By James Howell Jr. | For Daily Reporter
INDIANAPOLIS — Following a sectional championship win last week, the Mt. Vernon boys track and field team took its momentum into the Lawrence Central Regional Thursday night.
The result for the Marauders was a third-place finish as a team and the advancement of ten athletes onto the IHSAA state finals at Ben Davis High School on Friday, June 4.
They were defeated only by regional champion Pike and host Lawrence Central.
The Marauders used a full-team effort, capped off by a regional championship winning run by the 4×400-meter relay team of Welbert Jones, Andrew Jones, Andres Langston and Joseph Bowsher.
The Marauders claimed the win in the event in a photo finish over the Lawrence Central Bears by three-hundredths of a second.
“All I was thinking (as his runners went around during the relay) is ‘those are freshmen’,” Marauders head coach Bruce Kendall said. “I can’t believe we ran two freshmen in the 4×4… and won it.”
The night started off strong for Mt. Vernon, when the 4×800 relay team of Colin Brown, Daylon King, Evan Rappe and Joseph Blagrave ran an 8-minute, 16.13-second race to finish third.
The third-place finish was enough for advancement. In the regional round of the IHSAA boys track and field state tournament, the top-three finishers in each event automatically advance.
“We didn’t really see the 4×8 advancing past tonight,” Kendall said. “We were seeded fourth but thought we were closer to sixth. Can’t complain. The guys hustled and got it done early for us.”
Immediately following the relay team’s advancement to state, Derrick “DJ” Marble advanced into the regional finals of the 100-meter dash with a strong prelim run.
In the finals, he clinched a state finals berth with a time of 11.15. It was good enough for second place.
In the 300-meter high hurdles, Bowsher qualified himself for state in a second event. He finished second overall in 40.45.
“Efforts tonight are all thanks to coach Kendall,” Bowsher said. “I’m so happy. Coming into the year, I wasn’t anywhere near the times I did tonight and probably because of missing last year. I’m just so happy. It’s awesome.”
The final athlete to clinch a state finals berth was Keagan La Belle in the pole vault. Along with vaulters from Pike and Lawrence Central, La Belle kept fans in the stands well after the running events had ended.
His vault of 13-08.00 was more than enough for the regional title.
In the Marauders’ other events, George Burhenn and Langston both ran fast enough for placement in the 110 hurdles.
In the finals, Burhenn was edged for the final automatic-qualifying spot by seven-hundredths of a second. He finished fourth. Langston finished eighth.
In the 300 hurdles, Burhenn was edged yet again. He finished fourth and missed an automatic state finals berth by 18-hundredths of a second.
With his close finishes, Burhenn could potentially receive a callback to compete at the state finals.
Austin Rush continued the team’s strong night with an eighth-place finish in the 1,600-meter run for the Marauders. Reyce Morgan took 12th in the same event.
Morgan finished 12th in the 3,200.
The Marauders 4×100 relay team finished 11th. In the 400-meter dash, Langston finished ninth to score points for the team.
Andrew Jones earned points for the team as well with an eighth-place finish in the high jump. He cleared 5-10.00.
The Eastern Hancock Royals’ evening began with a 15th-place finish for the 4×800 relay team of Aaron Surberg, Luken Edwards, Luke McCartney and Daniel Campbell.
In the 4×100 relay, the Royals ran to a 14th-place finish.
The highlight of the evening for the Royals came when Cayden Sotelo finished eighth place in the 800 to earn points for the team.
Kain Sotelo’s ninth-place finish in the 300 hurdles was just short of scoring points.
