10 county athletes on to track regional

PLAINFIELD -- The night got off to a soggy start for the 2010 Plainfield Boys' Track Sectional and didn't improve much from there. Steady rains continued throughout the night, but the show went on and what a show it turned out to be.

Each county school will have an athlete making the journey to the Lafayette Jefferson Regional next Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Greencastle has three individuals and one relay bound for regional.

GHS senior Ryan Payne provided one of the best finishes on the night, winning the 110 meter hurdles in a time of 15.14. Payne got a bad start in the finals and found himself back in the pack. Halfway down the stretch, he dug in and powered his way to the front, only to stumble on the next to last hurdle. Once again, the powerful hurdler pushed hard, cleared the final hurdle and crossed the finish line ahead of Crawfordsville's Craig Fairley.

"I was thrilled that Ryan Payne got through," GHS head coach Mike Schimpf said. "Here's a guy that was DQd at the conference and it all just hadn't fallen together -- he's been great all year in the 200, the 4x100, 100, anywhere we put him, but the hurdles are probably his best event and he came through."

Also providing an impressive outcome for the Tiger Cubs was Jordan Hickam in the long jump. After the first set of trials, Hickam sat in first place and ended the night in second overall with a jump of 21-feet-2-inches.

Schimpf spoke about Hickam's jump and the conditions in which his senior pulled off his feat.

"You know, Jordan did great getting good jumps early and with the rain, who knows?" Schimpf commented. "His best jump in the first trials was 20-9, which was in first place and I know he had a jump of 21-2, so he had some good jumps today. Not quite where he wants to be yet, but Avon's a heck of a jumper and we know this -- it's no secret to us. We're happy he's moving on because he gets another day to jump and this wasn't an ideal day to be jumping."

Schimpf scratched Hickam out of the high jump in order to focus on Hickam's two strengths -- the long jump and the 4x100. The scratch afforded Michael Muncie the chance to jump and get some got sectional experience for a sophomore.

The Tiger Cubs had another underclassman step onto the sectional stage Thursday, as Mac Shuee filled in for Steven Miller in the 4x400 relay. Miller pushed himself so hard in the 200; he was unable to compete in the relay, giving Shuee the green light.

The GHS 400 relay team of Hickam, Miller, Payne and Trevor Teal torched the track, winning with a time of 43.66, a time that impressed their head coach.

"Those guys did great," Schimpf said. "A 43.66 with FAT timing -- that's pretty good. They have a shot next week. It's going to be a serious race and hopefully our seed time is good enough to put us in a position where we feel like we can compete -- I think we can compete with them. The guys have ran well all year."

Miller also won the 200 with a time of 23.48.

Schimpf also spoke of his fondness for his seniors and how much they've meant to the program. He talked about how senior David Cath, who was seeded fifth in the 300 hurdles and had a chance of advancing, chose instead to help out his teammates. Cath scratched himself from the hurdles event in order to help the 1,600 relay in an attempt to move on to regional

"That's what you want -- that was his idea, I didn't come up with that. David said, 'I was thinking that would help them. So, I said "You're willing to sacrifice yourself to help three other guys?" Yeah, I'm OK with scratching that event for you," Schimpf acknowledged.

At the end, Schimpf mentioned the level of competition his team faced this season and how each of them needs to remember the 2010 season as something special.

"This year, up to now, we were only beaten by 5A schools. That's a great year. Those guys should be proud of that. They really stepped up every meet," Schimpf said.

For the Cloverdale Clovers and head coach Andrew Tyler, Thursday offered up some good things and some surprising things.

Senior James Hinton, who qualified for state in the long jump last season, failed to move on in the event, but made his mark in the high jump. Tyler was impressed with how Hinton was able to rebound from the obvious torment of with his quest of returning to state in the long jump being dashed.

"I was really happy," Tyler said of Hinton's high jump effort. "Unfortunately, I don't know if it was the rain, but he scratched out all three jumps in the long jump. I know he was really motivated to go back to state in long jump, but it just wasn't meant to be. It comes down to how mentally strong he is. He was able to put that past him and concentrate on the high jump and get 6-feet-4. That's the highest he's gotten this year. I'm proud of him.

"That's pretty impressive to go from that big of an emotional drop that he's going to go through not making the long jump. To be able to come back from that -- I think that's impressive," Tyler added.

Also impressive was junior Jeff Couse. Couse was able to punch his ticket to regional in two events, the 100 dash (11.66) and the long jump (19-feet-9-inches). Even with his nice finished, Tyler expects to see Couse's numbers continue to fall.

"We just need to work on it a little bit. His times have been increasing here in the last month and a half or so, so we have to see what's going on there and get him back down in the low 11s. I think he'll have a shot," Tyler said.

