For the Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — In a slow and steady spring downpour, the New Palestine Dragons girls track team is taking home the Hancock County Championship trophy for the third season in a row. Behind a dominant performance from Athlete of the Meet, senior Jordan Reid, and junior Kaylin Casner, the Dragons cruised to a victory despite stiff competition from Mt. Vernon, Greenfield-Central and Eastern Hancock.
The meet started and ended with New Palestine relay victories, in the 4×800 and the 4×400. Casner anchored the 4×8 and Reid anchored the 4×4. Reid edged out her teammate for Athlete of the Meet honors by sweeping the individual sprint races: the 100 meter, 200 meter and 400 meter. Casner did well for herself as well by also winning the 1600 meter and 800 meter.
“Jordan and Kailyn are just really great kids,” New Palestine coach Chuck Myers said. “I’ve got high hopes for them in the team’s future and their individual futures.”
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New Palestine also picked up a victory in the shot put from junior Aden Lumbley, with a throw of 39’4.5”, over four feet longer than her closest competitor.
“We’ve got a great all around team,” Myers said. “We are lucky to have a well balanced team in sprint, distance and field events. By competing so well in all those areas it allows us to do well in meets like this.”
For New Palestine, running against Greenfield-Central and Mt. Vernon is a good preview for the Hoosier Heritage Conference meet taking place next week.
“It’s good to see these two teams before next week,” Myers said. “Conference is one of our biggest meets and then after that I’m really excited to see what these girls can do in the tournament.”
Greenfield-Central edged out Mt. Vernon for second place by one point. Coach Reuben McCracken credited his team’s technical skill for the result.
“If you look at our point total, I would bet over half of them come from field events and hurdles,” McCracken said. “We really pride ourselves on those events because there are aspects to each event where you can constantly improve.”
Crystal Peterson, 2018’s Athlete of the Meet, didn’t falter again, as she won all three individual events she participated in: the 110 meter hurdles, 300 hurdles and the long jump.
“Crystal hasn’t lost any of her events at this meet since she’s been in high school,” McCracken said. “She really helped us like she usually does and Audrey Brinkruff (3200 meter winner, 1600 meter runner-up) had two really fast runs.”
The Mt. Vernon girls won the most exciting race of the night, in the 4×100 relay. Vivian Hoeppner, Emily Keeler, Morgan Kille and Eliza Bidwell edged out New Palestine by .01 seconds to get their only victory of the night. But consistently high finishes throughout allowed it to be a close contest with Greenfield-Central for second place.
“This is an interesting meet because New Palestine is just better than us,” Marauders coach Kean Coy said after the last race. “Greenfield just dominates the field events. But a lot of our young girls are running really well.”
For Mt. Vernon, the focus now turns to a competitive HHC event next week.
“New Pal is going to do really well, but then there’s a big jumble of teams from 2 through 6 that should be fighting for second, just like tonight,” said Coy.
Eastern Hancock will also be focusing on their biggest team event of the year next week, the Mid-Eastern Conference meet. Coach Michael Galyen was pleased with his team’s effort against his county rivals in preparation.
“The conference meet has always been our huge goal,” Galyen said. “That being said, we are right on track tonight as a lot of our girls ran season or career bests.”
Galyen was particularly proud of Lainey Effing for her personal best in the 1600 and his freshmen hurdlers Megan Retherford and Annie Lindsey.
“I’m just really happy with how everyone ran tonight,” Galyen said. “No one was daunted by running against these bigger schools and it showed in their times.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Final Team Results” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
New Palestine 91
Greenfield-Central 68
Mt. Vernon 67
Eastern Hancock 18
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4×800: New Pal 10:35.09 Brenna Shaw, Grace Voelz, Sophia Taylor, Kaylin Casner
110m Hurdles: GC 16.87 Crystal Peterson
100 M Dash: NP 12.48 Jordan Reid
1600 M: Kaylin Casner NP 5:20.33
4×100 M Relay: MV 53.26 – Vivian Hoppner, Emily Keeler, Morgan Kille, Eliza Bidwell
400 M Dash: Jordan Reid NP 59.07
300 M Hurdles: Crystal Peterson GC 49.24
800 M: Kaylin Casner NP 2:27.99
200 M: Jordan Reid NP
3200 M: Audrey Brinkruff GC 11:49.49
4×400: NP Sophia Taylor, Maigan Williams, Brenna Shaw, Jordan Reid
Shot Put: Aden Lumbley NP 39-04.5
Pole Vault: Ava Grass GC 8-03
High Jump: Mackenzie Polster GC 5-00
Long Jump: Crystal Peterson GC 15’9”
Discus: Hannah Burkhart GC 117-07
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