GHS track posts wins at Cloverdale

Friday, May 7, 2010
Brooke Gray and Paige Gruener of Cloverdale complete a succesful handoff during the 400 relay.

GREENCASTLE -- A vibrant, sunny day set the scene at Cloverdale High School for a preview of the West Central Conference boys' and girls' track and field meet. The host Clovers, along with Monrovia, Speedway and Greencastle, got a chance to look at future opposition on Thursday.

By the end of the day, as dusk set in, the visiting Tiger Cubs would walk away with a pair of wins in the four-way tussle. The girls won by thirty points over second place Cloverdale and the boys, locked into a tight race for most of the meet, used a strong result in the 3,200 meter run to get away from the pack and win by fourteen.

The day started off brightly for the Clover boys' team. The 3,200 meter relay team broke the Cloverdale school record, turning in a first place finish and nearly breaking the 9:00 mark, only off by .49. It wouldn't take long for the other three teams to catch up, as strong distance results from Greencastle, short sprints from Monrovia and good general results from Speedway tightened the race as the meet went on.

Greencastle's Ryan Payne powers through the hurdles during the 110 hurdles event.

By the finish of the 200 meter dash, there were six points separating the four teams, with the Tiger Cubs two ahead of the Clovers. The Clovers, in turn, were ahead of the Bulldogs by two points and the Bulldogs were ahead of the Sparkplugs by the same margin.

The 3,200-meter run finally bought the Tiger Cubs the needed breathing space to take the meet with Ryan Stevens, Tyler Hudson and Paul Bryan taking first, second and fifth respectively, a result not lost on Greencastle coach Mike Schimpf.

"It was a close meet tonight. There were a couple guys I was not wanting to use today, but I'm happy with the way we competed today," Schimpf said. "We did some shuffling today, which coach (Craig) Callahan did well."

"We had some good performances today. Ryan Payne in the 100 meter dash did well. Jordan Hickam, who was only jumping today, got beat by a half inch in the long jump. Stevens, Hudson and Bryan all did excellent in the 3,200," Schimpf added.

Cloverdale Coach Andy Tyler was also pleased with the performance on the day.

"We lost by 14, but we had a lot of hard workers today," Tyler said. "We had to switch some people around after some pulled muscles but a lot of people pulled their weight around today. They are doing what they are asked to do and I'm happy with the effort."

"The 3,200-meter relay team broke the school record today, which was just broken last year, by nine seconds," Tyler mentioned.

At the same time that the boys were locked in a heated contest, the girls' squads were being paced by Greencastle. The Tiger Cubs walked out with only four individual winners, but added two relay winners and a host of second, third and fourth place finishes to distance themselves from second-place Cloverdale. The Clovers grabbed three individual winners themselves and coach Susi Jordan was in good spirits afterwards.

"I'm very happy today, happy with second place with such a young team," Jordan said. "We have two seniors and are mainly freshmen and sophomores. This was only our second second place finish. We've won the rest of the meets."

"It's been a little bit of a struggle keeping the girls going from the middle school to the high school track team. I took the job after being at the middle school for the last nine years and got 11 of the 13 eighth graders to come back as freshmen. They're all hard workers and give 150 percent every time out," Jordan added.

"Nikki Routh had her best time in the 1600 meter run (6:07) and Mariah Oetken also ran a personal best in the 400 (1:02.672) and won the race. From where we were last year, where the team placed last in this meet to this year, where they placed second, is impressive and I'm happy with the work they've put in."

Greencastle coach Garry Anderson is still waiting on the full meet experience from his squad.

"We had a few kids out with injury, one who was ill and some in band and choir on a trip to Nashville. Still, we've yet to put a full meet together," Anderson said. "We'll be sharp in one event then not be in another event. We've got to put it together and I have confidence that we will. We had good 1,600 and 3,200-meter relays, a good 800-meter run and the field events were all good today."

As all the coaches gathered their thoughts, attention had to move to the next week, where the county and conference tournaments awaited.

"I've seen the seed times and the meet is ours to throw away and ours to win," Anderson put bluntly. "We've got to pull it all together, all work together and put the puzzle together. We will do it. It will happen."

"From here on, it's about improvement, pushing ourselves and getting personal bests," coach Tyler said. "There are a few guys I have high expectations for and they know who they are. As long as they give their best effort, I'll be happy with them at the end of the day. I won't say where we want to be because I'd hate to jinx us before the meet."

"We've improved all season," added coach Jordan. "We can't turn everything around in a year as we are still a work in progress. As long as the girls, at the end of the day, say that they gave it 100 percent, I'll be happy."

Coach Schimpf was concise in his words.

"It's exciting at this time of the year. We just need to stay healthy between now and then."

