Bedford North Lawrence, Mitchell, Orleans girls shine at track sectional in Seymour

SEYMOUR — The performance of the area track and field teams were marked by sinewy Steele and a lot more tensile toughness Tuesday night at the Seymour Girls Track Sectional.

Cousins Lindley Steele of Bedford North Lawrence, who won the 200-meter dash in a school-record time, and Ayla Steele of Orleans advanced to next week's Bloomington North Regional, while Autumn Hall of BNL claimed the championship of the discus, teammate Grace Tanksley was second in the 3,200 meter run and Kaylin Ritz advanced in the pole vault.

Mitchell's Brooke Reynolds punched her regional ticket by placing third in the 300 meter low hurdles, while Orleans' Allison Hughett placed third in the 800 to move on individually, and she was joined by Ayla Steele, Tessa Price and Kinsley Hagemeier on the 4x800 relay team that advanced by finishing second.

It adds up to what will be an ample representation for local squads at Tuesday's regional.

BNL had some key performers out with illness, including head coach Jim Lewis, or the Stars would've had a very serious shot at winning the team title. Seymour defended its home turf, however, with 124.83 points to BNL's 93, with Eastern Pekin third at 77.33, Springs Valley fourth with 65.83, Brownstown fifth at 63 and Jennings County sixth at 92.

The rest of the field included Paoli (51), Salem (22), Orleans 21, Crothersville (20), Trinity Lutheran (13) and Mitchell (11).

"I think we did really well under the circumstances," said BNL co-head coach Brett Deckard. "We had a couple of key kids out, including one who would've likely helped our 4x100 relay win or get second, and she probably would've been third in the long jump, and probably top three in the 400.

"We still need to get our numbers up with the girls, but they're getting better and better, and they did a nice job tonight."

BNL's Steele sets new record

Lindley Steele had a tremendous sectional meet capped by her new school record of 26.34 seconds while winning the 200-meter dash by over a second in front of Eastern Pekin's Elizabeth Trueblood (27.42) and Jennings County's Rachael Manning (27.64), with Springs Valley's Kennedy Land (28.09) fourth and BNL's Ellie Anderson (28.68) fifth.

Steele's time eclipsed the second-oldest record in the BNL books as she got under the previous mark of 26.48 set by Amy Walker in 1988.

"Yay, I'm so excited about that record," Steele said upon learning her official time. "I didn't run the 200 much early on because I was doing the 4 x 400 (along with the 100, long jump and 4 x 100), but ever since I started it I've had a goal of breaking the record.

"I really like the 200. I may have found a niche."

Starting in the Lane 4, Steele started making up the stagger fairly quickly and blasted off the turn, almost as if she'd hit a turbo button and left the others behind.

"I try to to push it some early so I can get as good a start as possible, and then I really kick it at about the 150-meter mark," Steele said. "I'm not sure if that's what I'm supposed to do, but it seems to work okay."

She sprinted a 12.89 in the 100 to finish just behind Eastern Pekin's McKenna Jeter (12.74) and just ahead of Land (13.25).

"I lose to her every time," Steele said of Jeter. "It's happened for four years. I'm okay with second and my time was pretty good."

Well, it happened again in the long jump as Jeter sailed 17-10½ while Steele went 16-8. BNL's Cora Brown finished fifth at 14-9½.

Those three finishes in her individual events, along with a sixth in the 4 x 100 relay, means Steele supplied 29 points to BNL's team total.

"I'd have to say its my best meet ever," she said. "Everything is settling in and coming together, and I'm ready to go to regional."

Hall heaves way to title

Hall, a senior, gave her usual nerve-wracking performance that made it rough on her father, BNL throwing coach Joe Hall, before uncorking a winning heave of 110-6 on her final throw to edge Springs Valley's Sarah Drabing (108-5).

"She waited until the last throw to get it," Joe said. "She's pretty good at that. That's how she set the Shawswick Middle School record, too, on her very last throw. But she gets there."

