Tiger Cubs, Eagles win county track titles

Wednesday, May 13, 2015
For the first time in 15 years the South Putnam girls' track and field team wins the Putnam County Tournament and poses with the county trophy Tuesday. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

Two Putnam County records fell and for the first time in 15

years South Putnam walked away with a county title at the 2015 Putnam County track and field tournament.

In a very close bout the South Putnam girls' took the crown behind Ariel Higgins' record-breaking run in the 100 hurdles with 79. Greencastle was second at 74. North Putnam took third place with 59 and Cloverdale had 30 and took fourth.

The GHS boys' track and field team claim the Putnam Coutny trophy in the middle of the field. The boys took first with 69 points. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

"We're definitely excited," SPHS girls' coach Brandon Welti said. "I know it's been a while. For the school and for the girls' especially, with all the work they've put in, it's really good to see this happen."

On the boys' side it was Greencastle getting the Putnam County title and while dismayed about the overall meet, GHS coach Garry Anderson was happy for his Tiger Cubs.

"We knew we had to do it or it'd be a fiasco," Anderson said. "We've had some problems that we've had to take care of. These young guys are working their tails off. Hopefully some of the older guys can help on the backside of it."

Tucker Lowe of North Putnam leads the way in the 100-meter dash. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

All four county schools faired well in the sprint events. North Putnam's Tucker Lowe time of 11.73 won the boys' 100-meter dash and Timmy Parker of South Putnam's time of 24.74 just beat out Gage Bell North Putnam in the 200. Cloverdale's Nick Blundell took the 400 with 52.94.

In the girls' meet with a time of 1:04.54 Corrie Romer of Greencastle eked out a win against Ally Nichols of SPHS by less than a second in the 400-meter.

In the 200-meter Dash Emily O'Neal and Aleah Duncan of North Putnam went one and two in the 200-meter dash.

Laura Worthington took first place in the discus. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

Kat King took first-place in the 100-meter dash for Greencastle.

In the hurdles the South Putnam girls were safe. Ariel Higgins dusted the competition in both the 100 and 300-meter hurdles setting a Putnam County record in the 100 with a time of 16.07.

"I was really happy," Higgins said. "I've been chasing it for four years now. So to finally get it was really exciting. I'm really happy I did it."

Greencastle's Arianna Pershing, South Putnam's Madie Egold and CLoverdale's Tori Szaley run in the 3,200 at county on Tuesday. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

Cloverdale took first and second-place in the 110-hurdles with Tyler Kaeff and Devon Johnson winning respectively. Kaeff also won the 300-hurdles with42.81.

"We had some PRs I'm obviously happy about that," Clover coach Andy Tyler said. "Kaeff ran personal bests in the 300-hurdles. Evan Monnet ran a great race in the 800. He ran an absolutely phenomenal race and PR'd."

Monnett outran Taylor Secrest of Greencastle, who was on his heels the whole race.

Mia Stevens of GHS takes a discus throw. Stevens won the shot put with a throw of 34-04.75. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

"Secrest is a great kid," Tyler continued. "I think he PR'd today too. So that was a really fun race to watch."

South Putnam's girls got the best of the relay events at the tourney. Higgins turned on the jets in the third leg of the 4x400 and left the other runners behind to help the Eagles to their win. SPHS also won the 4x800 however Greencastle thwarted the sweep just beating North Putnam in the 4x100.

Higgins believes the Eagles are performing fantastically at this point in the season and even better than her team expected.

Cloverdale's Evan Monnett and Greencastle's Jacob Lewis lead in the 4x800 at the Putnam County Tournament. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

"We thought that maybe today would be a hard awakening of what it's like to run against really tough people," she said. "Our season's been so well, but tonight we competed well."

Cloverdale took two relay events, the 4x800 and the 4x400 with Nick Blundell anchoring both.

"You want to get better today," he said. "You want to get better at conference and then at sectional you want to be peaking. That's what we are pushing for so conference should be a fun meet."

North Putnam took first-place in the 4x100 relay events, its time of 46.11 beating Cloverdale by .3 seconds.

South Putnam went one and two in the 800-meter run, Maddie McHugh and Jessica Jones coming in within four seconds of each other and Madie Egold took first in the 1,600 with a time of 5:45.

