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Make it 10 straight for Tiger Cubs
GREENCASTLE -- A decade is a long time. Most of the time, it's an era filled with ups and downs, but for the GHS girls track program, it's only been filled with success. The Tiger Cubs won the Putnam County Meet Tuesday, marking the 10th consecutive year to do so.
The Tiger Cubs tallied 10 wins on the night en route to their victory. North Putnam followed with three wins, Cloverdale recorded two, and South Putnam had one on the night.
Abby Coffin came through for the Tiger Cubs in the hurdle events, winning the 100 hurdles in a time of 17.70 and the 300 hurdles with a time of 51.57. Colleen Weatherford had a win on the night, winning the 800 in 2:23.81 and Kelsey Grzesiek won the 100 in a time of 14.20.
Brittany Girton edged out teammate Erika Davies in the 200 with a time of 28.78 and Laura English won the long jump with a distance of 15-8.5. Distance runner Kayla Cash outpaced the field to come away victorious in the 3,200 with a time of 12:47.56.
GHS also recorded wins in all three relay events. The team of Davies, English, Weatherford and Emily Gill won the 1,600 relay in 4:22.85, while Gill, Weatherford, Sara Culler and Ivonne Martinez captured the 3,200 in a time of 10:27.35. Paige Pickens, Girton, English and Grzesiek won the 400 relay in a time of 52.96.
Head coach Garry Anderson was pleased with the overall performance of his team on the night.
"We just don't look as sharp as we should," Anderson said. "I was very pleased with Abby Coffin. She had a fine night again; she's just, at the end of the season, turned it on like crazy. Brittany Girton had a real nice night, winning the 200 and doing well in the 100. Our relays -- that was good to have all three relays do well.
"Laura English had another good night. She's just so dependable. I was pleased to see these seniors could finish up as county champions. I'm happy for them for that," he added.
Even coming off its 10th straight county meet win, Anderson knows that his Greencastle team still needs to improve as the season comes to a close.
"We just have to get better to do better things down the road. I think we will get better," Anderson said.
The North Putnam Cougars received a lift in the form of two freshman throwers.
Katie Welch took the discus with a distance of 92-even, while Sam Jordan won the shot put with a toss of 35-5. The Cougars' third win of the evening came in the 1,600, where Paxton Stephenson won with a time of 5:51.28.
Following the meet, North Putnam head coach Kevin Lutes noted the efforts of the three winners and commented about the direction of the Cougars' program.
"For of freshmen throwers, to win shot put and discus, was just amazing," a thrilled Lutes commented. "We were hoping they would do well, but that was good. They were excited. Then we had Paxton Stephenson win the mile, with Katie Douglas coming in second. Katie's a freshman and Paxton is a junior, and Paxton didn't get to run last year, so she ran a really smart race. She was kind of tired during the two-mile, but second place is a great place to be.
"I thought for us we had a really good meet. We had lots of seconds. In the long jump, Jasmine Mimms was second, our 400 relay was second, but we still can't compete with the depth of Greencastle. At least the program seems to be going in a good way," he said.
For Cloverdale, the season has been about a renewed mindset, one that has the team aiming for the loftiest of goals and head coach Susan Jordan believing there are headed in the right direction.
"I'm thrilled. I'm happy. We scored a lot more points this year, they worked really hard, I told them what I needed to have and we were looking for second. We knew we were a young team, we knew we didn't have the age and experience that Greencastle has, it will take us a couple of years, but I'm thrilled," Jordan said.
The Clovers received wins from Mariah Oetken in the 400 with a time of 1:04.15 and in the high jump with a height of 4-10. Oetken stayed with the pack in the 400 before ultimately outkicking the competition down the stretch.
As happy as she was with her team's wins, Jordan was also pleased with the team-minded effort her squad displayed on Tuesday at South Putnam. It a frame of mind that she knows is making a difference.
"My 400 runner did great, both of them did actually; Mariah Oetken and Kali Shadwick did fantastic," she said. "Mariah turned around and won the high jump too and had a good night. My distance runners picked it up. One of them ran the 3,200 sick. By the time she got to the 3,200, she was cramping so badly and she still got in and ran it. I can't ask for a better team. They did exactly what we needed.
"I know a lot of people think, 'you're cheering so hard about second'. Well, this is a big step for Cloverdale track. We're trying to turn it around and it's working," she added.
The host South Putnam Eagles' lone win of the night came in the pole vault, as Aisa Terry finished in first place with a height of 5-6. The team had a lot of personal bests on the night, but there's one aspect of the race head coach Kate Atkinson wants to see a difference and that's the mental side of things.
"Overall, I think they did well," Atkinson said. "We had some of our field events people had PRs tonight. Running events we had people with PRs. Overall, it wasn't our best night by any means. There's definitely some things we can walk away from tonight and feel very good about and feel good about going into Friday."
Atkinson went on to discuss further what she feels her team must do to get hold of a mental edge with some very big meets looming.
"I think some of it was mental toughness," she said. "I think there's some girls that need to work on running their race and not worry about who else is on the track with them. They start to overanalyze. There were a couple girls who had way too much time to themselves today and they tried to think about every aspect of the race, instead of just getting out there and running it
"They tried to almost over strategize instead of what just felt good and what they've done all year long. I think it's definitely a learning experience for them and hopefully Friday they can come out and think 'You know what, I'm not even going to think about it, I'm just going to run. I'm just going to do what I have to do,'" she concluded.
