Runners representing all county schools are coming around the turn in the 200-meter dash race at the 2021 Hancock County Track and Field Championships at Mt. Vernon High School on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.
Rob Baker | For The Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — Coming off spring break and having some late starters due to the success of the school’s basketball team, long-time Mt. Vernon boys track and field coach Bruce Kendall doesn’t expect his group to be strong out of the gate.
Watch out when the calendar gets to the end of April with the postseason just around the corner.
The Marauders have a lot of runners, throwers and jumpers back from a 2021 team that won the Hancock County, Hoosier Heritage Conference and Mt. Vernon Sectional titles.
A number return with experience as qualifiers from last year’s IHSAA state meet, too.
The Marauders are also among those that have multiple qualifiers for the Hoosier State Relays today in Bloomington, the state finals for the indoor portion of the 2022 season.
Mt. Vernon
“I feel like we’re underdogs now and later we’ll deliver the good news,” Kendall said of waiting to have his whole team available and at full strength. “It’s just frustrating right now.”
Once everyone is able to go, Kendall’s Marauders should be very good.
Mt. Vernon returns parts of two relay teams as well as sprinter Derrick Marble (100-meter dash) and pole vaulter Keegan La Belle that participated in the outdoor state finals at Ben Davis in 2021.
Sophomores Wilbert Jones and Andres Langston were on the state’s fifth-place 4×400-meter relay team. Senior James Blagrave and junior Daylon King return from the 4×800-meter relay qualifying group.
La Belle, a senior, is one of many Marauders that starred on the team’s state championship football team. He was a sectional and regional champion in the pole vault and sectional champion in the long jump.
Mt. Vernon returns sectional champions or runners-up in 10 events.
Along with La Belle, the Marauders return winners in the 400-meter dash (Langston), 110-meter high hurdles (George Burhenn) and had a 1-2 punch in the 100-meter dash with Marble and Caden Wildey. Both 1,600 (Jones and Langston) and 400 (La Belle, Cameron Parsley, Wildey, Marble) relay winners return part or all of their quartets.
King and Blagrave were on the second-place 4×800 relay team. Burhenn added a runner-up spot in the 300 low hurdles. Langston was second to Burhenn in the highs. Parsley was second in the 200.
Burhenn just missed qualifying for state in both hurdle races, placing third in both events at the Lawrence Central Regional.
The Marauders should have a strong distance group, too. To go with Blagrave and King, Mt. Vernon has veterans from both track and cross country in Austin Rush and Reyce Morgan and Sam Wilson. Rush and newcomer Tristan Trevino were co-Daily Reporter Cross Country Runners of the Year in the fall.
Additional help comes from others that are part of large group of multi-sport talents in Avery Williams and Darnell Stewart. Both will participate on a relay team in the indoor finale today.
Burhenn in the 60-meter hurdles, La Belle in the pole vault and Langston in the high jump will also be in Bloomington today.
New Palestine
The Dragons will have one of the area’s top newcomers in Isaiah Thacker, a transfer from Triton Central High School.
Head coach Eric Branch said Thacker, who began long jumping just a month ago, is already approaching the school record.
Thacker has already gone 21-feet, 8-inches, just three inches shy of the record set by Brady Walden (21-11) in 2017.
Another junior Jack Rossell is nearing school-record clearance, too.
A pole vaulter, Rossell, who will compete at the indoor finals today, has cleared 13-feet. He is in a six-way tie for third on the school’s all-time list. Mark Gilpin has held the record since 1980, clearing 14-feet. Chad Clark tied the mark in 1999.
Another returning pole vaulter, Sage Halter, is No. 9 on the school’s list at 12-9.
Seniors Josh Lambdin (discus) and Greg Ratz (shot put) add to a strong Dragons field events team.
Seniors Colin Darley and Jaret Whitaker and junior Connor LaPenta are back to help with middle-distance and distance races.
Madix Johnson, Drew LaPenta and Grayson Thomas add to the sprint group along with Thacker.
Juniors A.J. Reierson, James O’Dell and Daniel Thacker bring strength in hurdle races.
“I think we have a little more depth that last year,” coach Branch said. “We were a very young team and just figuring out the sport for a lot of the guys. When it comes to county and conference, we feel like we can compete closer to the top. We were fifth in the conference last year and we want to improve on that.”
Eastern Hancock
Eastern Hancock has just four seniors and they make up one of the program’s most competitive groups.
Cole Rainbolt, Zach Arnold, Ashton Smith and Houston Swan are the Royals 400-meter relay team. They set a school record a year ago in the low 44-second range.
It’s not all class of 2022 expected to cross the tape first.
They will have one of the county’s top freshmen, too.
In their initial outdoor meet at Knightstown, frosh Preston Markley won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 runs.
Head coach Rex Putt said Markley’s main focus will likely be the 800 and 1,600.
Junior Kain Sotelo is expected to do well in the high jump and hurdles, while Arnold and Rainbolt head the program’s sprint group.
Junior Graham Hicks is the most veteran of a young group of throwers.
Eastern Hancock has a young team with eight of its 20 members of the freshman class.
“We have some work to do, but I think by the end of the year we could get some of these younger kids developed,” coach Rex Putt said. “I’m optimistic about contending for a (Mid-Eastern) Conference championship. That’s our goal. County-wise, we have some individuals, but as a team it’s hard to compete against Mt. Vernon, New Pal and Greenfield.”
Greenfield-Central
The Cougars return one of the area’s top young talents in sophomore Kirk Knecht.
As a freshman, Knecht qualified for the state meet in the long jump. He finished 18th with a distance of 20-11.25. He was a sectional runner-up and regional third-place finisher in the event.
He was a sectional champion in the 200-meter dash.
Another key returnee is Griffen Wheeler. He leads a strong distance group and is coming off a strong fall cross country season.
In the 1,600-meter run last post season, Wheeler placed third in the sectional and sixth in the regional.
He and Knecht will participate today in the indoor state championships.
Wheeler will race in the 3,200-meter run. Knecht is in the long jump competition.
