WALDRON — Finally. After two straight years of finishing runner-up in the high jump, Shelby Mourey has her blue ribbon.
The Eastern Hancock junior broke a 22-year Mid-Hoosier Conference Track and Field Championship meet record Tuesday at Waldron by jumping 5 feet, 6 inches, taking first place and eclipsing the jump made by Indian Creek’s Kate Girdley (5-04.00) in 1993.
“What makes what she did (this year) so impressive is that she’s doing it banged up,” said Royals coach Jerry Cain, referring to Mourey’s persisting shin splints, which she sustained during basketball season.
“She’s practiced that high jump twice this year, and she’s competing in other events. It’s amazing. The girl is 5-foot-5-and-a-half, and how she can jump five feet is beyond my comprehension.”
What is much easier for him to understand is the Royals’ dominance in the annual conference meet. Eastern Hancock championed the event for a third straight year, scoring 142 points.
Knightstown was a distant runner-up with 82.5 points. Morristown finished third (80 points), followed by Hauser (73), Indian Creek (61.5), North Decatur (58), Southwestern Shelby (36), host Waldron (29), South Decatur (20) and Edinburgh (3).
“Someone came up to me and said, ‘You must be a heck of a coach,'” Cain said. “I told them, ‘When you have girls like these, it can make any coach look good.'”
Mourey also won the 200-meter dash and helped the 4×100 relay, along with Maddie Lee, Hope Spaulding and Karlee Gray, to a first-place finish. A week after that quartet set a school record at county meet with a 51.51, they championed the conference meet with a run of 52.54.
Also claiming blue ribbons for the Royals were Gray (100), Spaulding (300 hurdles) and the 4×400 relay team (Lee, Cassey Hancock, Spaulding and Gray).
Finishing second for Eastern Hancock were Spaulding (100 hurdles), Kaycee Ruble (shot put), Gray (200) and Cara Johnson (3,200).
“This is my 37th track team, and I have never taken a team to conference knowing I’m going to win until two years ago. I knew we were going to win then,” Cain said. “And now this year is the only other year. Pretty much, I knew we had it. It’s awful nice. You sleep a whole lot better, that’s for sure.”
Notes: The Royals have now won the 4×100 and 4×400 relay races in all three years since joining the Mid-Hoosier Conference. … This is third MHC meet where the Royals girls have scored in triple digits, and no other team could. … Mourey set the new Eastern Hancock high jump record with her jump of 5-8 at last week’s Hancock County Championship.
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Girls team results:
- Eastern Hancock 142
- Knightstown 82.5
- Morristown 80 points
- Hauser 73
- Indian Creek 61.5
- North Decatur 58
- Southwestern Shelby 36
- Waldron 29
- South Decatur 20
- Edinburgh 3
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