Saturday was the first outdoor track and field meet for Columbus East, but T.C. O’Neal and Beyoncey Coleman-Turner showed they were in midseason form.
O’Neal won three events, and Coleman-Turner won a pair for the Olympians. But unfortunately for East, powerhouse Bloomington South swept the boys (90-33) and girls (79-44) meets.
“This is the closest we’ve been to Bloomington South in several years,” East girls coach Glen Brown. “For the first meet, as cold as it was, we gave great effort and came to compete, and that’s what we wanted. Our training is starting to take over.”
Coleman-Turner and Seena Greiwe, both of which were state qualifiers in the discus last year, finished 1-2 in that event at 113 feet, 4 inches and 106-4. Coleman-Turner threw 35-5½ to win the shot put.
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The Olympians’ Ashley Allen leaped 16-0 to lead a 1-2-3 sweep in the long jump. She was followed by Kayla Gastineau (14-8½) and Natalie Glaid (13-0).
Cortney VanwLiew won the 400 meters in 1 minute, 2.9 seconds. Glaid, Sydnie Wilson, Yami Diaz and VanLiew took the 4×400 relay in 4:28.0.
Elena Stoughton in the high jump (4-8) and Becca Bryan in the 100 hurdles (17.7) finished second for East.
“The sprinters gave everything,” Brown said. “Bloomington South has great sprinters, and we got points there, which was great. Our high jumpers did well. Our throwers are starting off basically where they were last year, which is good. I was really pleased with all the girls that ran 400s because they were very anxious about running a 400, and they all did very well.”
Meanwhile, O’Neal captured all three of the victories for the East boys. He took the high jump (6-1), long jump (20-10) and 400 (52.1).
“That’s kind of what we expected,” East boys coach David Miller said. “We knew T.C. would compete in all three individual events that he does, and he stepped up like we knew he would. We have to get a couple other guys competing up to his level.”
Finishing second for the Olympians were Jared Clark in the discus (137-11), Jamon Hogan in the 100 (11.5), Isaac VanCuren in the 800 (2:09.7) and Cam Wilson in the 200 (23.8).
Miller was pleased with Caleb Pettit in the 4×800 relay and Hogan in the 4×400 relay after they stepped in at the last minute to replace sick or injured teammates.
“Bloomington South is always good, and it’s always good for us to run against a good team starting off,” Miller said.
