FORTVILLE — Mathematically, the Mt. Vernon boys track team’s final points total on Thursday night was the most its ever posted in a Hoosier Heritage Conference championship meet since 2014.
But Marauders head coach Bruce Kendall has his own indicator to determine the final outcome, and it covers roughly 5,200 meters.
“Winning all three relays is usually a good indication. More often than not, the winners that place in the 4×400 is how you place in the meet. Usually, but not all the time,” Kendall said.
His guesstimate was close, but nonetheless, the Marauders made certain the 1,600-meter relay’s first-place winner ultimately reflected the meet’s team placements finale.
Host Mt. Vernon swept all three relays and added three more individual first-place finishes during the HHC championships to amass 156 team points to win the conference title.
Sophomore George Burhenn won both the 110-meter hurdles and the 300 high hurdle titles, while sophomore DJ Marble chased down the 100-meter dash championship to secure Mt. Vernon’s first HHC crown since 2016. The team title was the program’s fourth overall (2016, 2015, 2011).
In Mt. Vernon’s last title run, the team tallied 123 points and 148 in 2015. Pendleton Heights has scored the most in the past seven years with 171.5 in 2018 to win the championship, but in 2021, the Marauders owned the night.
“I’m loving it, especially not having a season last year. We didn’t really have the togetherness last year, and this year we’re all just having fun. It’s awesome,” Burhenn said.
Pendleton Heights won four events overall and set two new meet records in the field events, but placed a distant second as a team with 96 points. Delta was third with 92, Yorktown was fourth with 75 and Greenfield-Central was fifth with 73.
Defending champion New Palestine placed sixth with 61 points ahead of New Castle (58) and Shelbyville (13). The Dragons had won two of the last three HHC championships with a conference-best eight since 1994.
However, much like at the Hancock County meet last week, the 2021 spring has belonged to Mt. Vernon, who continues to build towards a run at the program’s first sectional team title since 2013-14.
“Yeah, we are (having a great season),” Kendall whispered trying not to bring too much attention to the obvious. “It’s like it won’t stop happening.”
The team’s collective production has been the key, especially at hurdles where Burhenn has been thriving.
The county champion in both events, Burhenn won the 110 hurdles in 15.40 and the 300 hurdles in 42.09 a week ago. At the HHC meet, he claimed the 110 in 15.48 and the 300 in 40.99, just ahead of teammate Joseph Bowsher, who came in second.
“Burhenn has only lost to Lawrence Central’s high hurdler. That’s his only loss the whole year,” Kendall said. “He was really focused today.”
Marble took third at the county meet in the 100, but he shaved time in a week’s time from 11.42 to 11.24 to win the conference title. Mt. Vernon junior Caden Wildey was third at 11.42.
The relay teams ran away from the competition, while the 400-meter quartet set a new school record at 43.72. The previous mark stood at 43.97, set in 2015 by Caleb White, Donovan Bigelow, Juwaan Nelson and Dan Werner.
Now, the group of Wildey, Marble, Cameron Parsley and Keagan La Belle will occupy that spot on the record board at the Marauders’ home track.
Evan Rappe, Colin Brown, Joseph Blagrave and Daylon King won the 3,200 relay in 8:28.38 with Pendleton Heights in second at 8:38.23 and Greenfield-Central’s foursome of Lucas Tutrow, Masan Kojima, Gage Guenin and Austin Nigh placing third in 8:50.07.
The 1,600 relay team of Andres Langston, Welbert Jones, Bowsher and Burhenn won their final in a time of 3:31.70. New Palestine was third at 3:36.60 with Nick Bastian, Caleb Byers, Jaret Whitaker and Drew Lapenta. Greenfield-Central placed fourth in 3:38.42.
From there, the Marauders built their lead with repeated high placements throughout.
Austin Rush was third in the 1,600 run for the Marauders in 4:37.37, Parsley took third in the high jump at 6-00.00, Reyce Morgan was fourth in the 1,600 at 4:37.81, Rappe took fourth in the 800 in 2:06.55, Langston was third in the 400 at 51.10 and King was runner-up in the 800 at 2:04.97.
Parsley added a third-place run in the 200 at 23.38 behind Greenfield-Central’s Kirk Knecht in second at 22.82, while La Belle was third in the long jump at 20-05.25 behind Knecht’s runner-up flight of 20-08.50. La Belle was also second in the pole vault, reaching 12-06.00.
“Even when you don’t win the event, if you still get two, three or three-four, you’re still winning the event because you may have outscored everyone in that event and so you still win it in an awkward way,” Kendall said.
“The only thing we misfired on was the throws, but the competition was so good. You can’t blame the kids there. There were some beastly throws.”
Pendleton Heights’ Andrew Harvey set a new meet record in the discus at 182-09.00, crushing the previous mark of 166-03. New Palestine’s Richard Clevenger was fourth at 146-05.00 and fellow Dragon Josh Lambdin fifth at 139-10.00.
Harvey set another meet record to win the shot put with a throw measuring 58-02.00, which bested the previous meet mark of 55-03.
The pole vault title went to Greenfield-Central senior Cody Hargett, who cleared 14-00.00. At county, Hargett won by soaring to 14-03.00.
New Palestine’s Eian Roudebush was fourth in the high jump at 5-10.00 and Bastian finished fourth in the 100 in 11.42 and in the long jump at 20-01.50. Sage Halter and Jack Rossell were fourth and fifth in the pole vault at 11-00.00 and 10-06.00, respectively.
Tucker Keevers finished fifth for the Dragons in the shot put with a throw spanning 49-02.00.
Knecht took fifth in the 100 at 11.51, while Cougars’ teammates Cash Looper was fifth in the 110 hurdles at 17.97, Griffen Wheeler was second in the 1,600 at 4:33.84 and fifth in the 3,200 at 10:17.00 and Michael Runions took fifth in the 400 at 53.39.
Up next for the Marauders is sectional on Thursday, May 20 at home where a rematch with Lawrence North awaits. Mt. Vernon beat the defending sectional champion Wildcats in a dual meet, 79-53, this past April.
“We want that really bad, but right now, a conference win is a conference win, and this is a good team effort,” Kendall said.
“We still have everything to look forward to like sectional, regional and after that, too,” Burhenn added. “We still have some people out, so they will be big contributors at sectional. This means a lot. We’ve all been working hard, doing everything we can.”
