The temperature reached 95 degrees Saturday afternoon, but Mt. Vernon’s Christian Noble posted a time equally as scorching during the Midwest Meet of Champions.
The Mt. Vernon graduate and Lee University recruit won the 3,200-meter run in 9 minutes, 23.36 seconds to stand atop the winner’s podium at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.
The Midwest Meet of Champions, an event conducted since 1974, pits the best senior track and field athletes from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan in a scored inter-state all-star showcase.
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Noble earned an invite to the meet after placing runner-up in the 3,200 during the IHSAA state finals June 4 with a time of 9:04.71.
Noble ran the opening circuit of the eight-lap all-star race in 1:05.13. He pulled ahead of the pack on the fifth and sixth laps and cruised through the final 800 meters to win.
Stephen Jones of Ohio was second at 9:26.02. Andrew Bill of Michigan finished third in 9:28.81.
Marauders teammate Brisco Wood joined Noble at the meet, participating in the 4×800-meter relay for Indiana. Wood and his all-star teammates took second with a time of 7:42.17.
Wood followed in the footsteps of Chris Hanson, the first all-state runner in Mt. Vernon track history, who also ran the 4×800. Wood ran the second leg of the race in 1:58.56.
Wood placed ninth in the 800-meter run during this year’s IHSAA state finals at Indiana University. He posted a time of 1:57.18.
Ohio crossed the finish line first in the all-star relay with a one-second cushion (7:41.01). Michigan was third at 7:53.54.
Ohio won the men’s team title with 194 points, with Michigan second (158.5) and Indiana third (120.5). The Marauders contributed 11.5 points to the meet.
Noble will compete at the Nike Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina, this Saturday, when he will run the 5K. He qualified for the event with a 14:55 last October.
He placed fourth overall during the IHSAA Boys Cross-Country State Finals in Terre Haute (15:24.9). Noble was 16th at state in 2014 as a junior (15:42.1).
Other Indiana standouts from the Midwest Meet of Champions included West Lafayette’s Cooper Williams, who won the 800 in 1:49.97. Williams, an Indiana University recruit, was an IHSAA state champion this month (1:54.03).
West Lafayette’s Lauren Johnson was first in the women’s 3,200 at 10:56.41. In the women’s 1,600, Grace Walther of Homestead was runner-up at 4:56.72 and Pendleton Heights’ Alex Buck was fourth in 4:57.67.
Daniel Armstrong of Michigan City was first in the high jump at 7-0, matching his IHSAA state championship leap in Bloomington on June 4.
Portage’s Jeremiah Ratliff won the 200-meter dash in 21.61. Indiana ran to a 9:13.56 in the women’s 4×800 relay to finish first.
