Daily Reporter staff reports
INDIANAPOLIS — Hancock County produced a regional champion relay team and a handful of top-three finishes, advancing athletes from three schools to next week’s state finals.
New Palestine mirrored the success it had in Tuesday’s girls regional track meet, with the boys competing at Warren Central and finishing fifth as a team with 45 points. Greenfield-Central was 13th, with 17 points. Host Warren Central won with 81.50 points.
Mt. Vernon’s boys placed seventh at the North Central meet, with 22 points. Eastern Hancock was 20th, scoring six points. Pike won that regional with 84 points.
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The Dragons, Cougars and Marauders each will be sending athletes through to the state meet.
The Dragons’ 4×800 relay team of Devon Whitaker, Owen Kleine, Josh Collins and Drew Austin were regional champions, coming in several seconds ahead of the runners-up with a time of 8:05.44.
The 4×400 team from New Palestine — Laine Schonauer, Carson Sams, Austin and Ryker Large — finished second, also advancing to state. Whitaker was second in the 800, Schonauer second in the 400-meter dash and Austin also advanced in an individual event, finishing third in the 1,600-meter run.
Joining the Dragons at state are Tate Helm and Adam Lee from Greenfield-Central. Both finished second, with Helm the runner-up in the shot put (he was 11th in the discus) and Lee finishing second in the pole vault. Mt. Vernon’s Dawan Langston also advanced, finishing third in the 200-meter dash.
Also competing for the Dragons on Thursday were Josh Collins, who finished seventh in the 1,600; Owen Kleine, who finished 16th in the 800; Richard Clevenger, who finished 12th in the discus; Tucker Keevers, who came in at 12th place in the shot put; and Spencer Worth, who was sixth in the pole vault.
Greenfield-Central had three other athletes compete, with Parker Niemeier finishing eighth in the 1,600, Conner Kinnaman finishing in 11th place in the 3,200 and Cody Hargett not placing in the pole vault.
Mt. Vernon’s 4×400 relay finished sixth, while the 4×800 was seventh. Langston was eighth in the 100-meter dash. Jailin Porter did not advance out of the preliminaries in the 200. Braxton Trittipo was fifth in the 400. Brent Donaldson competed in the 300-meter hurdles, finishing sixth, and Keagan LaBelle also had a sixth-place finish in the pole vault. Andrew Jones did not place in the high jump.
Eastern Hancock had all three relay teams compete, with the 4×100 and 4×400 both finishing 14th and the 4×800 finishing sixth.
Skyler Sexton was seventh in the 110-meter hurdles and eighth in the 300-meter hurdles for the Royals, while Kyle Moore finished 13th in the long jump and Gabe Lawler was 15th in the shot put.
The advancing athletes from New Palestine, Greenfield-Central and Mt. Vernon will compete in the state meet on May 31 at Indiana University in Bloomington.