Arianna Pershing of Greencastle took first in the 3,200 beating Egold.

In the boys' 1,600-meter run Berendt Freeman and Kieffer Vittetow won first and second. In the 3,200 it was Vittetow then Freeman in first and second-place.

In the field events Clover Sam Atwood set the Putnam Coutny record in the pole vault. Her jump of 9-3 set the record while Kayla Clodfelter's jump of 9 feet won second.

"It feels pretty amazing considering I've only been at it for two years now," Atwood said. "I was pretty nervous when it came to beating 9 feet. You have to work on moving up on different poles and different footing. It's all about timing."

Deborah Cheatham of South Putnam and Allison White of Greencastle tied in the high jump at 5 feet with Cheatham winning on a judge's decision. North Putnam's Emily O'Neal won the long jump with a jump of 14-07.

In the boys' field events it was J.T. Matthews of Greencastle with a high jump of 5-08 to get the win by two inches over North Putnam's Daniel Huffman.

Cloverdale's Chris Moghadam cleared 12-06 in the pole vault to get the win and Jacob Lewis' long jump of 18 feet took the title.

South Putnam's Joey Masters earned his county title with a throw of 46-09 in the shot and Spencer Rhine of Greencastle won first in discus with a throw of 122 feet.

The girls' discus was won by Laura Worthington of Cloverdale with a throw of 91-03 and with 34-04.75 Mia Stevens won the shot put for Greencastle.

North Putnam coach Kevin Lutes could not be reached for comment.

The WCC track Tournament will be held Friday at South Putnam.

At South Putnam

2015 Putnam County Track Tournament

Boys' team results

Greencastle 69, South Putnam 61, Cloverdale 54, North Putnam 51

Girls' team results

South Putnam 79, Greencastle 74, North Putnam 59, Cloverdale 30.

County Records

Ariel Higgins (SP) Girls' 100-meter hurdles 16.07

Sam Atwood (CD) Girls' pole vault 9-03.00

Girls' Results

100-Meter Dash

1. King (GC) 13.30; 2. O'Neal (NP) 13.43; 3. Duncan (NP) 13.83; 4. Lausee (GC) 13.90; 5. Butler (CD) 14.16; 6.Plamondon (CD) 14.67; 7. Nield (SP) 14.77

200-Meter Dash

1. O'Neal (NP) 28.31; 2. Duncan (NP) 28.67; 3. Lausee (GC) 28.94; 4. S. Miller (GC) 30.08; 5. Nichols (SP) 30.38; 6. L. Cheatam (SP) 30.68; 7. Worthington (CD_ 31.44; 8. Boyd (CD) 31.88

400-meter dash

1. Romer (GC) 1:04.54; 2. Nichols (SP) 1:05.04; 3. White (GC) 1:06.75; 4. L. Cheatham (SP) 1:08.38; 5. Butler (CD) 1:09.65; 6. Lowe (NP) 1:09.85; 7. Tallman (NP) 1:11.75

800-Meter Run

1. McHugh (SP) 2:41.04; 2. Jones (SP) 2:46.95; 3. S. Miller (GC) 2:50.69; 4. Nunez (NP) 2:52.49; 5. Haynes (GC) 3:02.63 6. Livesay (NP) 3:59.26

1600-Meter Run

1. Egold (SP) 5:45.00; 2. Smith (GC) 5:54.05; 3. Szaley (CD) 5:56.60; 4. Scales (SP) 6:18.14; 5. Harms (GC) 6:29.81; 6. Carney (NP) 6:48.47; 7. A. Walker (CD) 5:50.74; Spencer (NP) 6:53.07

3200-Meter Run

1. Oershing (GC) 12:58.27; 2. Egold (SP) 13.01.34; 3. Szaley (CD) 13:02.24; 4. DeLano (SP) 13.33.77; 5. Haynes (GC) 14:08.61; 6. Plamandon (CD) 14:29.83; 7. Carney (NP) 16:10.26; 8. Detro (NP) 16:21.10

100-Meter Hurdles

1. Higgins (SO) 16.07 R; 2. Cooke (NP) 17.44; 3. Walker (NP) 18.04; 4. Weinschenk (GC) 18.41; 5. Welker (GC) 18.57; 6. Monnett (CD) 21.54; 7. Bottorff (SP) 21.68