The teams will return to South Putnam Friday for the West Central Conference meet at 5 p.m.
At South Putnam
Girls Results
3,200 R -- 1. GHS (Gill, Martinez, Weatherford, Culler) 10:27.35, 2. Cloverdale (Monnett, Routh, Shadwick, Nally) 10:53.03, 3. South Putnam (Lund, Cox, Marsteller, Egold) 11:08.67, 4. North Putnam (High, Harbison, Salyers, Douglas) 12:30.21
100 H -- 1. Coffin (GHS) 17.70, 2. Gruener (CHS) 17.84, 3. Gray (CHS) 18.01, 4. Good (GHS) 20.11, 5. Mimms (NP) 20.20, 6. Cheatham (SP) 20.40
100 -- 1. Grzesiek (GHS) 14.20, 2. Tate (CHS) 14.23, 3. Farmer (SP) 14.36, 4. Girton (GHS) 14.38, 5. Christy (NP) 14.60, 6. Gray (CHS) 15, 7. Doolin (SP) 15.90, 8. Wolfe (NP) 16.90
1,600 -- 1. Stephenson (NP) 5:51.28, 2. Douglas (NP) 6:00.97. 3. Culler (GHS) 6:06.16, 4. Lund (SP) 6:09.47, 5. Routh (CHS) 6:18.13, 6. Fear (GHS) 6:30.43, 7. Martin (SP) 6:53.38, 8 Dean (CHS) 7:49.75
400 R -- 1. GHS (Grzesiek, Pickens, Girton, English) 52.96, 2. North Putnam (Stinson, Christy, Pinney, Mimms) 54.81, 3. Cloverdale (Tate, Sinks, Gruener, Gray) 54.98, 4. South Putnam (Doolin, Albers, McKinney, Farmer) 58.96
400 -- 1. Oetken (CHS) 1:04.15, 2. Davies (GHS) 1:04.65, 3. McGaughey (NP) 1:06.91, 4. Crawley (GHS) 1:08.32, 5. Shadwick (CHS) 1:08.51, 6. Masters (SP) 1:08.79, 7. Matthews (NP) 1:11.91, 8. Albers (SP) 1:14.76
300 H -- 1. Coffin (GHS) 51.57, 2. McCammon (CHS) 53.47, 3. Shrum (CHS) 54.60, 4. Cheatham (SP) 1:00.91, 5. Wolfe (NP) 1:05.47
800 -- 1. Weatherford (GHS) 2:23.81, 2. Nally (CHS) 2:32.56, 3. Egold (SP) 2:34.69, 4. Gill (GHS) 2:36.72, 5. Monnett (CHS) 2:46.65, 6. High (NP) 2:58.53, 6. Harbison (NP) 3:06.38
200 -- 1. Girton (GHS) 28.78, 2. Davies (GHS) 28.80, 3. Farmer (SP) 29.40, 4. Tate (CHS) 29.56, 5. Sinks (CHS) 29.71, 6. Stinson (NP) 29.99, 7. Mimms (NP) 30.62, 8. McKinney (SP) 33.62
3,200 -- 1. Cash (GHS) 12:47.56, 2. Stephenson (NP) 13:19.79, 3. Nally (CHS) 13:34.32, 4. Murtagh (GHS) 13:40.16, 5. Douglas (NP) 13:49.72, 6. Monnett (CHS) 13:51.37, 7. Cox (SP) 14:30, 8. Cline (SP) 19:10
1,600 R -- 1. Greencastle (Davies, English, Gill, Weatherford) 4:22.85, 2. Cloverdale (McCammon, Shrum, Oetken, Shadwick) 4:39.60, 3. South Putnam (Masters, Lund, Albers, Egold) 4:39.63
Long jump -- 1. English (GHS) 15-8.5, 2. Mimms (NP) 15-1, 3. Tate (CHS) 14-4.5, 4. Johnson (GHS) 13-11, 5. Cheatham (SP) 13-8, 6. Gruner (CHS) 13-6
High jump -- 1. Oetken (CHS) 4-10, 2. Coffin (GHS) 4-10, 3. Pickens (GHS) 4-8, 4. Shadwick (CHS) 4-6, 5. Cheatham (SP) 4-2, 5. Campbell (NP) 4-2, 7. Welch (NP) 4-2
Discus -- 1. Welch (NP) 92, 2. Deer (GHS) 91-6, 3. Masters (SP) 91-1, 4. Searles (SP) 85, 5. Cooper (CHS) 75-8, 6. Preecs (NP) 75, 7. Amis (GHS) 69-8, 8. Woodworth (CHS) 64-4
Shot put -- 1. Lucas (NP) 35-5, 2. Hacker (SP) 31-8.5, 3. Amis (GHS) 31-3.5, 4. Pentruff (GHS) 30-10.5, 5. Searles (SP) 29.2.5, 6. McCammon (CHS) 27-9, 7. Gray (CHS) 24-9, 8. Denny (NP) 22-4
Pole vault -- 1. Terry (SP) 5-6, 2. Cherry (SP) 5-6