a total of five seniors. And then we have only three juniors. Everybody else is sophomores and freshmen.”

The Panthers have more than 40 athletes over the lower two grades.

“We’re really looking forward to having a good year, a fun year. We have a lot of good, young talent in the program,” Boswell said.

Boswell points to distance and throwing events as the Panthers’ strengths.

Sophomore Matt Grider leads the distance crew. Grider, who had a strong cross country season in the fall, will run the 1,600 and 3,200. Junior Riley Worl, sophomores Abel Barrera, Austin Elliott and Cesar Terron and freshman Riley Carter provide depth.

Grider and Worl finished 1-2 in the 1,600 in a meet against Kokomo and Anderson earlier this week.

Senior Jake Boswell is back to anchor the throwing crew. Jake Boswell and sophomores Brett Boswell and Russell McDorman are the shot putters and the Boswell brothers and freshman Corey Hinkle form the discus crew.

Marvin Boswell likes how all three shot putters already have thrown better than 40 feet and all three discus throwers have topped 125 feet.

The Panther skipper points to hurdles as another possible strong spot for his squad. Senior Jacob Hopkins is back and will run both 110 highs and 300 intermediates. Junior Nick Braden is also a hurdler.

The Panthers have sophomore Robert Harless and freshman Devin Vent and possibly sophomore Christian Glenn in the 100 and 200 sprints, sophomores Dustin Hinkle and Brandon Silvers in the 400 and sophomore Jake Bradshaw and freshman Auston Davenport in the 800. Senior Isaac Pressgrove also could see time in the 800.

Glenn, sophomore George Conwell and freshman Zach Shahan are high jumpers. Glenn, Braden and sophomore Braedon Cannon are long jumpers. And, Bradshaw, junior Braxton Bagwell and sophomore Grant Harbaugh are pole vaulters.

Western, which already had two meets under its belts, visited Northwestern on Thursday for its final action before spring break.

Eastern

With a strong nucleus of athletes back from a year ago, the Comets appear primed to contend for the program’s third straight Howard County and Mid-Indiana Conference titles.

“We’ve got a crew of guys here that seem to have a lot of aptitude in track,” coach Paul Nicholson said. “We have a decent nucleus of four or five guys at every grade level who are spread out and can do several things. That makes it very convenient for a coach to be able to be flexible and plug them in where they need to be.”

Price headlines a roster of talented athletes. The Michigan State football recruit, broke a 51-year-old school record in the shot put in the squad’s first meet of the season Tuesday with Northwestern. He also will be the team’s top discus thrower. Fellow senior Michael Haynes is out for the first time, and will add another option in the shot and discus events as the Comets deal with the loss of state qualifier and Grand Valley State recruit Blake Donson.

Junior Grant Cole and freshman Sam Rocchio will replace Reid Larowe as the team’s top hurdlers, while sophomore Lewis Duke and junior Adam Schaaf will step into the hole left by Ryan Horner in the distance events.

Seniors Blake Thomas, Clay Marner and sophomores Will Porter and Riley Haupert are the squad’s top sprinters, although Thomas may be slowed by some nagging soreness in the early portion of the season. Senior Conner Johnson, a move in from Oak Hill, will also be in the mix for a spot on the 4x100 relay team.

The Comets are particularly deep in the middle distance events, where sophomores K.J. Myers and Josh Sommers, juniors Riley Smith, Damon Byers, Josh Mentis and Josiah Marx, and seniors Micah Marx and Gatlin Hinesley will all be in the mix for the 400 and 800, as well as the 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams.

Hinesley will be the team’s top pole vaulter, where he will be joined by Rocchio. Senior Barnett returns in the high jump after clearing 6-feet-6 last season. Josiah Marx will look to lead the long jumpers.

“These guys will need to be reminded periodically that nothing is automatic,” Nicholson said. “Obviously you have a target on your back when you’ve won the [county] and conference more than one year and it looks as though you’ll be a contender again.

