Best in the field

Kokomo Tribune - Friday, May 23, 2014

— RUSSIAVILLE — Heading into Thursday night’s IHSAA boys track and field sectional, Western coach Marvin Boswell liked his team’s chances of outlasting Kokomo.

He felt the Panthers could do it as long as they had strong performances in events which held trials, getting a pair of athletes through to the finals in as many as possible.

Boswell’s boys stuck to the script.

Western placed two in the top eight in half of the meet’s 16 events, and won five events in all to top the Wildkats with a late flourish 129-105 and claim its first sectional title since 2009 in front of the home fans.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Boswell said. “These kids – I’m proud of them and they way they’ve come out and worked really hard the last couple years. They wanted this badly, and really came out [Thursday] night and set the tone right from the start with the trials. The way our kids came out and ran – our 4x800 relay set the tone. There were so many events right at the start where kids were really hyped up and performing well.”

The Panthers’ foursome of Jacob Bradshaw, Auston Davenport, Matt Grider and Josh Everetts set Western on the winning path in the the night’s first event, the 4x800-meter relay, winning in a time of 8:20.48.

George Conwell added a victory in the 110 hurdles in :15.58, and Grider returned later to win the 3,200 run in 9:55.71. Teammate Riley Carter followed in second.

Western and Kokomo were tied at 102 with two events left to score — the shot put and high jump.

The Panthers won both events to set themselves apart. Russell McDorman was tops in the shot with a put of 47-6 3/4, while Zach Shahan cleared 6-0 in the high jump to take top honors.

Christian Glenn added a second-place finish in the long jump, and Corey Hinkle was second in the discus as the Panthers placed in the top two in four of the five field events.

“All of the field events, our kids were super in those,” Boswell said. “I really think it came down the field events in terms of what separated us from Kokomo [Thursday] night. We scored two people in the high jump, they didn’t score anybody. We scored two in the shot put, they didn’t score anybody. We scored two in the long jump, they didn’t score anybody. It really came down to the field events. That’s probably the deciding factor.”

Outside of Avery Barrett’s runner-up finish in the pole vault, Kokomo did no better than a seventh place in any field event as the Wildkats settled for second place for a second straight year.

“I’m disappointed,” Kokomo coach Tom Byrnes said. “We

knew the shot put and the discus were areas that [Western] would score some points where we wouldn’t. So we thought coming in we’d be about 25 points down. We knew we had to make up some points throughout the meet, and I really thought that we could. I don’t think we competed very well [Thursday] night. Some of our No. 1 kids got beat by second kids out of our team. That’s going to be tough to overcome. We didn’t do very well in my opinion in the long jump and high jump, and that kind of hurt us.”

Jeremy Breedlove helped keep Kokomo within striking distance. The senior won the 1,600 in 4:28.31 and the 800 in 1:56.33, and turned around with little rest time to take third in the 3,200.

“Jeremy Breedlove was super,” Byrnes said. “You couldn’t ask for anything more out of the kid. I’m just happy he got qualified in the 3,200 after winning the 800 and the 1,600 because we’re scratching him out of the 800. We did that for points only. That was a big sacrifice from him, because in a big meet like this, you don’t have a lot of rest time. At conference meets you have boys and girls, and therefore a lot more rest time. We were fortunate at our conference meet that right after the 800 there was an hour rain delay, so he had a chance to recover. He showed a lot of guts because he didn’t have but eight to 10 minutes of rest between the 800 and 3,200.”

Jordan Nix was second in the 110 hurdles, and teamed with Hanif Burnett, Jordan Rawlins and Andrecus Eddington to take second in the 4x100 relay.

Northwestern finished third with 78 points, followed by Maconaquah (59) and Eastern (56) to round out the top five.

Darren Curry won the pole vault for the Purple Tigers, clearing 13-6. Cameron Oden claimed runner-up honors in the 100 and 200, while Josh Perry was runner-up in the high jump.

“I’m tremendously happy,” NW coach Dave Stevens said. “We came in with some kids that were hurting a little bit, but our guys still practiced hard. I told the guys we wanted to run another week, so we weren’t taking a week off. The guys who were hurt had to suck it up, and they all did and ran a full load. To be third is tremendous. You’d like to win, but when you come to big meets like this, being third as a team is outstanding.”

Eastern’s Will Porter motored to a sectional title in the 100 dash in :11.11, the only athlete to meet state-standard time Thursday. Riley Haupert added a sectional title for the Comets in the 300 hurdles :40.98, and Lewis Duke was runner-up in the 1,600.

Maconaquah’s K.J. Walton put forth a dominant performance Thursday night as a quadruple winner. He roared to victory in the 200 in :22.58 and 400 in :52.05 before running anchor on a pair of relay victories. He teamed with Nathan Robinson, James Wilkison and Cody Hicks to win the 4x100 in :43.66, and joined forces with Hicks, Luke Hann and Daltyn Childers to win the 4x400 in 3:29.99.