INDIANAPOLIS — Led by four individual sectional champions, Hancock County had a strong showing at Tuesday night’s IHSAA Girls Track and Field Sectional 21 at Warren Central High School.
Fueled by three champions, New Palestine placed third with 103.66 points, and Greenfield-Central placed fifth with 80 points.
Franklin Central took home the team title with 148 points, knocking off last year’s sectional champions Warren Central by 11 points. Roncalli placed fourth with 83.33 points, Indianapolis Lutheran, Morristown and Triton Central all tied for sixth with 17, Shelbyville had nine, Beech Grove had five, and Christel House rounded out the team scores with four.
“Overall, a great effort. Third place as a team is a fantastic job. Franklin Central and Warren Central are great teams, so no shame losing to them,” New Palestine head coach Chuck Myers said. “Having people advance as they did is a big accomplishment. All the ladies competed well again, just like they did at conference and county, and I can’t wait to see what we can do next week.”
As has been the norm at most meets this season, the Dragons swept both throwing events with their dynamic duo of seniors Sydney Miller and Quin Lumbley.
Miller was the sectional champion in the discus with a distance of 122-feet, and Lumbley won the shot put with a distance of 40-feet, 4-inches.
Both defended their sectional championships from last season, and Miller advanced, once again, in both events, finishing runner-up to Lumbley in the shot put.
“They’ve been incredibly important for us, and they do it meet in and meet out,” Myers said. “They just always show up and do a great job. Just two great athletes and two great young ladies.”
Rylee Hurst, a runner-up in last year’s 400-meter race, took home first this time around with a time of 59.76 seconds.
A late burst on the closing straightaway pushed her just ahead of Franklin Central’s Breece Bass for first place.
“She’s been working really hard, and a sectional championship is something that we really look forward to,” Myers said. “She did a great job with that, and I think she’s got a good chance next week to advance, so that’ll be exciting to see.”
Greenfield-Central had a runner-up of their own from last season cross the finish line first this year.
After a second place in the 100-meter a season ago, Savannah Lake won both that event, as well as the 200. She ran times of 12.23 and 26 seconds, respectively.
“She’s just super competitive. She came in here and expected to do well, and that’s exactly what she did,” Greenfield-Central head coach Mike Foster said. “It’s hard stringing the trials and finals together because realistically she’s running five races, but she’s a worker and when she puts her mind to something she does it.”
The Cougars advanced two in the hurdles. Reagan Crouch beat out teammate Addison Buckley for the third and final automatic qualifying spot in the 100 hurdles, but Buckley placed second in the 300 hurdles to punch her ticket and join Crouch next week.
“Just very quality young ladies and hard workers. They both know what they have to do and are very coachable,” Foster said. “They just take all that feedback, and you can see what that does, and they showed that tonight.”
Joining them with a top three finish and automatic qualifying spot were distance runners from both schools.
Courtney Study earned the Dragons a third-place finish in the 1600, and G-C’s Lexie Copeland was third in the 3200.
“Lexie’s been working hard all season,” Foster said. “She had a phenomenal cross country season, and she’s kind of brought that into the track season.”
New Palestine’s Abby Journay and Kayla Rieman were the final two individual athletes to earn top three finishes.
Journay, along with Miller and Lake, advanced in two events. She placed third in the 400, and was runner-up in the high jump.
Rieman tied Journay, along with Roncalli’s Lydia Stahley for second place in the high jump. All three cleared 4-feet, 10-inches.
The Dragons advanced one relay, with the 1600 team placing second.
All the qualifiers will compete next Tuesday, May 23 in Regional 6 at Franklin Community beginning at 6 p.m.
