GREENFIELD — The blue ribbons were plenty in 2023, but Greenfield-Central’s girls track and field program is hoping more team depth in 2024 will add a few more Cougars on the podium this season, and help their chances as a team to do better in the Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference meets.
At last year’s county championships, Greenfield-Central won seven of 16 events, but was only able to finish third behind Mt. Vernon and New Palestine.
Many of those that crossed the finish line first are back, and head coach Mike Foster has one of his larger groups that should lead to more team depth.
“We have one of the biggest teams we’ve had in a while to the point where I, literally, ran out of uniforms the other day when I was passing them out,” Foster said. “That is a good problem to have.
“I think we’re going to have that depth that we’ve been looking for this year.”
Foster has since ordered more uniforms for his team that has 45 members.
Leading this year’s group of returnees is senior sprinter Savannah Lake, a two-time state qualifier. She won the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash in county, conference and sectional races last year and was part of a county champion 4×100 relay team with Jalyn Smith, Rachel Baker and Lauren Pechin, who are all back this season, too.
“We want her to see the progress she’s looking for, and to keep getting better,” Foster said of Lake. “She’s already one of the fastest, if not the fastest in the conference and one of the fastest girls in the sectional and regional. We want to see her get as much out of this season as she can so she can move on. I know she has an eye on running in college … and we want her to have as many options as she can have.”
Addison Buckley is the returning county champion in the 300 hurdles and was a regional qualifier for both the 300 hurdles and 100 hurdles.
Lexie Copeland was the county champion in the 3200 and a regional qualifier. She went to the state finals during cross country season.
The distance team should be larger and more talented. The top addition to the group is freshman Josie Kinnaman, who joined Copeland in the fall at the state cross country finals. She recently ran a personal best in the 1600 in the NIKE Indoor Nationals.
“[We] definitely have more depth, not just on the distance side, but also the sprints side,” Foster added. “We’ve had several girls come out, freshmen as well as a few upperclassmen, that have decided to run track and field and have the talent we’re looking for.”
Ten of 16 freshmen coming in our either sprinters, jumpers or both.
Maddie Mies should be one of the better competitors in field events. She is an experienced pole vaulter, who just missed out on the regional by placing fifth at the sectional.
They will miss junior Juliann Jones, a regional qualifier and county champion in the long jump last year. She is out for the year after suffering an injury during basketball season.
Even with a lot of top competitors returning, the Cougars have just nine seniors with Lake, Mies, Pechin, distance runners Emaline Capen, Avery Davis and Isabelle Hunt, pole vaulter Jorja Houston, sprinter Yelina Mojica and hurdler Lily Ndoye.
“My main goal, and I tell this to the girls every year, is that everybody gets to the end of the season happy and healthy,” Foster said. “Beyond that, we want to win county, conference.
“In track and field a lot of people look at it as an individual sport, and at a certain point it does become that. Once we get to the sectional and regional, I’m not looking to win the sectional or regional as a team, I want those girls to advance as far as they can. When we get to county and conference I want to put up a good fight and I think we’ve got the tools to do that this year.”
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2024 Greenfield-Central Girls Track and Field Schedule
Date;Opponent;Time
March 23;HSR State Relays (State Fairgrounds);3 p.m.
April 2;at Southport/Beech Grove;5:30 p.m.
April 4;at New Palestine/Shelbyville;5:30 p.m.
April 9;at New Castle/Eastern Hancock/Scecina;5:30 p.m.
April 12;at Distance Showcase (Franklin Central);6 p.m.
April 17;at Speedway/Cardinal Ritter;5 p.m.
April 17;at Noblesville Invitational;5:30 p.m.
April 19;at Carmel 3200 Showcase;6 p.m.
April 20;at Guerin Catholic Invitational;10 a.m.
April 23;at Pendleton Heights Invitational;5 p.m.
April 27;at Kokomo Relays;11:30 a.m.
May 1;Hancock County Meet (Mt. Vernon);5 p.m.
May 3;Cougar Chase Invitational;5:30 p.m.
May 7;HHC Meet (Mt. Vernon);5:30 p.m.
May 14;Warren Central Sectional;5:30 p.m.