At Cloverdale

Girls Results

Team Scores

Greencastle 96, Cloverdale 66, Monrovia 33, Speedway 31

Individual Results

3200 Relay: 1. Greencastle 10:44, 2. Cloverdale 11:31

100 H: 1. Pumell (S) 15.88, 2. Gray (C) 17.26, 3. Gruener (C) 17.59, 4. Madison (M) 17.67, 5. Good (G) 18.0

100: 1. Paschal (S) 13.23, 2. Girton (G) 13.28, 3. C. Johnson (G) 13.46, 4. Tate (C) 13.55. 5. Sinks (C) 14.03

1600: 1. Culler (G) 5:57, 2. Fear (G) 5:58, 3. Routh (C) 6:07, 4. Gemmecke (M) 6:27, 5. Dwigins (G) 6:34

400 Relay: 1. Speedway 53.08, 2. Cloverdale 55.3, 3. Greencastle 58.65

400: 1. Oetken (C) 1:02.672, 2. Davies (G) 1:02.676, 3. Kenny (S) 1:08, 4. Shadwick (C) 1:08.49, 5.Humphreys (G) 1:09.77

300 H: 1. Shrum (C) 53.29, 2. McCammon (C) 53.80, 3. Good (G) 54.78, 4. Berger (G) 56.56, 5. Smith (S) 57.58

800: 1. Weatherford (G) 2:27, 2. Nally (C) 2:33, 3. Martinez (G) 2:35, 4. Monnett (C) 2:38.1, 5. Thompson (M) 2:38.46

200: 1. English (G) 27.515, 2. Gurton (G) 27.9, 3. Neiper (M) 28.55, 4. Paschal (S) 29.08, 5. Sinks (C) 29.214

3200: 1. Spear (M) 12:56, 2. Nally (C) 13:11, 3. Murtagh (G) 13:29, 4. Monnett (C) 13:53, 5. Scott (S) 13:59

1600 Relay: 1. Greencastle 4:18.08, 2. Monrovia 4:38, 3. Cloverdale 4:45.9

LJ: 1. English (G) 15'4", 2. Johnson (G) 14-5.5, 3. Paschal (S) 13-11, 4. Tate (C) 13-9.5", 5. Brackett (M) 12-10

HJ: 1. Oetken (C) 4-10, 2. Good (G) 4-8, 3. Pickens (G) 4'8", 4. Shadwick (C) 4-8, 5. Nenedjian (M) 4-6

D: 1. Frentz (M) 109-4, 2. Deer (G) 93-4, 3. McDonnell (S) 75-9, 4. Cooper (C) 74-5, 5. Amis (G) 72-2.5"

SP: 1. Frentz (M) 35'5½", 2. Amis (G) 32'6", 3. Pentruff (G) 30-1.5", 4. Shrador (G) 29-8, 5. Beck (M) 29-3.75

Boys Results

Team Scores

Greencastle 69, Cloverdale 55, Monrovia 52, Speedway 52

Individual Results

3200 Relay: 1. Cloverdale 9:00.49*, 2. Greencastle 9:03, 3. Speedway 9:27, 4. Monrovia 9:28

100 H: 1. Charboneau (S) 17.3, 2. Lane (C) 17.82, 3. Speck (M) 17.59, 4. Carpenter (M) 19.00, 5. Rumley (C) 20.04

100: 1. Payne (G) 11.15, 2. Couse (C) 11.21, 3. Parkis (M) 11.32, 4. Anderson (S) 11.68, 5. Teal (G) 12.01

1600: 1. Hudson (G) 4:52, 2. Byrd (S) 5:01, 3. Gillespie (G) 5:02, 4. Eubank (G) 5:17, 5. Kalnajs (S) 5:20

400 Relay: 1. Monrovia 45.43, 2. Speedway 46.3, 3. Cloverdale 46.50, 4. Greencastle 47.45

400: 1. Rosenbrough (S) 51.754, 2. Miller (G) 53.8, 3. Rumley (C) 54.23, 4. Cath (G) 54.9, 5. Sichting (M) 55.88

300 H: 1. Hinton (C) 43.33, 2. Charboneau (S) 45.9, 3. Speck (M) 46.019, 4. Shuee (G) 46.52, 5. Griever (C)

800: 1. Hudson (G) 2:09.64, 2. Byrd (S) 2:11.929, 3. Hildenbran (M) 2:15.54, 4. Eubank (G) 2:18.8, 5. Gemmecko (M) 2:22.45

200: 1. Conner (M) 23.516, 2. Parks (M) 23.55, 3. Anderson (S) 24.3, 4. Hanes (G) 24.43, 5. Eggert (S) 24.52

3200: 1. Stevens (G) 10:58, 2. Hudson (G) 11:11, 3. Kennison (S) 11:17, 4. Harusy (M) 11:29, 5. Bryan (G) 11:34.65

1600 Relay: 1. Greencastle 3:39, 2. Speedway 3:40, 3. Cloverdale 4:00

LJ: 1. Hinton (C) 20-8.5, 2. Hickam (G) 20-8, 3. Couse (C) 19-11, 4. Conner (M) 18-5, 5. Watson (M) 18-2

HJ: 1. Hinton (C) 6-2, 2. Watson (M) 6, 3. Hickam (G) 5-10, 4. Rosenbrough (S) 5-8, 5. Fife (M) 5-8

D: 1. Moore (C) 134, 2. Stodghill (G) 121-11, 3. Faulkenburg (M) 120-7, 4. Ridner (M) 113-10, 5. Jonte (C) 110-11

SP: 1. Schall (S) 45, 2. Moore (C) 43-6, 3. Faulkenburg (M) 41-8, 4. Ridner (M) 38-8.75, 5. Duncan (G) 36

Next meet -- Greencastle and Cloverdale will both compete in the Putnam County Meet Tuesday at South Putnam High School