PREP GIRLS TRACK: Five area schools advance athletes to state

May 23—GOSHEN — Concord was the top team finisher amongst Goshen News coverage area schools at the girls track regional Tuesday, placing fifth as a team with 38 points.

Culver Academies was the team champion with 61 points. Penn finished second with 57, Warsaw third with 56 and South Bend Adams fourth with 45.

The top three finishers in each event automatically advance to the state championship meet June 3 at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Concord will be represented in three events at state: pole vault, shot put and the 200-meter dash. The Minutemen had the regional champion in pole vault Tuesday, with senior Ryleigh Robinson winning with a height of 11 feet. She actually tied with Mishawaka senior Ana DeVries, but was declared the winner based on the judge's ruling.

"She's only going to get better," said Concord coach Jerry Redmond of Robinson in the pole vault. "She's still learning. She was surprised a little by her performance."

In shot put, senior Macie Swinehart broke the old regional record with a throw of 43-05.50 feet. Unfortunately for her, Whitko sophomore Gwen Howard also broke the 21-year-old regional record, throwing 45-01 feet to win the championship and leaving Swinehart to finish runner-up.

Both Robinson and Swinehart set new school records with their performances in those respective events.

The final advancer for Concord was freshman Allison DeFreese, taking second place in the 200-yard dash with a time of 26.03 seconds. She improved her positioning by three spots from the preliminaries, as she was the fifth-fastest time of the eight competitors going into the finals.

"She's a strong springer," said Redmond of DeFreese. "She doesn't have a good start out of the blocks, which we have to work on with her. But running the 100 trails, 200 trails and still getting second in the 200 finals proves she's a strong runner."

Redmond added, "All of these girls, it'll be their first times going to the state meet. So, that's the best part."

OTHER AREA TEAMS PRODUCE REGIONAL WINNERS

Northridge and NorthWood both produced relay champions, while Wawasee's Emma Yoder continued to impress in the discus Tuesday.

In the first race of the day, Northridge advanced by winning the 4X800-meter relay. The quartet of freshmen Hadley Troyer and Dakotah Moore and senior Tame Baylis and Haylee Hile posted a victorious time of 9:31.59, winning by more than five seconds over second-place Penn. That time was only 1.3 seconds off from the regional record.

The Raiders thought that was their only automatic advancer of the day, but after the meet, Penn's Mary Eubank was scratched from going to state in the 1,600-meter run. Therefore, since Northridge freshman Dakotah Moore will take her place at the state meet in the event.

NorthWood won the sprint relay, with sophomore Anna Roeder, senior Megan Mikel, junior Hannah Chupp and sophomore Elayna Yoder combining to post a winning time of 49.38 seconds in the 4X100-meter relay. The Panthers also advanced its 4X400-meter relay team to state, with senior Lisa Jackson, juniors Joslyn Miller and Lena Spiller and freshman Hanna Clyde taking third with a time of 4:04.64.

Yoder then kept doing what she's done all season: dominating the discus. The Wawasee junior, who finished third in the event at state last year, came within eight inches of setting a new regional record Tuesday with a throw of 156-01 feet. That distance was good enough to hit the "state standard" in the event and was 31 feet farther than the second-place finisher.

ELKHART ADVANCES TWO

A sprinter and a thrower are going to state from Elkhart.

Sophomore Ja'leiiya Williams took second place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.40 seconds, while junior Ava Decker was runner-up in the discus with a toss of 125-01 feet.

No other athletes from The Goshen News coverage area automatically advanced to the state meet, although some could potentially receive at-large selections based on their times. Notably, Goshen freshman Kristina Petkova was fourth in the 400-meter dash (58.39 seconds) and Clyde from NorthWood fourth in the 800-meter run (2:20.26).

