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Wilson paces county girls to track and field regional
Greencastle sophomore Emma Wilson leads a large contingent of Putnam County athletes heading to Bloomington North tonight for girls’ track and field regional competition.
Wilson won both the 1,600 and the 3,200 in last week’s Terre Haute North sectional and is seeking to make a return trip to the state finals in both events.
She won the 1,600 by a 10–second margin and dominated the 3,200 by more than a minute over the runnerup.
“She did what was needed and repeated as sectional champ in both the 1,600 and 3,200,” Greencastle coach Craig Jordan said. “She has a good chance to repeat as the regional champ in both the 1,600 and 3,200.”
Wilson has shown her versatility this year by competing in shorter races than normal for her, and still succeeding.
“She’s been consistent for us all year and has never been one to back down from a challenge,” Jordan said. “Earlier in the year she showed off some speed as she was on a winning 4x100 relay team and won the 400 for us.”
Wilson also ran a leg of the Tiger Cubs’ second–place 4x800 relay team, but will not compete in that event tonight.
“I look forward to seeing what she’ll do as she will be focusing solely on the 1,600 and 3,200 going forward,” Jordan said.
The 1,600 should be a closer race tonight than the 3,200, as the Bloomington North sectional champ had a time just three seconds slower than Wilson. The 3,200 should not be a contest, as Wilson’s unchallenged sectional performance was nearly a minute better than the best regional opponent tonight.
Here is a look at other competing athletes:
Cloverdale
Freshman Kenzie Stoltz will be competing in the pole vault for the Clovers.
“We just need for a couple of things to click and we have a shot to compete for third place,” Clover coach Andy Tyler said.
Greencastle
The Tiger Cubs will have the most local participants after their second–place finish in the Terre North Sectional.
Here are coach Jordan’s comments on the remaining participants:
Sydney Lewis: Pole Vault – second place @ sectionals @ 8–6
After breaking our school record in the pole vault and placing second at Conference last week Sydney came to sectionals with good confidence. She had a good performance but was short of her PR but I’m optimistic that Sydney can set another PR and find herself in the top three at regionals. On paper it looks as though there are 4-5 girls that cleared nine feet at sectionals (two cleared higher) who will be fighting for the third spot, so Sydney will need to be ready to pop a big one if she wants to get her ticket to state.
Mia Stevens: Shot Put – second place @ sectionals @ 34–11
Jada Amis: Shot Put – third place @ sectionals @ 34–3
Mia and Jada have performed well all season but found themselves short of a sectional title in the shot put. It is interesting to note that both have won sectionals in past years. They had great competition at sectionals with Terre Haute South’s thrower, who set a two–feet PR for herself to take the win by a little over four feet. I believe Mia and Jada will be fired up and ready to score some big points for the team at regionals.
Molly Eising, Mika Mozawa, Sydney Kallem and Katie Haynes: 4x800m Relay – second @ sectionals
Our goal at sectionals was simply to qualify out. With two girls on this relay that have never run track, I’m excited to think of what they’ll accomplish next year as they will all return. We will be switching up our line-up for regionals and substituting an alternate but we are shooting to set some new individual PRs for their splits.
Sydney Kallem: 1600 M Run – fourth @ sectionals in 5:51
Sydney has never run track before so for her to place fourth in the 1600 and the 3200 on top of being a part of our 4x800 at sectionals was amazing! She’s had a big load the last two weeks, so I’m hoping with us tapering down more she will be ready to pop a big one at regionals and find herself in the top six with a new 1,600 PR.
North Putnam
Cougar coach Kevin Lutes is happy to have sophomore Emily Gasho repeat her sectional title in the discus.
“We’re obviously thrilled to have Emily Gasho move on and to have our single win,” he said. “She’s got a lot of talent. We were so close to having Lyndi Parent move on as well, but she managed to PR anyway.
