Tiger Cubs set record in WCC victory

Saturday, May 15, 2010
Jordan Hickam receives the handoff from Steven Miller in Greencaslte's record breaking 400 relay race. The team of Hickam, Miller, Trevor Teal and Ryan Payne ran a 43.77 and broke the mark of 44-flat set by Edgewood back in 1988.

GREENCASTLE -- In track meets, the writing is often on the wall pretty early. A team establishes its dominance in the field events and early races, and pretty much cruises from there.

Friday night was not one of those nights. After trailing for much of the evening, the Greencastle boys' track team closed strong with good finishes in its last several events, ultimately salting it away with a win in the 1,600 relay. The Tiger Cubs bested Speedway 127-114 for the WCC title.

The team of Ryan Gillespie, David Cath, Steven Miller and Nate Haynes took to the track, knowing a win was necessary to ensure the team title. They delivered, taking the lead on the second lap and running a 3:36.23.

An overjoyed coach Mike Schimpf expressed his thoughts moments after the race's conclusion.

"Wow! They guys knew it was coming down to the 4X400. I started telling them while the high jump was still going on and before the 3,200 hundred happened. It looked like it was coming down to it," he said. "They just performed, and that's sweet when they're able to come through like that.

"You had three seniors on that 4X400 team and one sophomore," Schimpf continued. "The guys were able to rally. They'd been in some other events and they were kind of worn down. I'm proud of them."

The coach was impressed with the effort of Speedway and all the other conference teams.

"The meet was tighter than it was on paper. The other schools -- hats off to them -- they made a great run at us," Schimpf said. "Speedway about had us. Here in their last year being in our conference, they took a great shot and almost won it. Good for them."

The Tiger Cubs actually took all three relays on the night, with a meet record performance from the 400 relay squad.

Trevor Teal, Steven Miller, Jordan Hickam and Ryan Payne made their way around the South Putnam track in 43.77 seconds, breaking a meet record set by Edgewood in 1988. This came on the heels of their county meet record on Tuesday.

"A meet record in the 4X100 again," Schimpf said. "From just Tuesday they dropped their time. Pretty impressive times they're running. I hope we can keep it up and maintain it."

The 3,200 relay also got in the act, as Nathan Eubank, Cameron Cash, Ryan Stevens and Tyler Hudson won in a time of 8:44.65.

What might be most impressive about the Tiger Cubs' win is they did it with just one individual victory, a 2:05.04 by Cash in the 800.

He was backed up, though, by Gillespie's third-place finish. Similar strong showings included Miller and Payne in second and third in the 200, Hudson and Stevens in third and fourth in the 1,600 and then reversing it in the 3,200.

Hayden Stuckwisch and Jordan Hickam also provided a lift in the high jump, with Stuckwisch second and Hickam fourth

"Hayden Stuckwisch kind of took the torch there," Schimpf said. "I had a comment down for Jordan that maybe it was time to pass the torch on the high jump, and Stuckwisch got to get in there and clear 6 feet. That's pretty good for a freshman"

Other high finishers included Hickam second in the long jump, Caleb Stodghill second in the discus, Cath second in the 300 hurdles and Haynes third in the 400.

The individual star of the night had to be Cloverdale's James Hinton, who captured three individual events in leading the Clovers to a third-place finish with 70 points.

Hinton won the 300 hurdles (42.18), long jump (21-4) and high jump (6-2). The long jump was especially sweet for Hinton, after losing to Greencastle's Hickam at county.

"Hinton, kind of redeeming his loss at the Putnam County Meet, took long jump, got high jump and took the 300 hurdles," CHS Coach Andrew Tyler said.

The Clovers' other winner was Jeff Couse in the 100. Tyler said Couse also redeemed a county loss with his 11.62.

It was not a first-place finisher who most impressed the coach, though.

"Out of all the kids, I'm the most proud of Justin Grever. He took four seconds off of his 300 hurdle time. That's just such a huge improvement on a personal best," Tyler said.

