For the Daily Reporter
A sophomore and a junior guided the New Palestine girls to victory in the first track and field meet of the season.
The meet pitted New Palestine against Greenfield-Central and Shelbyville in a Hoosier Heritage Conference matchup.
Sophomore Kaylin Casner and junior Sophia Taylor clinched three of the four individual distance runs on the girls side. Fellow freshman Kendall Mann added a fourth.
Casner ran a 5:34 in the 1,600 meter and a 2:36 in the 800 meter. Taylor ran a 1:02 in the 400 meter and also added a victory in the 200 meter with a 28.64-second finish.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“Those two had great performances,” Dragons assistant coach Chuck Myers said.
Casner helped the 4×800 team and Taylor helped the 4×400 team to first-place finishes.
Rounding things out was a 3,200-meters run from Mann in under 12 minutes. In addition, New Pal added a second and third-place finish in the 800 meters with freshman Brenna Shaw and sophomore Haley Rickey clinching the sweep and a second-place finish in the 400 meters and 200 meters from senior Hannah Taggart.
“I thought overall it was a good performance to start the season out,” Myers said. “We went out and competed well.”
New Pal finished with 72 points, with Greenfield-Central coming in second at 47 and Shelbyville at 46.
The Cougars girls were led by sophomore Crystal Peterson, who brought home two victories — one in the 100-meter hurdles and another in the 300-meter hurdles. The remaining first places for the Cougars were in field events — Mackenzie Polster in the high jump, Addie Coil in the shotput and Hannah Burkhart in the discus.
“This is a good starting point for us,” Cougars girls coach Reuben McCracken said. “It’s good to get a meet in. Everybody is performing where they should be this time of the year and it gives us a good spot to build from.”
On the boys side, the Greenfield-Central boys led the field events as well.
“We knew our field events were going to be stronger for us this year,” Cougars boys coach Scott Burton said. “We had some issues in pole vault but those will get worked out as we get into season.”
Winners for the Cougars included Turk Faitele in the shot put, Tate Helm in the discus (and second place in shot), and Braden Brown in the long jump.
Another big victory for the boys was senior Cooper Hanson’s 2:02 in the 800 meters in addition to a few other good splits in the relays. Another victory for the boys was Samuel Dekeyser in the 110-meter hurdles.
The Cougars ended with 63 points, followed by Shelbyville’s 59 and New Pal’s 45.
The New Pal boys claimed first-place finishes in the 4×800 relay, Spencer Andrews took first in the 400 meters, Gavin Hausz won the high jump and Josh Collins finished first in the 3,200 meters with a 10:27.
“We had a lot of people step up and score points that have not scored before so that was really good to see,” Dragons assistant coach Eric Branch said. “We had a big group in the 800 that stepped up. In the 2-mile, Josh Collins did fantastic. That was his first win ever and to do it in the first meet was a great start to the season.”
Similar to most teams, Branch said it has been a long winter.
“We’ve had a lot of people that have been conditioning for several months now,” he said. “They’re still patiently waiting for good weather but they have been itching to compete and it showed tonight.”