“We are so extremely proud of Lyndi and the rest of our seniors,” Lutes added. “They have been tremendous assets to our program over the years, and have helped lead us to one of our most successful seasons in a long while.”
The Cougars’ 4x100 relay team also found out on Monday it has been added to the regional field as a call back. Members of the team, which placed fifth in the sectional, are Sarah Fry, Hannah Sims, Aleah Duncan and Ashley O’Neal.
South Putnam
The Eagles also have several athletes moving on.
Coach Brandon Welti’s comments on them:
Aubrey Barker (Long Jump and High Jump) – Going into the sectional meet we knew she had a good shot at winning LJ and being top three at HJ. We scratched her out of the 100m/200m to focus solely on the jumps, and it worked out well. Going into the regional meet, we know qualifying for state is going to be difficult. Aubrey has a shot, and on a good day she could find herself in the top three for either jumping event.
4x800 relay (Chelsie Edwards, Ally Nichols, Alex Fanning, Lexi Vanihel) – We knew that to finish in the top three it was going to take a huge effort for all four runners. I really wanted them to be fresh for their individual events, so we went into this race with a goal of running in the 10:40s and finishing fourth or fifth to hopefully earn an at-large bid for regional. Lexi did a great job of getting the team off to a strong start, handing off in third. Alex held on to fourth, and Chelsie and Ally were able to just cruise to comfortably finish fourth. As hoped for, this was good enough to get one of the four at-large bids for regional.
Chelsie Edwards (400m) – Chelsie ran a controlled, but fast split in the 3200m relay before having to come back for the 400m an hour later. We knew that second was likely best case scenario, fourth was worst case. She has a tendency to get out a little too fast, but Chelsie did an excellent job of being a little more controlled in the middle of the race. This allowed her to stay strong in the final 100m and hold on to fourth. I think that with fresh legs, she’s capable of running closer to 61 or under. To get to state, she’s going to need to at least be sub 61. We may have to rethink our strategy for the relay/400 double, but I think on the right day in the right setting, Chelsie could run well enough to be top three at our regional.
Ally Nichols (800m) – We decided to put all of our eggs in the 800m basket with Ally. She was seeded third in the 1600m and second in the 800m, but we knew that the 1600m was not the path to state for her. Therefore, we had her take it easy in the 4x800 relay, scratched the 1600m, and then came up with three different plans for various scenarios in the 800m. About 150m into the race, we called the audible and went with what I guess was Plan C. She just tucked in and waited, biding her time until the last 200m. We knew that with this approach, her 400m speed was good enough to keep her top three and possibly win. Ally did a fantastic job of keeping on the shoulder of the leaders and waiting patiently to make her move. Once she turned on her kick with about 200m to go, I knew that she wasn’t going to lose. I’m really pleased with how well she executed the race plan, especially considering how she had to wait until the race was actually under way before deciding how she needed to race it. It’s kind of a slow year for our region, so qualifying for state is a good possibility for Ally in the 800m. If Ally can handle the pressure as calmly and coolly as she did at sectional, then qualifying for state is a serious possibility for her.
4x400 relay (Chelsie Edwards, Ally Nichols, Lois Cheatham, Lexi Vanihel) – This was an exciting one. Our big goal for this meet was for senior Lois Cheatham to qualify for regional in the 1600m relay. She been battling injuries since last track season, which is really difficult for us to deal with. Lois is the type of leader every coach wants to have on the team. She is always positive and encouraging to her teammates, and she is able to lead by example. She works her tail off in school and on the track. Everyone sincerely wants Lois to succeed because she’s such a great, hardworking individual. So her dealing with injuries is frustrating, simply because we all want her to be able to enjoy the type of success we think she deserves. Going into the sectional meet, the girls overall improved their relay time by six seconds to get third. I really can’t be more pleased with how this went. Looking at the regional meet, this relay team is seeded fifth. These girls love competing, specifically they love competing for each other. Regardless of how things go, I’m really happy with how well they’ve come together and battled all season long.
