INDIANAPOLIS — Youth was served at Thursday night’s Warren Central boys track regional.
Two Columbus North freshmen and a Bull Dog sophomore won their events, and another North freshman finished second to punch their tickets to the May 31 Boys Track and Field State Finals.
For the second consecutive week, freshman Tucker Smith set the school record in the shot put. He threw 58 feet, 2 inches on his third throw and that was easily enough to win the competition.
“My warmups were very bad, so it was very surprising,” Smith said. “It was just coming out of my hand wrong. It took a load off getting a big throw.”
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Freshman Matt Newell and Reese-Kilbarger Stumpff went 1-2 in the 1,600 meters. Newell broke his own freshman record with a 4-minute, 26.43-second clocking.
“I knew that this race would probably end up more of a sprint at the end,” Newell said. “So over the race, I just tried to position myself, and whenever I felt them coming, I just sprinted all the way at the 200.”
Kilbarger-Stumpff, who was seeded only fifth coming in, finished second in 4:27.60.
“I was able to pinpoint what went not super-well last race, and I just applied that to this race,” Kilbarger-Stumpff said. “This race turned out very tactical, and I think that worked to my advantage.”
Sophomore Preston Terrell won the high jump at 6-6. For the second week in a row, he just missed at 6-7½, which would have been a school record.
Terrell bounced back after missing his first attempt at his opening height of 6-0.
“Even though I missed, I still had that positive attitude and still had that mindset of getting first and just kept that positive attitude all the way through,” Terrell said.
North juniors Collin Pruitt and Carson Littrell, along with Kilbarger-Stumpff and Newell finished second in the 4×800 relay in 8:03.76 to advance to state.
Meanwhile, Columbus East had one state qualifier. Senior Cody Horner finished third in the 100 in 10.95 seconds, equaling his personal-best.
“It’s awesome,” Horner said. “I was super nervous coming out here, but I just got in the groove and was able to just do what I do. It was just getting a good block start and making sure I was ready throughout the day. I got a good lift in this morning, and then it was just coming out here and making sure I was hydrated in this heat and was eating properly throughout the day.”
The Olympians finished fifth in the 4×400 relay, sixth in the 4×100 relay and eighth in the 4×800 relay. Owen Rupp took seventh in the 300 hurdles.
North’s Hunter Spalding and John Sluys just missed with a fourth-place finishes in the 400 and 3,200. David Spalding took eighth in the discus, Sam Horak was eighth in the 800 and the Bull Dogs finished seventh in the 4×100 relay.
