GIRLS TRACK: 'Unbelievable finish'

Kokomo Tribune - Wednesday, May 20, 2015

When Peru girls track and field coach John Malone said that every point counted in his team's Northwestern Sectional championship victory Tuesday night, he wasn't kidding.

"Half a point," Malone repeated several times, shaking his head in near-disbelief, as his girls took a victory lap after outscoring second-place Eastern by a tally of 76 to 75.5 in claiming the school's first girls track sectional crown since 1983.

"Wow. It's been [30-plus] years," Malone said. "We lost conference by five points and we don't have pole vault at our school so we're spotting teams points. We asked the girls if they had one more meet left. I told the girls if everyone ran well and everyone chipped in it's very possible that when the smoke clears, we could be the team."

And Peru was just that on Tuesday, with senior Sidney Fuller leading the way as a triple winner on an unseasonably cool night.

"At first I didn't think I was going to do too well," Fuller said. "I don't do bad in the cold. I just do better when it's warm. This feels awesome, especially since it's senior year. I'd rather have it now than any year before. It's a good way to go out with a bang."

Fuller took first in the 100 and 300 hurdles, posting a :16.39 in the 100 to win by .40 over Eastern's Arienna Ewing, who finished second in the event at :16.79.

"Honestly, I didn't even know what the score was, I didn't even know what place we were in before the final announcement," Comet coach Michael Goodspeed said of the close overall finish. "That's an unbelievable finish, half a point."

That was the case for much of the night. Fuller's win in the 300 was disputed after she was initially listed in sixth place after clearly winning the event, a discrepancy that was cleaned up by the final tally and showed her taking first at :48.27.

"I was upset at first," Fuller said. "I thought maybe I had been disqualified but knew that wasn't the case. I saw my coach go up and take care of it right away."

Fuller's third win came in the 4x100 relay, where she joined with Josie Murphy, Adreana Spohn and Brooklyne Wood to take a win in :51.51, ahead of Maconaquah, which posted a :51.83 finish.

Those four girls, along with Jesse Zvers, who placed first in the 3,200 in 12:05 and second in the 1,600 at 5:38.47 behind Taylor's Cami Hansen (5:31.66), advance to the regional. Murphy also placed third in the long jump with a distance of 16-7.5.

The top three finishers in each event advance to the regional.

Along with Avery Ewing, who won the 400 dash (1:02.47), finished third in the 800 run (2:30.50) and took third in the 4x800 relay with Carly Jones, Olivia Vogl and Sydnie Hill (10:40.83), the Comets will send Danielle Reed to the regional in shot put (36-0, second) and Carly MIles in the 3,200 (12:09.40, second) as well as Arienna Ewing for her second-place finish in the 100 hurdles.

"That was better than I thought we'd do based on the seeds," Goodspeed said. "Second places were key. Carly Jones in the two-mile and Arienna Ewing in the 100 hurdles, those were two [second-place finishes] that were key."

Maconaquah scored 72.5 to finish third, equaling a 3 1/2 point spread between first and third places.

The Braves were first in the 4x800 relay, with Kate White, Haley Wimmer, Olivia Winegardner and Madison Winegardner taking a 10:32.25 win. Maysie Hewitt was first in the pole vault at 10-0, and Raygan Plothow was second in the long jump at 16-10.75

Tearsten Munson took first in the 200 dash (:27.13) and placed second in the 100 dash (:13.22) for Northwestern, which finished fifth overall with 60.5 points behind fourth-place Logansport, which scored 65.5. Also for Northwestern, Hannah Ballard took first in the high jump (5-2).

"I knew Eastern would come in strong," Malone said. "We've been battling Mac all year. I knew Northwestern had great sprinting. We don't have depth. We have nine girls covering all of the running events. It's just amazing those girls, collectively, are a powerful team."

Kokomo's Deju Miller advanced with a second-place, 5-0 mark in the high jump, while Mykayla Fowler was third in the discus with a throw of 104-4.

Taylor's Hansen advanced in the 1,600 while also placing third in the 3,200 (12:12.60). Northwestern's Kaitlyn Daanen was third in the 100 dash at :13.39, while Brooke Treadway was second in the discus at 111-0. Taylor Coram finished in third place for Kokomo in the 300 hurdles (:50.19) to move on. Western's Erin Knepley advanced in the 400 with a second-place time of 1:04.5. Knepley joined with Grace Sullivan, Allison McMinn and Bretta Tate to take third in the 4x400 relay (4:23.30) to advance.

Kokomo finished eighth in overall scoring (42), while Western tied with Tipton for ninth place with 40 points. Taylor finished 11th out of the 13 teams with 26 points.