The Clovers also started the meet well, as Devon Nees, Joe Rumley, Kyle Chambers and Grever broke their own school record with a 9:00.40 in the 3,200 relay.

CHS also got a third place from Couse in the long jump and an fourth from Jaquan Moore in the shot put.

"We performed well. I'm proud of them," Tyler said.

For North Putnam, the fifth-place finish wasn't marked by first-place finishes, but victories because of goals met.

"I thought we did a good job. We're kind of at some of our team goals tonight as far as where we could place as a team in conference and Tuesday where we could place in the county," Cougar Coach Jim Spencer said.

Tyler Shorter led the Cougars with a second place in the 100 and fourth place finishes in the 100 and long jump. Caleb Vondersaar was second in the 400.

They also had a nice second-place run from the 1,600 relay of Hank Spencer, Jacob Smerage, Kolten Everts and Vondersaar.

"We're getting a little better at everything," Jim Spencer said. "We're not quite the same league with the top two or three teams, but I thought we had some good individual performances and we're just trying to get better and get prepared for sectionals."

South Putnam placed sixth with 37 points, led by Adam Masters' winning discus throw of 130-4. The senior was also third in the shot put.

"We had some kids score some points for us and have some good performances," Coach Carl Coons said.

Ryan Zigler added a third place in the 110 hurdles. Shea Arnold came home fifth in the 3,200, but his improvement of 21 seconds over his previous best is what was really impressive about his race.

"I'm just pleased," Coons said. "I think the kids have responded well and done well. I can't ask anymore. They came out and did what they could."

The teams have six days to reload before heading to the Plainfield sectional next Thursday.

At South Putnam

2010 West Central Conference Meet

Boys Results

Greencastle 127, Speedway 114, Cloverdale 70, Monrovia 68, North Putnam 48, South Putnam 37, Cascade 29

Individual Results

3,200 R -- 1. GHS (Eubank, Cash, Hudson, Stevens) 8:44.65, 2. Speedway (Byrd, Kennison, Scott, Fisher) 8:55.70, 3. Cloverdale (Nees, Chambers, Rumley, Grever) 9:00.40, 4. South Putnam (Arnold, Cavell, Wilson, Hayes) 9:04.81, 5. Monrovia (Hildenbrand,NOwrouzi, Gemmecke, Skinner) 9:07.74

100 -- 1. Couse (CHS) 11.62, 2. Shorter (NP) 11.72, 3. Parks (M) 11.76, 4. Anderson (S) 11.92, 5. Hickam (GHS) 11.96, 6. Teal (GHS) 11.97, 7. Butler (CAS) 12.02, 8. Dillon (M) 12.09

110H -- 1. Charboneau (S) 17.29, 2. Speck (M) 17.66, 3. Zigler (SP) 17.96, 4. Lane (CHS) 18.12, 5. Rumley (CHS) 18.31, 6. Mason (NP) 18.99, 7. Ferguson (CAS) 19.19, 8. Jaggers (CAS) 20.59

200 -- 1. Rosebrough (S) 23.30, 2. Miller (GHS) 23.34, 3. Payne (GHS) 23.45, 4. Shorter (NP) 23.51, 5. Conner (M) 23.70, 6. Everts (NP) 23.80, 7. Parks (M) 23.90, 8. Butler (CAS) 24.27

1,600 -- 1. Earhart (CAS) 4:36.75, 2. Fisher (S) 4:37, 3. Hudson (GHS) 4:46, 4. Stevens (GHS) 4:56.07, 5. Arnold (SP) 5:09.52, 6. Osborn (NP) 5:13.35, 7. Spears (NP) 5:1.38, 8. Kalnajs (S) 5:19.07

400 R -- 1. GHS (Teal, Hickam, Miller, Payne) 43.77, 2. Monrovia (Parks, Dillon, Watson, Conner) 45.20, 3. North Putnam (Spencer, Franklin, Everts, Shorter) 45.33, 4. Speedway (Williams, Smith, Manion, Anderson) 47.10, 5. Cascade (Stout, Randolph, Bulter, Burkhart) 47.49, 6. South Putnam (Waters, Hayes, Dyson, Gardner) 49.43