Tyler mentioned the fact he had multiple runners finish fifth overall, just missing advancing to regional. His runners are giving him everything they have and that's what Tyler likes to see.

"Everybody's going out and putting forth their best effort and that's all you can really ask for," he said.

Tyler Shorter will represent North Putnam in two events at next Thursday's regional in Lafayette.

Shorter placed second in the 200 with a time of 23.45 and was third in the 100 after posting a time of 11.63, just edging out Couse from Cloverdale.

South Putnam's hopes of bringing home an individual regional title rest solely on the broad shoulders of senior Adam Masters. Masters will make the trek to regional after placing third in the discus with a throw of 148-feet-10-inches.

Head coach Carl Coons thought Masters' success early in the evening helped him achieve the end result.

"He got a couple good throws early and I think that helped him and his confidence. He's a senior and he did what he needed to do and that's all we can ask," Coon said.

Overall, Thursday played out much the same way the season had. The kids hit their seeds times for the most part, and with a bevy of young athletes, Coons hopes the best is yet to come.

"I thought it was about where were seeded," he said of the Eagles' night. "I think there were a couple of times that we did improve. We had two seniors run tonight, so that's going to help us next year with those other kids being over here. Just like the yearlong thing, I felt good about what the kids have done. I just feel positive about what they've done."

Advancing athletes will compete at the Lafayette Jefferson Regional Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

At Plainfield

Boys' Track Sectional

Brownsburg 114.5, Plainfield 100, Avon 89.5, Danville 57, Tri-West 54, Greencastle 50, Crawfordsville 39, Rockville 24, Western Boone 19, Southmont 16, North Putnam 15, South Putnam 10, Cascade 8

--Due to a technical error on the part of Plainfield High School. no team score for Cloverdale is listed.

Individual results (Putnam County only)

1,600 R -- 5. Greencastle (Cash, Eubank, Gillespie, Stevens) 8:44.71, 7. South Putnam (Arnold, Cavell, Hayes, Wilson) 9:12.59, 8. Cloverdale (Chambers, Grever, Nees, Rumley) 9:14.21

100 -- 3. Shorter NP 11.63, 4. Couse CHS 11.66, 12. Teal GHS 11.96, 17. Foreman CHS 12.22, 21. Dyson SP 12.73, 23. Waters SP 13.11

110 H -- 1. Payne GHS 15.14, 13. Lane CHS 17.41, 14. Zigler SP 17.55, 20. Geier SP 20.39

200 -- 2. Tyler NP 23.45, 3. Miller GHS 23.48, 16. Foreman CHS 24.34, 21. Waters SP 26.99

1,600 -- 8. Hudson GHS, 15. Arnold SP 5:02.85, 19. Nees CHS 5:41.73

400 R -- 1. Greencastle (Teal, Hickam, Miller, Payne) 43.66, 8. North Putnam Everts, Franklin, Shorter, Spencer) 46.20, 10. Cloverdale (Foreman, Hinton, Gray, Rossetti) 46.45, 12. South Putnam (Dyson, Gardner, Hayes, Waters) 50.12

400 -- 6. Haynes GHS 53.49, 7. Rumley CHS 53.79, 15. Hayes SP 56.55

300 H -- 5. Hinton CHS 41.90, 15. Grever CHS 45.92, 21. Zigler SP 49.67, 23. Geier SP 55.22

800 -- 10 Cash GHS 2:11.85, 11. Hudson GHS 2:13.09, 16. Cavell SP 2:20.48, 19. Dean CHS 2:32.43

3,200 -- 7. Bryan GHS 10:24, 10. Stevens GHS 10:44.65, 15. Arnold SP 11:17.36, 20. Worthington CHS 13:19.68

1,600 R -- 5. Greencastle (Shuee, Cath, Gillespie, Haynes) 3:40.84, 9. Cloverdale (Chambers, Rumley, Grever, Rossetti) 3:51.56, 11 South Putnam (Cavell, Gardner, Hayes, Waters) 3:58.24

LJ -- 2. Hickam GHS 21-2, 4. Couse CHS 19-9, 19. Hinton CHS 16-10, 21. Dyson SP 16-3.5, 22. Huber GHS 16-0.5

HJ -- 3. Hinton CHS 6-2, 7. Stuckwisch GHS 5-8

Disc -- 3. Masters SP 148-10, 5. Moore CHS 143-0, 9. Stodghill GHS 134-1, 18. Watson GHS 106-4

SP -- 7. Masters SP 43-4, 9. Moore CHS 41-5.5, 14. Guyer GHS 39-6, 20. Hesler GHS 37-7, 24. Jonte CHS 34-9.5

PV -- 12. Workman SP 9-6