East girls find right track on senior night

The upcoming Hoosier Hills Conference and sectional meets will be separate contests for girls and boys, and Tuesday night, the Columbus East girls had a chance to simulate one of those types of meets.

The Olympians prepared themselves well. They won 12 of the 15 contested events in a 99-23 senior-night win against Madison.

“It was the first time we’ve had just a girls meet, and I kind of liked to have this meet here so that we kind of see what’s going to happen at conference and sectional when it’s just girls and how quickly things turn around,” East coach Glen Brown said. “I think some of the girls found that out real quick.”

One of those girls was sophomore Amanda Pottorff. The sophomore was a distance-double winner for the Olympians, taking the 1,600 meters and the 3,200.

Pottorff ran a personal-best 6 minutes, 2.9 seconds in the 1,600. She came back about 40 minutes later to take the 3,200 in 13:39.8.

“It was a lot harder than usual, and I just knew I had to go for place moreso than my normal time,” Pottorff said. “It was really great just to be able to be there for the team. Last year, I was coming off an injury, so this year, coming back and being able to do that is something I won’t forget.”

Other individual winners for East were Elena Stoughton in the high jump (4 feet, 10 inches), Beyoncey Coleman-Turner in the shot put (34-7 1/2), Seena Greiwe in the discus (107-3), Kayla Gastineau in the 100 (13.2), Cortney VanLiew in the 400 (1:03.0), Lizzy Frazier in the 800 (2:41.1) and Taylor Smith in the 200 (29.0).

The Olympians swept the 4×800 (11:11.5), 4×100 (53.6) and 4×400 (4:28.6) relays.

“I was very pleased with all our performances,” Brown said. “We were very competitive, and we’re trying to get ready for the next two weeks.”

Madison’s Maddie Holland, the defending state champion in the pole vault, did not get to compete in that event because of unsafe pit conditions, but she did win the long jump (16-4 1/2) and 100 hurdles (16.1) to lead the Cubs.

The meet was the last one on East’s current track. The school is putting in a new surface this summer.