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GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD REGIONAL AT GOSHEN — Automatic advancers to state and final team standings

(Top three in each event automatically advance to the state meet, which is Saturday, June 3 at Indiana University in Bloomington)

100-meter dash: Angel Thomas, South Bend Adams, 12.01 seconds; Ja'leiiya Williams, Elkhart, 12.40 seconds; Camryn Burner, Warsaw, 12.45 seconds

200-meter dash: Angel Thomas, South Bend Adams, 25.69 seconds; Allison DeFreese, Concord, 26.03 seconds; Federica Guiliani, Manchester, 26.07 seconds

400-meter dash: Quinn Bird, Culver Academies, 57.96 seconds; Aftin Griffin, Lewis Cass, 58.05 seconds; Terryah Leonard, South Bend Washington, 58.13 seconds

800-meter run: Julia Economou, Penn, 2:15.42 (new regional record); Josefina Rastrelli, Warsaw, 2:18.96; Felice Mullinax, Columbia City, 2:19.25

1,600-meter run: Mary Eubank, Penn, 5:01.40 (scratched afterwards, not going to state; Josefina Rastrelli, Warsaw, 5:04.21; Hannah Moore, Northwestern, 5:05.93; Dakotah Moore, Northridge, 5:16.21 (takes the place of Eubank at the state meet)

3,200-meter run: Mary Eubank, Penn, 11:00.12; Hannah Moore, Northwestern, 11:06.39; Ellie Stabnik, Penn, 11:07.40

100-meter hurdles: Adriana Swanson, South Bend Washington, 14.52 seconds (regional record); Kayla Douglas, South Bend Adams, 15.43 seconds; Liberty Scott, Lewis Cass, 15.64 seconds

300-meter hurdles: Adriana Swanson, South Bend Washington, 46.02 seconds; Ella Frick, South Bend St. Joseph, 46.29 seconds; Liberty Scott, Lewis Cass, 46.65 seconds

4X100-meter relay: NorthWood (Anna Roeder, Megan Mikel, Hannah Chupp and Elayna Yoder, 49.38 seconds); South Bend Adams (Sofia Frazee, Angel Thomas, Lynda Sangster and Isabella Soens, 50.05 seconds); Kokomo (Reanna Jones, Mia Castillo, Janae Young and A'Shontia Williams, 50.48 seconds)

4X400-meter relay: Warsaw (Ali Barkey, Madison Smalley, Mikayla Mimnaugh and Josefina Rastrelli, 4:03.60); Culver Academies (Brighton Bird, Grace Gibbs, Lena Spiller and Quinn Bird, 4:03.81); NorthWood (Lisa Jackson, Joslyn Miller, Sydney Prenkert and Hanna Clyde, 4:04.64)

4X800-meter relay: Northridge (Hadley Troyer, Dakotah Moore, Haylee Hile and Tame Baylis, 9:31.59); Penn (Morgan Collins, Aubrey Morgan, Arianna Ballinnang and Julia Economou, 9:36.86); Columbia City (Sanantha Lickey, Brooke Sigler, Alana Bonham and Felice Mullinax, 9:42.38)

Shot put: Gwen Howard, Whitko, 45-01 feet; Macie Swinehart, Concord, 43-05.50 feet; Kennedy Jackson, Culver Community, 40-02 feet

Discus throw: Emma Yoder, Wawasee, 156-01 feet; Ava Decker, Elkhart, 125-01 feet; Gwen Howard, Whitko, 121-07 feet

Long jump: Lena Spiller, Culver Academies, 17-11.50 feet; Makena Brooks, Eastern (Greenlawn), 17-05 feet; Emerson Harper, Whitko, 17-04.75 feet

High jump: Lena Spiller, Culver Academies, 5-03 feet; Ayla Jackson, Northwestern, 5-02 feet; Kayla Douglas, South Bend Adams, 5-02 feet

Pole vault: Ryleigh Robinson, Concord, 11-00 feet; Ana DeVries, Mishawaka, 11-00 feet; Elliana Transparenti, Warsaw, 10-09 feet

Final team standings:

1. Culver Academies, 61

2. Penn, 57

3. Warsaw, 56

4. South Bend Adams, 45

5. Concord, 38

6. Northwestern, 32

7. South Bend Washington, 31

8. NorthWood, 30

9. Northridge, 29

10. Whitko, 25

11. Elkhart, 23

12. Cass, 21

13. Columbia City, 21

14. South Bend St. Joseph, 17

15. Eastern (Greentown), 15

16. Wawasee, 14

17. Manchester, 14

18. Western, 14

19. Mishawaka, 12

20. Kokomo, 11

21. Culver Community, 10

22. Pioneer, 9

23. Goshen, 6

24. Maconaquah, 6

25. Triton, 5

26. Logansport, 5

27. Bremen, 5

28. North Miami, 4

29. LaVille, 4

30. Tippecanoe Valley, 3

31. South Bend Riley, 2

32. Plymouth, 2

33. Rochester, 1

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.