GIRLS TRACK: Western pulls away to repeat as sectional champion

Kokomo Tribune - Wednesday, May 21, 2025

With points in every event, Western outpaced the field to pull away and win the 12-team Kokomo Girls Track and Field Sectional on Tuesday at Walter Cross Field, scoring 116 points.

Lewis Cass was second with a score of 89, Kokomo third (85), Maconaquah and Pioneer tied for fourth (73), Northwestern sixth (60), Logansport seventh (53), Eastern eighth (28), Tri-Central ninth (23), Tipton 10th (14), Peru 11th (10), and Taylor 12th.

The Panthers repeated as champions and won for the third time in four seasons.

"Hat’s off to the girls," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "They put in so much energy on a daily basis. They show up every day, they do the workouts, they expect to get better."

Junior Ellyse Walden swept the throws to pick up 20 points for Western, winning shot put with a heave of 43 feet, 8 inches, and winning discus at 134-11. Freshman Norah Ewing won the 200 in :26.44.

The top three in each event move on to next Tuesday’s Lafayette Jeff Regional. Also advancing for the Panthers: Allison McKitrick (third, 100 hurdles); Ewing (third, 100 dash); Ashlyn Pownall (second, 400); Ellie Kretz (third, shot put); and Mary Claire DiPaola (third, 3,200). In addition, Western’s 4x800 and 4x400 relay teams each took second, and the 4x100 relay took third.

"Another great performance by Ellyse Walden," Jewell said. "She broke our school record I think in shot put again. She’s just had an outstanding season so far."

Ewing and McKitrick lead a Panther freshman class that is making noise right away.

"This group of freshmen and girls we have right now with Allison McKitrick and Norah Ewing and Gracie Shade, they all have high expectations of what they can accomplish in the next four years, and this is a big one to get," Jewell said.

Getting a lot of points in sprints and hurdles is a major boost.

"Last year we only scored [five] points in the 100, 200 and 400, and 4x1," Jewell said. "That’s a lot of points we scored in sprints [this year] that we don’t get a year ago."

Jewell noted a strong effort off the track. He pointed to a PR by 2 inches from Lexi Taylor, who was fourth in high jump, Kenzie Moore taking fifth in long jump, Kretz taking third in shot and Kelsey Weber finishing eighth in pole vault.

"We got a great contribution from our field-event people," Jewell said. "We usually expect to score well in the throws because of Ellyse, but [Tuesday] night it was even more and it’s from other people."

Cass’ Aftin Griffin had a monster day, winning the 400 (1:00.17) and 800 (2:25.58), taking second in the 100, and anchoring Cass’ winning 4x400 effort, teaming with AnnaLeigh Hedrick, Brystalin Gillem

and Hope Rush to win in 4:13.71. Rush won the 1,600 (5:30.63) and was second in the 3,200. Hedrick was second in long jump and third in the 200.

Kokomo’s Jhazlyn McKay was another who had a huge day, winning the 100 hurdles (:15.26) and 300 hurdles (:46.22), teaming with Giyanna Thornton, Akiera Huntsman and Tia Williams to win the 4x100 (:50.80).

Tia Williams won long jump for the Kats (16-4.5). Thornton was second in the 300 hurdles for a 1-2 Kat finish.

"This is the best that Kokomo has done in 10 years so we’ve very proud of our third place," first-year Kokomo coach Dana Neer said. "We garnered points in 11 events this year so it was a big improvement. Another focus we had was trying to score two people in as many events as we could, or score very high with one person. We accomplished a lot of that.

"Our sprinters, hurdlers did extremely well. All the relays scored, which was another big goal for us. The 4x4 team placing sixth out of the slow heat was a big accomplishment for us. Very proud of those girls moving on to regional and really our whole team had a good, competitive spirit. Was really proud to coach these girls and be a part of our coaching staff."

Maconaquah threw down the gauntlet for the Braves’ challenge right off the bat, winning the 4x800 relay as Chloe Jordan, Samantha Jones, Lucy Loshnowsky and Kaytlin Moeller pulled away early and maintained a convincing margin to finish in 10:21.43.

The Braves got another victory when Jordan took the 3,200 in 11:58.37. Mac was third in the 4x400 relay and Lena Beachy was third in pole vault.

Northwestern took down two school records as Emma Baker won pole vault with a new Tiger standard of 11-6 after having raced to victory in the 100 (:12.9). Zoie Scheiffer was second in the 100 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles in a school-record :47.01.

The Purple Tigers also took second in the 4x100.

"I am very proud of the team," NW coach Josh Perry said. "We had a lot of runners not score points but still hit personal bests. Top to bottom, we had a great meet.

"Zoie Scheiffer continued to make a name for herself with three regional qualifier spots in the hurdles and 4x1. Emma Baker was a double champion in the 100 meters and pole vault, setting a sectional record at vault with 11-6. Emma worked all offseason to get here. She set lofty goals and did everything right to earn her victories. I couldn’t be more happy for her."

Eastern’s Ava Kantz was second in the 800 and third in the 1,600 and teammate Elisabeth Bruno was third in discus.

Tri-Central’s Lillian Stewart was second in the discus and second in shot put, and Jacky Trujillo was third in the 400.