“We have three people who, if they were injured, we would not be a top contender in terms of total points. ... We’ve got to stay vigilant about our training and not just train for the end of the season. We have to train through the season and not be taking time off for every dual meet. Those are the kinds of things that are important for them to see the big picture.”

Northwestern

The Tigers are dealing with the loss of 11 seniors to graduation, but with a roster of 61 boys, will have no shortage of candidates to fill in.

“We’re relatively young with only nine seniors,” coach Dave Stevens said. “We’ve been benefiting from the tremendously good weather. We’ve been able to spend a lot of time outside working on things. I believe early in the season we’ll still be switching the lineups around, moving kids in and out of different events because we have many new kids. Other than that, I think we’re going to be improving each meet and as the coaches work with the kids, we’ll be getting better and better.”

Northwestern appears to be deep in the field events. Junior Ethan Ault returns in the pole vault, where he will be joined by freshman Darren Curry. Juniors Brandon Curry and Adam Leach and freshmen Riley Hudson and Michael Hornbuckle will fill in in the high jump. Senior Ian Whitter and freshmen Chase Gromko and Chase Moser will be the squad’s top long jumpers, while seniors Kyle Hardwick and Raymond Monroe, juniors Weston Cockrell and Collan West, sophomore Colton Ferren and first-year senior Alec Gale lead a deep group of shot putters and discus throwers. Sophomore David Schaaf will also be among the leaders in the discus.

In the sprints, any combination of sophomore Cameron Oden, junior James Schulte, Gale, Monroe, sophomore Keegan Fessenden, Whitter, senior Kyle Smith, junior Nick Perry and Gromko and Moser will fill in in the 100, 200, 400 and sprint relays.

Juniors Brandon Curry, David Wilkinson and Drew Rush, sophomore Dakota Smith and Moser are the squad’s top hurdlers, while juniors Chris Hendricks, Bradley Jakes and Austin Hartman, sophomores Zach Duranto, Andrew Fackley and Charlie Neher will fill in in the 400, 1,600 and possibly the 3,200. Other general distance runners will include seniors Ian Moss, Jackson Fessenden, Matt Kidwell, Jacob Heredos and freshman Jesse Murdock.

“For us, we’re going to have to figure out how to move all the different sprinters and distance guys around into all the right relays,” Stevens said. “Right now, we’re experimenting with who’s going where. We need to score points in the relays and not press for the individual guys in their events. So far, we’ve done a good job of getting guys in the right direction, it’s just getting the top four or five guys in each event. That’s what the dual meet season is for, to get out there and experiment a little bit.”

Taylor

Coach Matt Carlile reports a turnout of 22.

“I am really excited about this year,” he said. “I love the group of kids that came out. We have a lot of new faces and they’re not all freshmen. It’s kids coming out who have not come out before for track and their attitudes are great. They work hard in practice and it shows.

“I haven’t exactly figured out what everybody’s specialty is, but we had a really good showing in our first meet [Monday, at Western]. The score may not have indicated that, but we had some unexpected results from the new members.”

The Titans’ top returning athletes are junior Jay’Shon Jones (hurdles), senior Kalob Bitner (throws) and senior Stefon Wallace (middle distance).

The Titans also have seniors Julian Nieto (distance), Bo Bolinger (throws, middle distance) and Isaac Foust, juniors Dustin Wright (throws), Josh Foust, Nick Shane and Andrew VanMeter, sophomores Tyler Padgett, Josh Isaac, Austin Smith and Shawn Tokarcik and freshmen Stephen Sholty and Lowen Killibrew.

Carlile likes what he is seeing from his squad, noting the newcomers are showing promise.

“I think we’ve discovered a few hidden skills from the new guys that we hadn’t recognized that are going to lead to some success,” he said. “We want to find the right fit for everybody. There is a lot of room for improvement if the new guys continue with the sport.”