Mike McGraw
Hoosier Authority


Bloomington South made it a clean sweep in both girls and boys regional action by claiming the Bloomington North Boys Track Regional Thursday evening. To the extent that Track is a team sport, let the state be warned about the Panthers. They qualified 13 individual athletes and all three of their relay teams through to the state finals. Those finals, by the way, are held at I.U.

 
Of course, the real showdown was at Indianapolis North Central. At that location, Pike finished third, Lawrence Central fifth, Perry Meridian seventh and Southport 11th.  The Red Devils will be heard from in the finals. They qualified eight athletes and two relay teams to the meet. In Connersville, Columbus North finished sixth and Franklin Central was right behind in seventh.

 
Here is a rundown of each team in the conference and who they advanced to the state meet:

 
BLOOMINTON SOUTH

   Let’s start with the relay teams. The Panthers 4 X 100 ended third, the 4 X 400 was second, and the 4 X 800 was third. That is good enough to move all through to the state meet. The individual star of the night for South was Earnie Morris who qualified for the finals in THREE events. He won the 100 Meters, was second in the 200 Meters, and also turned in a second place performance in the Long Jump. He is joined by FOUR other double qualifiers. Scottie Alora won the Long Jump and placed second in the 400 Meters. Ben Stancombe won the Discus and finished third in the Shot Put. Taylor Dehan placed second in both the 110 and the 300 Meter Hurdles. Finally, Drake Volz won the High Jump but didn’t think that was high enough so he finished second in the Pole Vault as well. They are joined by Joe Holahan who placed second in the 800 Meters and Stephan Carter who won the Shot Put. HOLY COW!

 
BLOOMINGTON NORTH

   The Cougars qualified only one relay team but did it in strong fashion by winning the 4 X 800. They had a double qualifier in Max Tuttle who won both the 110 and 300 Meter Hurdles. Kenyon Byrd will join Tuttle at the finals by placing third in the 300 Meter version. Other athletes advancing for the Cougars include Tim Schoch who won the 800 Meters, and Andrew Buzzini who turned in a third place performance in the 3200 Meter Run.

 
PIKE

   The Red Devils placed second in the 4 X 100 and third in the 4 X 400 Relays. Individually, they advanced Keron Harding in both the 100 Meters and the Long Jump. Joining Harding will be Josh Lee who won the 400 Meters and finished fifth in the 200 Meters but qualified by bettering the standard, Craig Jordan who was third in the 800 Meters, Benyam Bizunen who won the 3200 Meter run, Cameron Lowry who was third in the Shot Put, and Alex Sanders who finished fourth but qualified on standard in the Discus.

 
LAWRENCE CENTRAL

   The Bears advanced four individual athletes. DeJuan Mitchell placed second in the 110 Meter Hurdles. The other three, in true Lawrence central fashion, go up instead of out. Geoff Davis won the High Jump, while both Zach Saunders and Bryan Gennett advanced in the Pole Vault.

 
SOUTHPORT

   The Cardinals advanced Nick Turner who placed second in the 200 Meters.

 
COLUMBUS NORTH

   Distance was the specialty for the Bull Dogs. They advanced their 4 X 800 Relay Team by ending second and John Pence with a third in the 3200 Meter run.

 
FRANKLIN CENTRAL

   The Flashes also liked the longer distances. They won the 4 X 800 Relay and Scott Lasiter was second in the 3200 Meter Run.