400 -- 2. Rosebrough (S) 50.91, 2. Vondersaar (NP) 53.64, 3. Haynes (GHS) 53.74, 4. Sichting (M) 54.31, 5. Rumley (CHS) 54.65, 6. Fite (M) 55.31, 7. Randolph (CAS) 56.21, 8. Hayes (SP) 56.30, 9. Jenkins (S) 56.44, 10. Bonebrake (GHS) 57.04, 11. Chambers (CHS) 58.55, 12. Gipson (CAS) 1:01.82

300 H -- 1. Hinton (CHS) 42.18, 2. Cath (GHS) 43.11, 3. Charboneau (S) 44.36, 4. Grever (CHS) 44.86, 5. Speck (M) 44.98, 6. Mason (NP) 46.59, 7. Ferguson (CAS) 46.85, 8. Shuee (GHS) 47.75, 9. Reed (NP) 48.98, 10. Zigler (SP) 49.42, 11. Carpenter (M) 50.10, 12. Otte (S) 51.10, 13. Swinehart (CAS) 51.56, 14. Geier (SP) 53.25

800 -- 1. Cash (GHS) 2:05.04, 2. Byrd (S) 2:06.97, 3. Gillespie (GHS) 2:07.64, 4. Hildenbrand (M) 2:13.59, 5. Earhart (CAS) 2:14.16, 6. Cavell (SP) 2:14.28, 7. Gemmecke (M) 2:15, 8. Dean (CHS) 2:23

3,200 -- 1. Fisher (S) 10:14.47, 2. Musson (CAS) 10:25.34, 3. Stevens (GHS) 10:41.76, 4. Hudson (GHS) 10:45.28, 5. Arnold (SP) 10:47.21, 6. Kennison (S) 10:52.44, 7. Nowrouzi (M) 11:10.55, 8. Skinner (M) 11:13

1,600 R -- GHS (Gillespie, Miller, Cath, Haynes) 3:36.23, 2. North Putnam (Spencer, Everts, Smerage, Vondersaar) 3:39.63, 3. Speedway (Jenkins, Eggert, Hunter, Rosebrough) 3:41.20, 4. Monrovia (Sichting, Speck, Clements, Fite) 3:42.85, 5. Cloverdale (Chambers, Law, Grever, Rumley) 3:49.94, 6. South Putnam (Waters, Cavell, Gardner, Hayes) 3:50.74, Cascade (Randolph, Swinehart, Stout, Gipson) 3:57.02

Long jump -- 1. Hinton (CHS) 21-4, 2. Hickam (GHS) 20-5, 3. Couse (CHS) 20-5, 4. Shorter (NP) 10-10.5, 5. Conner (M) 19-2, 6. Watson (M) 18-7, 7. Franklin (NP) 18-3

High jump -- 1. Hinton (CHS) 6-2, 2. Stuchwisch (GHS) 6, 3. Rosebrough (S) 5-10, 3. Hickam (GHS) 5-10, 5. Sichtin (M) 5-8, 6. Adams (NP) 5-8, 7. Watson (M) 5-8, 8. Hunter (S) 5-8, 9. Butler (CAS) 5-6

Discus -- 1. Masters (SP) 130-4, 2. Stodghill (GHS) 126-05, 3. Settles (CAS) 118-1, 4. Faulkenberg (M) 115-6, 5. Spencer (NP) 111-7, 6. Vondersaar (NP) 109, 7. Blackburn (CAS) 104-11

Shot put -- 1. Faulkenberg (M) 49, 2. Schall (S) 46-3.5, 3. Masters (SP) 44-11, 4. Moore (CHS) 43-10.5, 5. Bryan (NP) 43-7, 6. Settles (CAS) 39-9.5, 7. Duncan (GHS) 39-3

Pole vault -- 1. Judkins (S) 11, 2. Clements (M) 10-6, 3. Lamb (S) 10, 4. Workman (SP) 9-6, 5. Wilson (SP) 9, 6. Barger (GHS) 9