300-meter hurdles

1. Higgins (SP) 49.40; 2. Welker (GC) 53.27; 3. Walker (NP) 56.2; 5. Bottorff (SP) 57.57 6. Weinschenk (GC) 1:00.54

4x100-meter Relay

1 Greencastle 53.65; 2. North Putnam 54.75; 3. Cloverdale 55.69; 4. South Putnam 56.92

4x400-meter Relay

1. South Putnam 4:24.49; 2. Greencastle 4:29.73; 3. North Putnam 4:37.14; 4. Cloverdale 4:46.10

4x800-Meter Run

1. South Putnam 11:07.21; 2. Greencastle 11:44.01; 3. North Putnam 12:14.34; 4. Cloverdale

High Jump

1. D. Cheatham (SP) 5-00.00; 2. White (GC) J5-00.00; 3. Plunkett (SP) 4-06.00; Miller (GC) 4-04.00; Hines (NP) NH; Rambis (NP) NH

Pole Vault

1. Atwood (CD) 9-03.00 R; 2. Clodfelter (NP) 9-00.00; Canfield (CD) 7-06.00; Carmichael (SP) 6-06.00

Long Jump

1. O'Neal (NP) 14-07.00; 2. Higgins 14-03.50; 3. Plamondon (CD) 13-11.00; 4. Mindiola (NP) 13-09.00; 5. L. Cheatham (SP) 13-03.00; 6. King (GC) 13-01.00

Shot Put

1. Stevens (GC) 34-04.75; 2; Millican (NP) 31-01.50; 3. Carmichael (SP) 29-05.00; 4. Scanland (GC) 26-01.00; 5. Evans (NP) 25-05.00; 7. Bishop (SP) 23-07.00; 8. Knight (CD) 17-08.50

Discus Throw

1. Worthington (CD) 91-03; 2. Carmichael (SP) 84-08; 3. Parent (NP) 76-08.50; 4. Scanland (GC) 60-07; 5. Bundy (NP) 69-04; 6. Rector (SP) 62-04; 7. Knight (CD) 44-04

Boys' Results

100-Meter Dash

1. Lowe (NP) 11.73; 2. Hensley (GC) 12.17; 3. Parker (SP) 12.23; 4. Warner (NP) 12.27; 5. Moghadam (CD) 12.44; 6. Hanks (GC) 12.47; 7. Thibodeau (SP) 12.57; 8. Spencer (CD) 12.67

200-meter Dash

1. Parker (SP) 24.74; 2. Bell (NP) 24,90; 3. Barker (NP) 24.97; 4. Hensley (GC) 25.04; 5. Spencer (CD) 25.40; 6. THibodeau (SP) 25.84; 7. Hanks (GC) 26.77; 8 Gervis (CD) 28.31

400-Meter Dash

1. Blundell (CD) 52.94; 2. Lewis (GC) 54.38; 3. Christy (NP) 55.38; 4. Parker (SP)56.04; 5. Everts (NP) 57.21;6. Johnson (CD) 57.98; 7. Matthews (GC) 1:00.18; 8. Shaffer (SP) 1:00.35

800-Meter Dash

1. Monnett (CD) 2:04.90; 2. Secrest (GC) 2:05.05; 3. Crawley (GC) 2:07.75;4. Vandermark (SP) 2:10.15; 5. Crossman (SP) 2:12.29; 6. Stevens (CD) 2:14.49; 7. Webster (NP) 2:26.74; 8. Duncan (NP) 2:33.08

1600-Meter

1. Freeman (SP) 4:42.41; 2. Vittetow (SP) 4:53.06; Pershing (GC) 4:55.49; 4. Wilson (GC) 5:01.20; 5. Duncan (NP) 5:21.99; 6. Culberson (NP) 5:40.80; 7. Monnett (CD) 5:46.81; 8. Maners (CD) 5:49.58

Discus Throw

1. Rhine (GC) 122-00; 2. Conlin (NP) 118-02; 3. Masters (SP) 117-06; 4. January (GC) 113-00; 5. Schnepp (SP) 103-10; 6. Radford (CD) 102-02.5; 7. Flannelly (NP) 99-05

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