Greencastle captures 10th straight title

Saturday, May 15, 2010
Greencastle distance runner Kayla Cash paces herself during the 1,600 meters Friday. Cash won with a time of 5:44.25.

GREENCASTLE -- Dominance comes in many forms.

While the Greencastle girls' track team won its 10th straight WCC meet Tuesday night, besting second-place Cascade 149.5-114, they didn't do it by running away with every event.

Instead, the Lady Tiger Cubs' win was a true team effort. The ladies won three individual events, along with all three relays and a number of second, third, fourth and fifth-place finishes.

It was these less-heralded performances that really made the differences.

"Overall, a nice team effort. We won all three relays. That was very nice, very pleasing," GHS Coach Garry Anderson said. "The kids should be very happy, and I know they are."

Erika Davies won the 400 for GHS in 1:02.96, while Colleen Weatherford ran away with the 800 in 2:23.19. Kayla Cash added a victory in the 1,600 in 5:44.25.

The other point scorers really padded the final performance, though. Sara Culler followed Cash with a third place. Emily Gill was behind Weatherford for third in the 800.

"Weatherford had a real nice night. I was very pleased with her," Anderson said. "Emily Gill ran in the 800 as well as the 4X800 and 4X400 with Weatherford. One's a freshman and one's a sophomore. That's a good night."

The 3,200 relay team of Gill, Culler, Ivonne Martinez and Weatherford won in 10:19.04. The 400 relay of Kelsey Grzesiek, Paige Pickens, Brittany Girton and Laura English ran a 51.28.

The 1,600 relay of Davies, Gill, English and Weatherford concluded the meet with a 4:16.04.

"I just think all along, it just kept getting better and better," Anderson said.

For fans of distance events, the highlights of the night came from the battles between GHS's Cash and North Putnam's Paxton Stephenson. At Tuesday's county meet, Stephenson had claimed the 1,600, while Cash took the 3,200.

It was reversed Friday. Cash bested Stephenson by four seconds in the mile, but Stephenson took her revenge in the 2-mile.

With Cash leading after six laps, Stephenson overtook her at the start-finish line, and looked like she would cruise through the final two laps. In the final 200 meters, though, Cash made a mad dash for Stephenson, collapsing across the line just one second behind her.

"I thought Paxton ran just a perfect race there in the 2-mile," Cougar coach Kevin Lutes said. "She made a strong move there toward the end. The girl from Greencastle (Cash) ran a great race, too. In the mile, they had flip-flopped, so I know Paxton was really wanting the 2-mile."

"Kayla Cash never had run a double before in the 2-mile, and she won one and came in second in the other, and could have won it possibly," Anderson said.

Paxton led the Cougars to a third-place finish with 48.5, edging Monrovia by just a half point.

Stephenson's 12:23.49 won the 3,200, while she was second to Cash in the 1,600.

Other strong performances for the Cougars included Laura McGaughey's third place in the 400, Katie Douglas' fourth place in the 3,200 and a couple of nice tosses from freshman throwers.

"We had a freshman, Sam Lucas, who got second in the shot put," Lutes said. "She's just phenomenal. She's still learning how to get across the ring, and she's just doing a great job.

"We had another freshman in the discus -- I think she ended up third -- Katie Welch," he added.

He also highlighted how well his girls are doing and peaking at the right time of year.

"We had so many PRs tonight," Lutes said. "I just can't overemphasize to our girls how important that is -- not worrying about placing, just getting progressively better for each one of those. Just about everybody's hitting their PRs, which is right about where they need to be.

"Whether it's compared to anybody else, we're doing what we need to do. I'm happy with them," he concluded.

Cloverdale finishes tied for fifth at 45 points, with a pair of second-place finishes leading the way. Brooke Gray was second in the 100 hurdles, while Mariah Oetken was second in the 400.

Other nice finishes include Holly McCammon at third in the 300 hurdles, Oetken at fourth in the high jump and Miranda Tate third in the 100 and fifth in the 200.

Coach Susan Jordan was unavailable for comment after the race.

South Putnam placed seventh with 35 points. While they didn't have many high finishes, Coach Kate Atkinson said they all have things to be proud of.

"We had quite few PRs," she said. "Our 4X800 team knocked about 13 seconds off their best. Rachel (Egold) tied her PR. She ran a good, hard race. Leanna Masters tied her PR in the 400."

Egold was the Eagles' top finisher at second in the 900. Amanda Lund (1,600) and Kelsey Searles (discus) added fourth-place finishes.

"Even though it may not show with placings and things like that, we had some good showings, some very good confidence boosters," Atkinson said. "If anything, this just gives us a little bit more of a boost going into sectional next week."

Perhaps Anderson summed it up best for all the Putnam County schools as they look toward Tuesday's sectional, also at South Putnam. There will be some tough competition coming in, particularly from the east.

"It's gonna be rough. We got three big, tough schools in Plainfield, Brownsburg and Avon," Anderson said. "We're gonna fight for all we can do. We'll go out there and give 'em a fight. We'll run hard and throw hard and jump hard. I'm looking forward to it."

All four squads will be back in action at the South Putnam Sectional on Tuesday.

