Boys Regional

Prep roundup: 5 area boys reach state meet

Kokomo Tribune - Friday, May 29, 2015

The boys track and field teams from Kokomo, Tipton and Western all came away from the South Bend St. Joseph Regional on Thursday night with state qualifiers.

To reach the State Finals on June 5 at Bloomington, athletes had to finish in the top three of their event or meet the state standard.

The Wildkats are sending three to state. Senior Avery Barrett earned a runner-up finish in pole vault (13-10), sophomore Hanif Burnett was runner-up in the 400 dash (:50.83) and senior Jordan Nix was fifth in long jump (22-7.75). All eight participants in the long jump finals are heading to state as they all met the state standard.

Kokomo coach Tom Byrnes called the 400 dash “the story of the night.” Burnett made the most of a second chance in the event.

“In the second section of the 400, which is the fast section, the kids all ran and the timing system didn’t work so they had to re-run it 30 minutes after the meet was over,” Byrnes said. “Hanif had finished probably about fifth in the race that the timing system didn’t work. We made the decision to take him off of our 4x4 relay team to let him be fresh. He ended up second and qualified for the state meet.”

Other highlights for the Kats included junior Rolando Tyler and Nix taking fifth and eighth, respectively, in the 110 high hurdles, sophomore Andrecus Eddington finishing seventh in the 100 dash and the 4x100 relay team of Burnett, Nix, sophomore Caleb Cook and Eddington finishing sixth.

Tipton junior Chase Bess and Western junior Cameron

Dessing also are state bound, both in the 300 intermediate hurdles. Bess is heading to state as a regional champion after taking first in :40.41. Dessing was third in :40.71.

Bess and Dessing finished second and fourth in the race, but the runner who finished first was disqualified for knocking over a hurdle, into Bess’ lane.

Western coach Gary Jewell loved Dessing’s showing.

“He was a second faster than he was at sectional and I think he was almost three seconds faster than he was at conference two weeks ago. Next week at Bloomington, he’s going to be really fast. That track down there is faster than the one up here at St. Joe,” Jewell said.

“He’s very pleased with his performance and so are we. We’re looking forward to another trip down to Bloomington, having another Western athlete running down there.”

Also for the Panthers, sophomore Josh Everetts was fifth in the 1,600 run in a personal-best time of 4:29.84, breaking 4:30 for the first time, and senior Stacy Hutchinson was eighth in the 200 dash (:23.01). In the prelims, Hutchinson posted a school-record time of :22.65.

Northwestern senior Josh Perry had fifth-place showings in the 800 run (2:00.65) and high jump (6-2). Peru sophomore Jonah Lester was eighth in high jump (6-2). Cass senior James Champ placed in the throwing events, taking fourth in discus (138-8) and eighth in shot put (48-9.5). Maconaquah senior Ben Stephenson was seventh in discus (134-6.5).