BLOOMINGTON — Adrienne Salemme and Preston Terrell took different routes to their Conference Indiana victories Friday night, but their result was the same.
Salemme, a junior, won the girls pole vault; and Terrell, a sophomore, took the boys high jump to lead Columbus North to third-place finishes in the conference meet at Bloomington North.
“It’s always exciting when you get conference champions,” North coach Lou Sipe said. “I’m really happy for those two individually. They work really hard, and I’m really pleased with those two performances.”
Bloomington North swept the team titles. The Cougar boys scored 144 1/3 points to 109 for Bloomington South and 83 1/3 for the Bull Dogs. Bloomington South’s girls racked up 155 points to 125 for Bloomington South and 84 for Columbus North.
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After clearing her opening height of 10 feet on her first try, Salemme had a little trouble with the wind and needed two tries to make 10-6. With Southport’s Kierstan Piatt having made 10-6 on her first attempt, Salemme needed to make 11-0 to win her first conference title.
But Salemme didn’t stop there. She made 11-3 on her first try to set a personal record.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” Salemme said. “I’ve been working toward this since the minute my season ended last year. I’ve been working toward making sure I am vaulting higher this year.”
Salemme had gone 11-0 and just missed at 11-3 in Tuesday’s tri meet at East Central. Friday, she nearly cleared 11-6 on her third and final attempt.
“It wasn’t my best,” Salemme said. “I’m a little tired. I definitely could have done better, I think, but I’m happy.”
Terrell, meanwhile, defended the high jump title he won as a freshman last year.
“That was my goal as a freshman coming in — I want to win conference all four years,” Terrell said. “I’m going to do anything I can to possibly get that.”
Friday, Terrell made 5-10, 6-0 and 6-2 on his first try and 6-4 on his second attempt to equal his personal best. Two other competitors made 6-4 on their third tries, and when none of the three could clear 6-6, Terrell was the winner.
“During the week, we were focused on knee drive and everything to get to 6-6,” Terrell said. “I guess I didn’t have it tonight, but I’m confident with the next meet.”
Tucker Smith finished second in the shot put (55-7 1/2) and third in the discus (141-8). Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff, Collin Pruitt, Matt Newell, Carson Littrell took second in the 4×800-meter relay (8 minutes, 14.48 seconds); and Giovani Alejandro, Hunter Spalding, Ben Malone and Daveed Jolley were second in the 4×100 relay (44.50). Finishing third for the Bull Dog boys were Terrell in the long jump (20-2 ½), Malone in the 110 hurdles (15.56), Felix Lawson in the 300 hurdles (43.38), Spalding in the 200 (23.55) and John Sluys in the 3,200 (9:40.60).
The North girls had second-place finishes from Emily Herndon in the shot (38-2) and Olivia Morlok in the 3,200 (11:30.89). Third-place individuals were Sami Heathcote in the pole vault (9-6), Emma Wetherald in the discus (116-2) and La’monica Smith in the 100 (12.92). Aric Tong, Kennedy Kerber, Mackenzie Barnett and Morlok took third in the 4×800 relay (9:57.67); and Carly Finke, Kylah Lawson, Helena Ho and La’monica Smith were third in the 4×100 relay (51.74).
“I thought we had some really good performances tonight,” Sipe said. “It’s a really good track conference, so to come out and have some performances that we did was very encouraging. Obviously, we have some things that we need to get better on as we look forward to getting into the tournament.”
