Eastern Hancock’s Sydney Springman finishes second in the 100-meter hurdles at the Pendleton Heights Girls Track Sectional on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — All four Hancock County schools have their share of talented returnees back for the 2022 girls track and field season.
While talent returns, two of the four schools will be led by new head coaches.
Mike Foster, a veteran of the school system’s junior high program takes over at Greenfield-Central High School.
Nick Clarkson, who had been an assistant with the school’s boys program and is a former head coach at Lapel, is the new coach at Mt. Vernon.
Some of the teams have been participating indoors — and wrap up Saturday with the Hoosier State Relays state finals in Bloomington.
The outdoor season is just getting underway with the crux of the season beginning in May with county, conference and sectional meets on tap.
Mt. Vernon
The Marauders are back after completing a sweep of the 2021 Hancock County, Hoosier Heritage Conference and Pendleton Heights Sectional meets.
“It was the first thing I asked them (in January), and they want to do the same things. I think that’s great,” Clarkson said. “I think we’re meshing well and we’re coming out of spring break with our morale up. I think we’re going to end up being pretty strong.”
Leading the way will be a distance crew led by seniors Lydia Carrell, Morgan Tharp and Alex Overshiner.
Tharp was a sectional champion a year ago in the 1,600 and runner-up in the 800. Carrell was third in the 800, then added an impressive seventh-place finish in the event at the regional. Overshiner adds more depth in the longer races and was on the sectional runner-up 4×400-meter relay team.
Additional help on the distance side comes from versatile sophomores Emma Gasiorek and Allie Jenson. Both were part of relay teams that scored well a year ago.
Carrell, Tharp, Overshiner and Gasiorek and frosh Emma Gale, as an alternate, are part of the 4×800-meter relay team competing today in the indoor state championships in Bloomington.
The sprint contingent is led by junior Mya Eppert and senior Morgan Kille, one-half of the conference champion 400-meter relay team. Anna Stanfield, a sophomore, returns as an experienced hurdler.
They have a good portion back, but will miss junior standout Riley Nielsen, who is out with an Achilles tendon injury.
As a sophomore, Nielsen was a multiple-event scorer, but shined the brightest as a pole vaulter.
She broke a 12-year-old school record by clearing 10-feet, 6-inches (the old mark was 10-1 set by Hannah McKnight in 2009). Nielsen won conference, sectional and regional titles last year and was the lone Mt. Vernon representative at last year’s state finals.
Greenfield-Central
Foster’s first team will be talented, too.
Leading the way is senior Kayana Maroska, last year’s Daily Reporter Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
She ran the 400-meter dash for the first time in sectional competition, then went on to place eighth in the state in the event with a time of 59.49 seconds.
Last year, she was one of only three girls at the Hoosier Heritage Conference meet to win multiple individual events, taking first in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles.
She also scored a lot in the 200-meter dash and as part of one of the Cougar relay teams.
She’s competing in the 60-meter dash today at the Hoosier State Relays.
Two other key returnees from a year ago expected to be big contributors again are junior Reagan Crouch and sophomore Savannah Lake.
Crouch is one of the area’s top high jumpers. She, too, will be competing in today’s indoor finals.
Lake is coming off a strong freshman season and will join Maroska as one of the team’s top sprinters.
Foster said the two are expected to be part of a promising 400-meter relay team.
Senior Lauren Silcox is one of seven from the Class of 2022 and is a top returnee among the throwers.
“We have a pretty good size team this year,” Foster added, noting a strong freshman class coming in. “I think it is really going to help us. I think we’ve got points to have a lot of success in county and conference this year, as long as we can keep everybody healthy and on the track.”
New Palestine
The Dragons fell just one point (113-112) shy of sharing the HHC title with the Marauders, but they do have their share of individual conference champions returning.
Courtney Study, Anne Bauer and Lexi Baynes are back from last year’s 4×400-meter relay team. Study, and Emily Adam return from the 4×800-meter championship group.
Junior Sydney Miller is back to defend her title in the discus, while Baynes won the 2021 400-meter dash.
Miller and Quin Lumbley combine for a strong 1-2 punch in throws. Both are having a great indoor season.
Lumbley, at 41-6, is only six inches away from tying the school record in the shot put (Sonya Napariu, 42-0, 2012).
“I expect really good things out of them,” veteran coach Chuck Myers said of his throwers. Lumbley is seeded sixth at the indoor state meet.
Lumbley will compete today along with the Dragons distance medley relay team of Adam, Baynes, and promising freshmen Rylee Hurst and Tylar Whitaker.
Like the Marauders missing a standout in Nielsen, the Dragons will be without senior distance star Emma Mann, who has not been cleared to compete after a medical condition was discovered during her cross country season.
Seniors Maya Hobbs and Taylor Kelley return as two of the team’s top sprinters, along with senior hurdler Madelynn Smathers. Hobbs is also the top returnee in the long jump.
With Hurst, Whitaker and another frosh, Ashyln Sanford, Myers believes he will have a strong group of rookie runners, too.
Sophomore Ezra Wagner returns as a pole vaulter.
Eastern Hancock
The smallest school in the county has some top talent, too.
Sydney Springman is only a sophomore, but she returns as the defending county champion in both the 100 and 300 hurdles.
She added to her solid frosh season by winning Mid-Eastern Conference titles in both races and added a runner-up finishes at the Pendleton Heights Sectional.
Springman is on the mend after suffering a broken leg during the Royals volleyball season.
Coach Michael Galyan has a young team with seven freshmen on the 17-member team.
With a youthful group, Galyan said there is a lot to be determined during the early part of the season, but he likes what he has seen.
First-year runner Ellie Meyer has impressed in the high jump and 400-meter dash. Olivia Evans is a top-notch first-year distance runner.
The Royals throwers are the most veteran. Junior Sydney Hayes (discus) went to the regional last year and is nearing the school record. Alivia Coffin, another junior, is strong in the shot put.
“We’re still trying to figure out who is going to run where and what they are best at,” Galyan said. “We should have a good team.”
The coach thinks the 3200-meter relay team could have a strong year, as well, with the lone senior runner Lexi Knight, frosh Cami Knight, sophomore Ruby White and Evans.