Autumn, who was also sixth in the shot put at 30-2, has a flair for the dramatic.

"I just like to keep everybody in suspense," she said with a wide smile. "No, I was getting a little nervous because the girl (Drabing) still had me by two inches. I just focused and tried to make sure it was a good throw.

"I'm okay with my throw, but I've thrown 118-7 this season (which ranks No.2 all-time at BNL), but it's gone down since then. I'd really like get the school record (120-6 set by Sarah Lambrecht in 2005), so I hope to get back to that 118 foot form for regional."

Tanksley ran a strong race in the 3,200, locking into the lead pack from start to finish. Seymour sophomore Vivienne Siefker used a long, powerful stride to pull away over the final two circuits to win in 11:56.97, with Tanksley runner-up at 12:13.23.

Ritz came through in the clutch in the pole vault when she cleared 7-6 on her final attempt at that height to grab third place and the final regional qualifying spot. Pekin's Trueblood won with a vault of 8-6. Brown was fourth for BNL at 7-0.

Senior Alessia Agostini had a strong meet, but tough luck as she finished fourth in both hurdles events to just miss moving on to the next meet.

Reynolds runs to regional

Mitchell's Reynolds, a surging sophomore, ran her way to regional by dashing to a personal-record of 51.98 to place third in the 300 meter low hurdles.

Paoli junior Krysten Fehribach dominated the 300s in 48.21 (she also won the 100 hurdles in 15.82 and high jump at 5-4) with Brownstown's Camryn Thompson second at 51.22, and Reynolds just behind in third.

"I hadn't been doing that well with my hurdles this year, but Dennis (Hardman, Mitchell assistant coach) kept pushing me and encouraging me, and my brother Nate (a state qualifier last year who is now at Hanover College) has been pushing me to be the very best I can be, sending me hurdles videos, and doing all he can to help me.

"He knew I could be better, and it all came together tonight. I'm proud of myself, and now I'm going to stride out and not stutter step because that's what I've been struggling with, but we've worked hard to get it better."

Hardman said Reynolds is peaking at the right time.

"This is a pretty nice surprise because 53 had been her best this year, and her best last year was 52, so she pumped up a little bit for sectional," he said. "Her brother Nate told her if she made it to regional he could make it up for her meet and see her run, so I know she was pretty motivated.

"But this is where you're supposed to PR, where you're supposed to do your best, and she came through. Brooke has worked hard and I'm really happy for her."

Sophomore Abby Deavers was seventh in the 3,200 in 14:19.58, while freshman Bella Morrow was ninth in the long jump with a PR of 13-7 for the Bluejackets.

Hughett delivers for Bulldogs

Hughett, a determined, tough-minded junior for Orleans, finished third in the 800 and further lowered her own school record with a time of 2:29.29. She was just in back of Seymour runner Brooke Trinkle (2:23.90) and Samantha Jacobi (2:27.42), while doing a great job of fending off Pekin's Ava Sowder (2:30.93) to earn the final regional qualifying position.

"I broke the school record again, so I'm pretty happy about that," Hughett said. "Those girls being in front of me got me going. It's the best competition I've seen all year, and when they passed me I knew I had to take it up a notch.

"I'm a little nervous for regional because I've never raced an individual event there before, just a relay, but I'll do my best and the experience will be great."

Hughett was elated for her 4 x 800 relay teammates as they ran a 10:57.94 to finish behind Seymour.

"I'm so proud of them because we haven't been together as a relay team that long, but everybody lowered their times tonight and we had a great race," Hughett said. "Ayla and Tessa are pretty new to this relay, and they just keep getting better. We have to push really hard in practice this week, and I'm going to tell them about the regional atmosphere because it's even bigger than this by quite a bit.

"We'll go up and do our best, take in the experience, and have some fun."

The Bloomington North Regional will start at 6 p.m., Tuesday.

Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: BNL, Mitchell, Orleans advance athletes at IHSAA girls track sectional