INDIANAPOLIS — Greenfield-Central’s Elliot Ryba shared the top spot and Eastern Hancock had all of its participants finish high on the podium at Saturday’s Hoosier State Relays — the unofficial Indiana indoor track and field state championships — at the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion.
Ryba, the state runner-up in last season’s IHSAA Boys Track and Field State Finals in the high jump, tied for first place in Saturday’s indoor event with Warsaw’s Jordan Randall.
Both cleared 6-feet, 10-inches, but missed at 7-feet. Both had cleared each previous height on the first attempt, except at 6-8, where they both made attempts on second tries.
Tied for first, there is usually a jump-off for first place, but both Ryba and Randall agreed ahead of time, if there was a tie, they would not have a jump off.
Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and New Palestine all had either boys, girls or both compete in Saturday’s Large School meet. Eastern Hancock had both boys and girls participate in the Small School event.
It was a very strong day for the Royals.
All three of their entrants placed high in the finals.
Freshman Bella Sotelo was second in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.17 seconds. Ellie Meyer, a junior and a state qualifier in last year’s outdoor state finals in the high jump, placed third Saturday after clearing 5-feet, 2-inches.
With just the two competitors, Eastern Hancock finished tied for 13th in the team scoring with 14 points.
On the boys side, Eastern Hancock’s distance medley relay team of John Henry Gray, Aaron Redmon, Brandon Metz and Preston Markley finished fourth with a time of 10:51.26. They scored 10 points and placed tied for 16th in the team standings.
In the Large School girls meet, Greenfield-Central had the lone podium finish with senior sprinter Savannah Lake.
A two-time IHSAA state qualifier and a returnee from last year’s HSR, Lake placed fifth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.72 seconds.
New Palestine’s Abby Journay was 15th in the high jump with a clearance of 5-feet.
There were a number of boys in the Large School meet that just missed earning podium spots.
Mt. Vernon senior Andres Langston, a two-time outdoor all-state performer in the 400-meter dash and 4×400-meter relay, was one spot shy of scoring in the high jump.
He tied for ninth place, clearing 6-feet, 4-inches. He was also 16th in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.41 seconds, and part of the 22nd place 4×400-meter relay team with fellow all-stater Tre Jones, Nate Hauser and Caden Cassada. They had a time of 3:37.40.
The Marauders 4×800 relay team of Colin Strachman, Xaiden Jenson, Isaiah Njau and Cassada finished 18th in 8:17.60.
Greenfield-Central had three others get 11th place finishes.
Chris Ross ran an indoor school-record time of 9:26.67 in the 3200-meter run. Aaron Lee, Austin Kincer, John Stuckey and Kirk Knecht had an indoor school-record time of 1:31.99 and placed 11th in the 4×200 relay.
With a personal record throw of 50-feet, 1.5-inches, Reese Hill finished 11th in the shot put.
