Vittetow, Matthews earn sectional wins

Cloverdale’s Tyler Kaeff (left) leads Terre Haute South’s Seth Hills midway through 300 hurdles. Hills nipped Kaeff in both hurdles events, but the Cloverdale runner is bound for the Bloomington North Regional to try and repeat his 2016 IHSAA State Finals appearance.

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More than a dozen local athletes bound for track regional

TERRE HAUTE – South Putnam’s Kieffer Vittetow and Greencastle’s J.T. Matthews captured individual titles on Thursday evening at the Terre Haute North boys’ track sectional.

Vittetow won the 1,600-meter run in a time of 4:33.31, while Matthews defended his high jump title with a best leap of 6-foot-3. Vittetow also qualified for the regional by placing second in the 3,200.

Jonah Sanders crosses the finish line in the anchor leg of the second-place South Putnam 4X400 relay team. Sanders and teammates Blake Clearwaters, Michael Cross and Austin Rumley will be back in action next Thursday at the Bloomington North Regional.

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The top three finishers in each sectional event are guaranteed to advance to Thursday’s Bloomington North Regional, and additional qualifiers may be added today according to the IHSAA’s complicated “Participant Standard” protocol. Other openings may arise as athletes qualifying in multiple events choose to narrow their list of events to focus on their best chances of qualifying for the state finals.

All Putnam County schools have at least one regional qualifier.

Those who earned regional trips on Thursday by placing in the top three were:

Dillion Binnion runs the first leg of the seventh-place North Putnam 4x400 relay team.

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• Cloverdale’s Tyler Kaeff, second in both the 110 high hurdles and the 300 low hurdles

• Cloverdale’s Drew Monnett, third in the 300 hurdles

• Greencastle’s Clayton Wilson, third in the 3,200

Jacob Meyer runs the second leg of Greencastle’s 10th-place 4x400 relay team.

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• South Putnam’s 4x400 relay team, which finished second (team composed of Blake Clearwaters, Michael Crossman, Austin Rumley and Jonah Sanders)

• Cloverdale's 4x400 relay team, which finished third (team composed of Drew Monnett, Elliot Williamson, Ryan Heavener, Tyler Kaeff)

• South Putnam’s 4x800 relay team, which finished third (team composed of Crossman, Karl Egold, Dru Bottorff and Rumley)

Kain Gregory

• North Putnam’s 4x100 relay team, which finished second (team composed of Gage Bell, Jordan Bean, Ethan Christy and Chris Murray)

Terre Haute South dominated the meet with 166 team points, more than doubling the total of runnerup West Vigo.

South Putnam was sixth with 53 points, while Cloverdale was seventh with 43, Greencastle was eighth with 37 and North Putnam was 11th with 18.

Cloverdale’s Kaeff, who qualified for the state finals last year in both hurdles events, was edged in both races by Terre Haute South senior Seth Hills. Hills won the 110 hurdles by .39 of a second and the 300 hurdles by .37 of a second.

Other multiple individual winners were Terre Haute South’s Brandon Peck (shot put and discus) and West Vigo’s Ethan Roach (100 and 200). Other titles were won by Terre Haute South’s Dylan Price in the 400, Thomas Haley in the 800 and Griffin Barger in the 3,200, Terre Haute North’s Ahmad Benford in the long jump, Clay City’s Kyle Wolf in the pole vault.

West Vigo won the 4x100 relay and Terre Haute South captured the 4x400 and 4x800 titles.

Team scores – Terre Haute South 166, West Vigo 70, Clay City 64, Terre Haute North 60, Sullivan 59, South Putnam 53, Cloverdale 43, Greencastle 37, South Vermillion 30, Northview 23, North Putnam 18, North Central 1.

4x800 relay – 1. Terre Haute South 8:15.48, 3. South Putnam (Michael Crossman, Karl Egold, Dru Bottorff, Austin Rumley) 8:40.84, 4. North Putnam (James Duncan, Jacob Scott, Zach Culberson, Caleb Duncan) 8:43.24, 7. Cloverdale (Raymond Bates, Elliot Williamson, Chad Stevens, Ryan Heavener) 9:32.40

110 hurdles prelims (top 8 to finals) – 9. Scott Proctor (NP) 18.31, 17. Jordan Pope (NP) 19.96, 18. Dalton Johnson (SP) 20.13, 20. Jack Hutcheson 21.03

110 hurdles finals – 1. Seth Hills (THS) 15.17, 2. Tyler Kaeff (Cl) 15.56, 7. Drew Monnett (Cl) 17.42

100 prelims (top 8 to finals) – 16. Evan Burton (G) 12.37, 18. Connor Cain (SP) 12.501, 19. Bradley Johnson (Cl) 12.507, 20. Jacob Smith (Cl) 12.80, 21. Johnathan Thibodeau (SP) 12.91

