FORTVILLE — When Mt. Vernon won the 2021 Hoosier Heritage Conference Boys Track and Field Championships it had won only three previously and hadn’t held the trophy high since 2016.
Now it has become a regular occurrence.
On Thursday, at Mt. Vernon High School, the Marauders track and field team made it three straight, winning six events and breaking three meet records.
It was the closest of their three straight titles. After beating Pendleton Heights by 60 points in 2021 and Delta by that same amount in 2022, Mt. Vernon topped Hancock County rival Greenfield-Central by 24 points. The Cougars won five events. Mt. Vernon finished with 166 points. Greenfield-Central had 142. New Palestine was fourth with 74.60 points.
Mt. Vernon’s George Burhenn, Andres Langston, Daylon King and Wil Jones have all been a part of event titles in each of the last three seasons, but none have won as much as Burhenn.
He swept the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles for the third straight year and joined Langston and Jones, for a third time in winning the 4×400-meter relay race.
In two of Burhenn’s wins, he set meet records, once individually and once with his relay teammates.
After winning the 110 hurdles in 14.74 seconds, he followed it up with a record-time of 39.19 in winning the intermediate hurdles. The leadoff leg in the 1600 relay, Burhenn, Jones, freshman Sebastian Sprague and Langston won the final race of the night in a record time of 3:22.47.
“It’s nice to know we have picked the program up and got momentum. It’s not been a one-time thing. We’ve come back stronger every year,” Burhenn said of the team’s three-year reign. “We’re leaving (the program) in a good spot, letting the middle school kids know, this is what we do.”
King, for the third straight time, was part of the victorious 4×800-meter relay group.
He was the anchor with the quartet that included Tristan Trevino, Ahmed Saleh and Caden Cassada. Trevino was on the winning distance relay team in 2022, also.
“Winning three times in a row is great, especially because it doesn’t happen a lot at Mt. Vernon either,” King said. “When we first started we hadn’t won conference that many times. Now it’s senior year and we’ve won county three times and conference three times in a row. Yea, it’s great.”
Trevino added a win in the 800-meter run. He was a repeat winner in the event.
Langston was a repeat winner in the 400-meter dash. This time, it was in a record time of 48.81 seconds. Teammate Sprague was second. Langston was also second to Burhenn in the high hurdles.
It was a first time for one Marauder, head coach Nick Clarkson, who took the program over as head coach this season from long-time mentor Bruce Kendall, who still serves as an assistant coach on the team.
“This is a credit to all the hard work from years past from coach Kendall,” Clarkson said. “He told me he was giving me the keys to the Ferrari and he wasn’t kidding.”
Greenfield-Central had five champions and almost had a sixth. Griffen Wheeler (1600) and Christopher Ross (3200) won distance races. Elliot Ryba (high jump), Reese Hill (shot put) and Kirk Knecht (long jump) won field events.
Ian Jack was edged at the tape in the 200-meter dash. Delta’s Quinn Backus won the 200 for the second straight year. He beat Jack by .02 seconds and also set a meet record with a time of 22.44 seconds.
The teams are back in action next week for sectional competition. After finishing 1-2 the last two weeks in county and conference meets, Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central will go their separate ways next Thursday.
Both host sectionals. Mt. Vernon’s 13-team event does include a Hancock County team, Eastern Hancock. Greenfield-Central welcomes 12 other schools, too, including New Palestine.
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2023 Hoosier Heritage Conference Boys Track and Field Results
Team scores (champions): Mt. Vernon (6) 166, Greenfield-Central (5) 142, Delta (3) 96, New Palestine 74.60, Yorktown (2) 74, Pendleton Heights 43.20, Shelbyville 17.60, New Castle 8.60
Event: Winner, School (Time/Distance)
100-meter dash: Quinn Backus, Delta (11.10 seconds)
200-meter dash: Quinn Backus, Delta (22.44 seconds)*
400-meter dash: Andres Langston, Mt. Vernon (48.81 seconds)*
800-meter run: Tristan Trevino, Mt. Vernon (1:58.12)
1,600-meter run: Griffen Wheeler, Greenfield-Central (4:29.77)
3,200-meter run: Christopher Ross, Greenfield-Central (9:35.50)
110-meter hurdles: George Burhenn, Mt. Vernon (14.74 seconds)
300-meter hurdles: George Burhenn, Mt. Vernon (39.19 seconds)*
4×100-meter relay: Brayden Stanley, Chayse Lennis, Palmer Samuels, Quinn Backus, Delta (42.42 seconds)
4×400-meter relay: George Burhenn, Wil Jones, Sebastian Sprague, Andres Langston, Mt. Vernon (3:22.47)*
4×800-meter relay: Tristan Trevino, Ahmed Saleh, Caden Cassada, Daylon King, Mt. Vernon (8:20.28)
Shot put: Reese Hill, Greenfield-Central (53-feet, 10-inches)
Discus: Mason Moulton, Yorktown (151-feet, 6-inches)
Long jump: Kirk Knecht, Greenfield-Central (20-feet, 9 1/4 inches)
High jump: Elliot Ryba, Greenfield-Central (6-feet, 6-inches)
Pole vault: Kolton Nanko, Yorktown (13-feet, 8-inches)
*Meet record
