SEYMOUR — Columbus East and Jennings County were the only two teams left waiting in the rain for the final three field events to be scored well after all 16 events were completed at the Seymour boys track invitational on Tuesday night.
The Panthers and Olympians were taking turns leading the team scores throughout the entire meet, but it was East that took home the first-place trophy after all events were scored. The Olympians finished with 146½ points to Jennings County’s 134½, while Seymour finished fourth with 97 points.
“All of the plaques and trophy right here in my arms is due to the kids’ hard work,” East coach Scott Pherson said. “It was helpful to come out and get first and get second, get points. That’s what they knew they had to do. They had to get as many points as they could.”
Cody Horner did a solid job of trying to get as many points as he could by placing first in the 100-meter dash in 11.58 seconds and the 200 in 23.76. He also was on the 4×100 relay team with Lance Griewe, Mark McDonald and Zarrien Johnson-Bey that placed first in 46.08.
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“You wouldn’t believe it that that’s the kid’s first year running track,” Pherson said of Horner. “He works his butt off, man and it shows. He steadily gets better and better. His acceleration is incredible. He fires out of those blocks hard.”
The Olympians also picked up first-place finishes from Johnson-Bey in the high jump with a 6-2 leap and Crase Bergman in the 400 (53.44). Owen Rupp took the 300 hurdles in 42.85 and ran the leadoff leg in the winning 4×400 team that clocked a 3:37.06. Bergman, Tanner Hatton and Luke Poindexter were also members of that relay.
Second-place finishers for East were Zack Clark in the shot put (49 feet, 6 inches), Poindexter in the 400 (54.01) and Bergman in the 200 (23.95).
The award for the Outstanding Meet Performer was even closer than the track meet. Both Horner and Jennings’ Dalton Craig of Jennings won two individual events, plus a relay. Craig, however, also was on the Panthers 4×400 team that placed third and that allowed him to walk away with the award.
Craig was on the 4×800 team, along with Franklin Sanders, Ryan Gasper and Jason Gasper that won in 8:49.48. Craig also won the 1,600 (4:47.85) and the 800 (2:07.42).
“We all had our jobs today, and my job was 800 the whole time,” Craig said. “I was supposed to win that, but our guys sort of fell off a little bit in the mile, which is completely fine. I just had to step up and win that one, so that’s the whole reason I even feel like I got this award. I just filled in where I needed to be.”
Blaich Blanton won the discus for Jennings with a 140-6 throw. Carter Leak took the 3,200 in 10:18.92.
Second-place finishes for the Panthers came from Dylan Carney in the pole vault (9-0) and Isaiah Ertel in the 110 hurdles (17.20) and 300 hurdles (43.25).
“Pretty much throughout all of the events, we performed pretty well, considering weather conditions” Jennings coach Bill Ludwig said. “We haven’t had a meet where we’ve hit on all cylinders and if we want to go after winning the sectional or something like that, we have to start doing that.”
