Both the Jennings County boys and girls track and field teams ran away with first-place finishes Thursday in a three-way meet at Columbus East.
The Panthers girls team ended the day with seven first-place individual ribbons on the way to scoring 56 points. East was two points behind with 54, and Brownstown Central ended with 46.
The Jennings boys team edged Columbus East 67-66. Brownstown ended with 23.
The Panthers’ Amy Gasper won the girls 100-meter hurdles in 17.8 seconds while Ashley Heindel won the 1600 in 6:03. Denza Simpson crossed the finish line in 51.45 to win the 300 hurdles. Kayla Truesdell won the shot put throwing 37 feet, 2 inches.
The field event winners for Jennings were Alana Daeger, jumping 5 feet in the high jump and Alexis Harsh jumping 16-3 1/2 in the long jump. The Panthers won the 4×100 relay as well.
“I feel like we did a pretty good job,” Jennings girls coach Leah McLeod said. “There were some good things happening, especially on the distance front. Kids were dropping times like crazy and that’s been exciting to watch.”
Dalton Craig earned two of the Panthers’ six individual first-place finishes, taking the 1600 in 4:33 and the 800 in 2:07. Brooks Wathen won the 300 hurdles in 45.7 and Chase Ketcham won the 200 in 23.1. Isiah Ertel won the 110 hurdles in 16.9, and Carter Leak took the 3200 in 10:17.
“I thought we had a really good meet,” Jennings County boys coach Bill Ludwig said. “The distance crew, we had a lot of good depth there.”
T.C. O’Neal was a triple-event winner for the Olympians. His 22-2 leap in the long jump and 6-0 high jump earned him two first-place field-event ribbons. He also won the 400 in 51.2, and Kolby Mitchell took the 100 in 11.2.
“We had some really good times, and then we had some times and distances that were a little disappointing,” East boys coach David Miller said. “It was kind of up and down.”
Cortney VanLiew won the 400 for East girls in 1:03, while Lizzy Frazier’s 2:38 time in the 800 gave her a first-place finish. Seena Grewie won the discus by throwing 111-2.
“I thought Cortney VanLiew ran well today,” East girls coach Glen Brown said. “We’ll be okay. It’s mid season now, but things will go right.”