At South Putnam

Girls Results

2010 West Central Conference Meet

1. Greencastle 149.5, 2. Cascade 114, 3. North Putnam 48.5, 4. Monrovia 48, 5. Speedway 45, Cloverdale 45, 7. South Putnam 35

Individual Results

3,200 R -- 1. GHS (Weatherford, Gill, Culler, Martinez) 10:19.04, 2. South Putnam (Marsteller, Lund, Cox, Egold) 10:52.94, 3. Monrovia (Thompson, Brackett, Gemmecke, Spear) 11:21.37

100 -- 1. Reynolds (CAS) 12.71, 2. Grzesiek (GHS) 13.62, 3. Tate (CHS) 13.71, 4. Stewart (CAS) 13.78, 5. Girton (GHS) 13.88, 6. Paschall (S) 13.9, 7. Farmer (SP) 13.95, 8. Mason (M) 14.15

100 H -- 1. Burnell (S) 16.24, 2. Gray (CHS) 17.28, 3. Coffin (GHS) 17.42, 4. Chastain (CAS) 17.65, 5. Gruener (CHS) 17.82, 6. Miller (M) 18.35, 7. Knieper (M) 18.66, Mimms (NP) 20.89

200 -- 1. Burnell (S) 26.46, 2. Reynolds (CAS) 26.56, 3. English (GHS) 27.46, 4. Davies (GHS) 27.86, 5. Tate (CHS) 28.69, 6. Farmer (SP) 29.23, 7. Knieper (M) 29.26, 8. Sinks (CHS) 29.93

1,600 -- 1. Cash (GHS) 5:44.25, 2. Stephenson (NP) 5:48.96, 3. Culler (GHS) 5:57.27, 4. Lund (SP) 5:59.67, 5. Weatherman (CAS) 6:05.81, 6. Routh (CHS) 6:09.65, 7. Musson (CAS) 6:11.68, 8. High (NP) 6:34.74, 9. Martin (SP) 6:47.22

400 R -- 1. Greencastle (Grzeseik, Girton, Pickens, English) 51.82, 2. Speedway (Smith, Hay, Burnell, Paschall) 52.91, 3. Cascade (Stewart, Berlings, Reynolds, Chastain) 53.31, 4. North Putnam (Stinson, Christy, Pinney, Miimms) 54.57, 5. Cloverdale (Tate, Shrum, Gruener, Sinks) 55.58, 6. South Putnam (Doolin, Albers, Williams, Farmer) 57.48

400 -- 1. Davies (GHS) 1:02.96, 2. Oetken (CHS) 1;04.63, 3. McGaughey (NP) 1:05.16, 4. Buchanon (CAS) 1:07.23, 5. Melton (CAS) 1:07.43, 6. Crawley (GHS) 1:07.70, 7. Scott (M) 1:08.08, 8. Masters (SP) 1:08.75, 9. Matthews (NP) 1:09.08, 10. Luedeman (M) 11. Albers (SP) 1:13.25

300 H -- 1. Burnell (S) 47.31, 2. Coffin (GHS) 49.96, 3. McCammon (CHS) 53.55, 4. Chastain (CAS) 54.66, 5. Smith (S) 54.98, 6. Shrum (CHS) 55.21, 7. Barger (GHS) 55.38, 8. Miller (M) 55.45, 9. Cheatham (SP) 57.93, 10. Eckols (CAS) 1:00.24, 11. Robinson (1:01.27), 12. Wolfe (NP) 1:05.57

800 -- 1. Weatherford (GHS) 2:23.19, 2. Egold (SP) 2:30.10, 3. Gill (GHS) 2:30.60, 4. Melton (CAS) 2:37.81, 5. Monnett (CHS) 2:39.79, 6. Thompson (M) 2:40.28, 7. Weatherman (CAS) 2:41, 8. Nally (CHS) 2:42

3,200 -- 1. Stephenson (NP) 12:32.69, 2. Cash (GHS) 12:33.74, 3. Spear (M) 12:58.14, 4. Douglas (NP) 13:04.38, 5. Murtagh (GHS) 13:07.05, 6. Musson (CAS) 13:20.60, 7. Nally (CAS) 13:33.71, 8. Scott (S) 13:37.88

1,600 R -- 1. Greencastle (Davies, English, Gill, Weatherford) 4:16.94, 2. Cascade (Buchanon, Berlin, Stewart, Chastain) 4:25.97, 3. Monrovia (Thompson, Luedeman, Scott, Knieper) 4:36.92, 4. South Putnam (Masters, Lund, Albers, Egold) 4:37.75

Long jump -- 1. Reynolds (CAS) 16-6.5, 2. English (GHS) 15-6, 3. Grzesiek (GHS) 14-8, 4. Paschall (S) 14-7, 5. Mimms (NP) 14-7, 6. Tate (CHS) 14-5, 7. Mason (M) 14.05

High jump -- 1. Eckols (CAS) 5, 2. Coffin (GHS) 4-10, 3. Solik (CAS) 4-8, 4. Oetken (CHS) 4-8, 5. Sinks (CHS) 4-8, 6. Welch (NP) 4-6, 6. Pickens (GHS) 4-6, 8. Nenedjian (M) 4-4, 9. Marsteller (SP) 4-4, 10. Campbell (NP) 4-2, 11. Luedman (M) 4, 11. Cheatham (SP) 4

Discus -- 1. Fox (CAS) 100-9, 2. Frentz (M) 100-1, 3. Welch (NP) 96-7, 4. Searles (SP) 88-11, 5. Weatherman (CAS) 88-7, 6. Masters (SP) 85-3, 7. McDonnel (S) 77-4

Pole vault -- 1. Hansen (CAS) 9, 2. Bell (CAS) 8-6, 3. Miller (M) 8, 4. Stagner (M) 6-6, 5. Terry (SP) 5-6, 6. Cherry (SP) 5