It was a stellar Thursday night for Hancock County’s top boys track and field performers.
For the second year in a row, Mt. Vernon won the Pike Regional.
Greenfield-Central finished third at the regional it hosted.
Both programs qualified multiple competitors for next week’s IHSAA Boys Track and Field State Finals at Indiana University in Bloomington to be held Saturday, June 1.
At Pike, Mt. Vernon won with 80.5 points. North Central was second with 74 and Lawrence North scored 67. Eastern Hancock scored three points and finished 26th.
The Marauders had two champions and advanced in eight events.
Greenfield-Central scored 48 points at its regional. Center Grove won with 107.83. Franklin Central was second with 92. New Palestine placed 13th with 15 points.
The Cougars had one champion and advanced in six events, including two participants in the high jump.
Last year’s state runner-up, Greenfield-Central’s Elliot Ryba won the high jump by clearing 6-feet, 10-inches. Freshman Bradley Streveler was sixth, but by clearing 6-4 he qualified on the state standard.
The top three in each event automatically qualified for the state meet, but others can qualify by meeting state standards or by getting a callback for having top times, distances or heights that are just outside the top three.
Cougar senior Kirk Knecht advanced in the long jump for the fourth time. He was second with a distance of 22-feet, 4 3/4-inches. He also advanced with a callback in the 200-meter dash. He was fourth in 22.28.
G-C’s Chris Ross and Carter Crouch will be two-time state qualifiers. Ross was runner-up in the 3200 with a time of 9:27.19. Crouch was third in the 1600 at 4:19.01.
Mt. Vernon was led by senior Andres Langston. He qualified for state in three events. Tre Jones and Sebastian Sprague qualified for two each.
Langston was one of two Marauder champions. He won the 300 hurdles in 38.42 seconds and added a third-place finish in the 110 hurdles at 14.69 seconds. He was also the anchor leg on the 4×400 relay team that finished third in 3:19.24.
He joined Sprague, Jones and Charlie Cole.
Sprague is going in the long jump following a second-place finish at 22-feet, 3 1/2-inches. Jones is moving on after placing third in the 200 in 22.61 seconds.
The Marauders other individual champion came in the 800. Caden Cassada won the race with a time of 1:55.16.
Two more runner-up finishes earned spots in next week’s event.
Sawyer Ruminer cleared 14-feet in the pole vault and Ahmed Saleh was second in the 1600 with a time of 4:17.45.
In all, Hancock County will be represented in 10 of 16 events at next Saturday’s state finals. The finals are scheduled to begin with field events at 3 p.m.
