A school record, two freshman school records and another near-miss on a school record resulted in three individual sectional champions for Columbus North in its boys track sectional Friday night.
Throw in a victory in the opening 4×800-meter relay, and the Bull Dogs had four sectional champions. That was enough to come away with a runner-up team finish with 118 points, trailing only Center Grove’s 167.
“It was a great night,” North coach Lou Sipe said. “A lot of hard work goes into the season, and then to have your best night here at the sectional and moving on (to regional), I’m really excited for them. I’m proud of the whole team.”
The meet began with some of the field events on Thursday, but after persistent lightning and a heavy downpour, it was suspended until Friday. When the running events began Friday, the Bull Dogs’s Collin Pruitt, Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff, Matt Newell and Carson Littrell raced to a win in the 4×800 in 8 minutes, 3.76 seconds.
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Newell, who ran a 1:59 split in the relay, came back about an hour later to win the 1,600 in a freshman school-record 4:27.56.
“I ran that 1:59 and felt pretty good after it, so I just put myself together after that an focused on the (1,600),” Newell said. “I got a bit worried there because on the third lap, I was about 16 meters behind the leader. But I made it all back up on the last lap.”
At the same time Newell was running the 1,600, sophomore Preston Terrell was narrowly missing 6 feet, 7 1/2 inches in the high jump. He already had won the competition with a personal-best leap of 6-6.
Terrell needed all three attempts to clear 6-4 1/2, but then made 6-6 on his first try.
“It was just incredible,” Terrell said. “My last four steps at 6-4 1/2 were kind of slow, and then when I went over to (high jump coach Rick) Sluder, he said, ‘Pick up the speed and become a sprinter,’ and that’s when I could get over with my height. I knew at some point, where it was sectional or regional, I was definitely getting 6-6, and I’m going to get 6-7 by the end of this year.”
Not to be outdone, North freshman Tucker Smith broke the school record in winning the shot put with a throw of 57-9 on his third attempt in the prelims. He also broke the old record with a 57-4 throw on his last throw in the finals.
“I started transferring (my weight), so at the end, instead of just planting my right foot and pushing, I switched it, so that took a lot of pressure of staying in the ring off,” Smith said. “Hopefully, I can hit 58 eventually.”
North’s Ben Malone also qualified for Thursday’s Warren Central Regional with a second-place finish in the 110 hurdles (15.46) and a third in the 200 (23.00). Hunter Spalding took second in the 400 (51.23), Kilbarger-Stumpff was third in the 1,600 (4:30.07), John Sluys finished third in the 3,200 (9:38.58) and the Bull Dogs took third in the 4×100 relay (43.66) to advance.
Meanwhile, Columbus East had a pair of sectional champions on its way to a fourth-place team finish with 62 points.
Sophomore Crase Bergman defended his sectional title in the long jump. He leaped 21-5 1/4 on Thursday before the severe weather hit, and that mark stood up through the competition.
“It’s really big,” Bergman said. “I just came in with some momentum today and just knew I had to beat that and defend the title.”
In the 100, the Olympians’ Cody Horner avenged a loss to Center Grove’s Gavin Matheson in last month’s North Invitational by winning in 11.09.
“The Center Grove kids, I ran against them in the North Invitational, and they’re super good competition,” Horner said. “Having them there and running against them definitely pushed me to go a little faster.”
East’s Owen Rupp finished third in the 300 hurdles (41.07), and the Olympians were third in the 4×400 relay (3:32.44) to qualify for regional.
Beyond the top three finishers in each event, the next-best four performances from the four sectionals feeding into the Warren Central Regional will be called up.
One of those athletes hoping for a call-up is Hauser’s John Bragg. Bragg finished fourth in the high jump (6-0) to lead the Jets to an 11th-place team finish with seven points.
