The Race for First

Kokomo Tribune - Thursday, May 22, 2014

— Kokomo’s boys track team has had a calendar year to remember last season’s disappointing sectional meet.

The Wildkats stomached a few sub-par performances individually, and then had that melancholy feeling exacerbated by the sight of watching Eastern hoist the sectional championship trophy after edging the Kats 124.5-121.Tom Byrnes also thought this would be a rebuilding season after the graduation of the vast majority of his top performers.

However, the fledgling Kats have grown up in a hurry, and a fourth straight North Central Conference Championship a couple weekends ago has Byrnes confident his squad can put last season permanently in the past.

“It left a bad taste in our mouths,” Byrnes said. “Eastern had an outstanding team, but we left that meet feeling like we didn’t perform as well as we could have in a couple of events. To be honest, I didn’t know if we’d have a chance this year, but having that solid distance group to build around, having Jordan Nix in the hurdles and high jump, and these freshmen kids like Andrecus Eddington and Hanif Burnett stepping up along with having Avery Barrett back — we’ve just had great contributions from kids who weren’t part of our track team last year.”

That veteran-laden distance crew has been anchored by senior Jeremy Breedlove. The IUPUI recruit swept the distance events in the NCC meet, and will try his hand at a similar feat in tonight’s sectional, which has been moved to Western with the ongoing construction at Walter Cross Field.

Nix swept the hurdles events in the NCC, while Barrett claimed top conference honors in the pole vault.

The variety of strengths has Byrnes feeling good entering tonight, although he cautioned about being overconfident with the likes of host Western, Maconaquah and Eastern lurking in the field.

”I feel like if we go out and compete like we can compete, doing what we’re capable of like we did at the conference meet and all year long, I think we’ll be OK,” Byrnes said. “I don’t think we have to go out and be super men and do anything beyond ourselves. I feel like we kind of control our own destiny.”

On paper, the host Panthers appear to be Kokomo’s tallest hurdle to clear. The Panthers enter tonight holding convincing wins in the Howard County and Mid-Indiana Conference meets. Western and Kokomo have seen each other in a pair of invitationals this season, with the Kats edging the Panthers in the standings each time. The most notable invitational the pair have squared off in was the Kokomo Relays, where Kokomo finished second with 101.5 points, and Western was third with 97.

Western is looking for its first sectional title since 2009, and coach Marvin Boswell sees a striking resemblance, in terms of depth, between his current squad and that sectional championship team.

”We’ve had great senior leadership, and those kids have set their minds to wanting to be able to win the county, the conference and the sectional. So that’s been our driving force,” Marvin Boswell said. “We still have good depth, but I think the depth is a little different in that I think our kids this year are a little closer together, so maybe they can score in the middle of the pack rather than what we had in 2009 where we scored one towards the front and one towards the bottom of the scoring. We’re hoping that’ll help, and will be enough points to try to be able to catch Kokomo.”

Senior Matt Grider enters as the reigning sectional champion in

THE LONG ROAD: Western distance specialist Matt Grider won the 1,600 and 3,200 at last year's sectional, and last week's MIC meet.

the 1,600 and 3,200. He swept both those events at the MIC meet last week.

Brett Boswell won an MIC title in the shot put, as did the 4x100 relay team of Christian Glenn, Cameron Dessing, Braedon Cannon and Zach Shahan.

”We’ve got to do a good job in our trials,” Marvin Boswell said. “In all of our running trials, we have to make sure our kids run good, solid races and advance to the finals. In the field events, we have to make sure our kids all get off to a good start in each of the throws and the jumps to make it to the finals there. Once we do that, hopefully that’ll take care of everything.”

Having the meet in the friendly confines of Russiaville is a “psychological advantage,” Marvin added.

”It put us in a comfort zone where they’re used to being on that track,” he said. “For the warmups, they know exactly where they want to go. They’ve done that several times, whereas Kokomo has never run on that track. And, so they’re going to be out of their comfort zone just a little bit. I’m hoping that will be a little bit of an advantage.”

Northwestern’s Cameron Oden enters as the defending sectional champion in the 100 and 200 dashes, but has been slowed late in the season with a foot injury.

Maconaquah’s K.J. Walton returns as the sectional champion in the 400, and looked impressive in the MIC meet last week, sweeping the 100, 200 and 400.

BOYS TRACK SECTIONAL Tonight, at Western H.S. Time: 5 p.m. Teams: Cass, Eastern, Kokomo, Logansport, Maconaquah, Madison-Grant, Northwestern, Peru, Pioneer, Taylor, Tipton, Tri-Central, Western.