100 finals – 1. Ethan Roach (WV) 11.20, 7. Chris Murray (NP) 12.03

1,600 – 1. Kieffer Vittetow (SP) 4:33.31, 11. Nolan Maners (Cl) 5:18.53, 15. Kyle Young (NP) 5:27.61, 16. Tylan Jones (G) 5:28.06, 18. Rylan Hall (Cl) 5:35.34, 19. Adam Bonebrake (NP) 5:53.74

4x100 relay – 1. West Vigo 44.13, 2. North Putnam (Gage Bell, Jordan Bean, Ethan Christy, Chris Murray) 44.53, 8. South Putnam (Kain Gregory, Christian Zeffel, Johnathan Thibodeau, Connor Cain) 46.64

400 – 1. Dylan Price (THS) 50.90, 4. Michael Crossman (SP) 53.64, 6. Jacob Meyer (G) 55.20, 9. Elliot Williamson (Cl) 55.92, 16. John Huffman (NP) 59.19, 18. Michael King (G) 1:01.15

300 hurdles – 1. Seth Hills (THS) 39.64, 2. Tyler Kaeff (Cl) 40.99, 3. Drew Monnett (Cl) 42.12, 5. Jonah Sanders (SP) 42.33, 9. Jack Hutcheson (G) 45.06, 13. Scott Proctor (NP) 45.82, 16. Dalton Johnson (SP) 48.00, 18. Jordan Pope (NP) 48.31

800 – 1. Thomas Haley (THS) 1:59.70, 4. Austin Rumley (SP) 2:05.56, 6. Jacob Crawley (G) 2:09.59, 10. Chad Stevens (Cl) 2:12.90, 11. Caleb Duncan (NP) 2:12.97, 13. Karl Egold (SP) 2:14.35, 17. Brady Szczerbik (Cl) 2:23.06, 21. Tylan Jones (G) 2:37.31

200 prelims (top 8 to finals) – 9. Ethan Christy (NP) 24.46, 14. Connor Cain (SP) 25.22, 15. Kain Gregory (SP) 25.35, 18. Evan Burton (G) 25.93, 19. Jacob Smith (Cl) 25.98, 20. Bradley Johnson (Cl) 26.24

200 finals – 1. Ethan Roach (WV) 22.85

3,200 – 1. Griffin Barger (THS) 10:03.04, 2. Kieffer Vittetow (SP) 10:15.67, 3. Clayton Wilson (G) 10:24.21, 5. Ben Gellman (G) 1:42.81, 9. Logan Vandermark (SP) 11:03.88, 16. Nolan Maners (Cl) 12:10.49, 22. Grant Jarboe (NP) 13:31.11

4x400 relay – 1. Terre Haute South 3:26.97, 2. South Putnam (Blake Clearwaters, Michael Crossman, Austin Rumley, Jonah Sanders) 3:33.84, 3. Cloverdale (Drew Monnett, Elliot Williamson, Ryan Heavener, Tyler Kaeff) 3:38.31, 7. North Putnam (Dillion Binnion, Dylan Webster, Jacob Scott, Ethan Christy) 3:44.29, 10. Greencastle (Jack Hutcheson, Jacob Meyer, Jack Romer, Jacob Crawley) 3:52.52

Shot put – 1. Brandon Peck (THS) 55-4, 4. Elijah Williams (G) 46-0, 7. Carlie Capps (G) 43-7, 9. James Radford (Cl) 41-7, 13. Colin Adams (SP) 39-9, 17. Andrew Rude (NP) 39-5, 21. Kole Bemish (SP) 37-2, 22. Abel Bates (Cl) 34-10

Discus – 1. Brandon Peck (THS) 150-9, 6. Spencer Rhine (G) 126-3, 8. David Flannelly (NP) 121-4, 9. Dillion Binnion (NP) 117-10, 15. James Radford (Cl) 103-6, 16. Colin Adams (SP) 103-5, 18. Marcus Watson (G) 98-4, 19. Abel Bates (Cl) 96-6, 26. Kole Bemish (SP) 86-11

Long jump – 1. Ahmad Benford (THN) 20-8, 5. Kain Gregory (SP) 18-11.25, 11. Scott Proctor (NP) 18-0.25, 14. Christian Zeffel (SP) 16-11.75, 20. Michael King (G) 14-10.5

High jump – 1. J.T. Matthews (G) 6-3, 6. (tie) Kain Gregory (SP) 5-8, 15. Christian Zeffel (SP) 5-4

Pole vault – 1. Kyle Wolf (CC) 13-0, 2. Blake Willis (Cl) 12-0, 6. Jordan Berardi (Cl) 11-6, 8. Jack Romer (G) 10-6, 11. Craig Helmers (G) 9-6