BOYS TRACK: State Finals

Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, June 5, 2016

Northwestern athlete Owen Munson raced to a fourth-place finish in the 400 dash at the IHSAA boys track and field state championships Saturday in Bloomington. The senior posted a time of 48.72 to snag a medal and lead a six-man contingent of local athletes in the state meet.

Valparaiso's Travis Sperry-Allison won in a time of 47.87, Brownsburg's Tyler Kirtz was second at 48.18 and Colombia City's Andrew McFarland was third in 48.69. Munson's goal had been to take third and finish under 49. McFarland was three 100ths of a second ahead in third, but Munson reached his target time and re-set his school record in the 400.

"I was pretty satisfied with it," Munson said after the medal ceremony. "I ended up being fourth by a step. I PRd and broke 49 so I'm pretty happy with that."

Munson and NW coach Dave Stevens had been honing his skills to get the most out of him at the state meet.

"We practiced this week on a couple aspects of the race we thought he could do better at to get him to that 48 [second] area and he did it perfectly," Stevens said. "I couldn't be prouder of him. He's an outstanding young man and a joy to coach. I couldn't have asked him to give any more."

Munson stood on the podium in his final day of action.

"I"m just happy I finished out strong," he said. "I didn't peak at sectional, I kept improving and getting faster."

Stevens also like how the senior made his mark.

"Way for him to stamp his senior last race going out," Stevens said. "Owen didn't coast through, he ran hard this week and he ran hard [Saturday]."

Western's Tyler Gilbert took 12th in the discus, posting the top finish of any sophomore at state. His effort of 154 feet was a personal record and was the top throw in the first flight. Senior teammate Cameron Dessing was 15th in the 300 hurdles, finishing in :40.06.

Western coach Gary Jewell saw both his athletes achieve one of the goals of finishing better than their seed.

"Tyler threw a personal best in his first throw of the day, which was a good thing because the wind changed from his first throw of the event," Jewell said. "He was actually in the top nine or ten until the last round of the last flight. He beat the guy that beat him last week, he improved his seed. I think he was seeded [25th] and he finished 12th, that's huge.

"For Cameron [the meet] probably didn't go as well as he would like it to. He stuttered going into the first hurdle, he clipped the second hurdle. It kind of took him out of his race. He did beat a kid from West Lafayette who had beaten him and he did place higher than his seed.

"We had a successful state meet, that's kind of what we were looking for all along."

Peru had a pair of athletes take 17th-place finishes. Senior Nathan Cole was 17th in the 800, finishing in 1:58.69. And junior Jonah Lester finished in a four-way tie for 17th in the high jump, clearing 6-2.

Kokomo junior Andrecus Eddington was 21st in the 100 dash preliminaries, finishing in 11.24.