INDIANAPOLIS — When Columbus North track coach Lou Sipe asked his boys and girls who set a personal record in Friday night’s Conference Indiana meet at Southport, about 10 athletes raised their hands.
The Bull Dogs also walked away with three individual conference champions, including Sami Heathcote, who won the girls pole vault at 9 feet, 6 inches North also owned the high jump, with Jahna Smiley (5-0) and Preston Terrell (6-2) receiving first-place medals.
“It’s a testament to their hard work in practice,” Sipe said of his teams’ performances. “The attention to the little things that can allow them to better their performances. It’s nice to see them progress and see them go. Obviously, we’re heading in the right direction.”
Bloomington South’s boys won the title with 137 points, while Franklin Central outscored the Bull Dogs 111 1/2 to 106 1/2 for second. Bloomington North’s girls won with 150 points to 115 for Bloomington South, 110 for Perry Meridian, and 64 for Columbus North and Terre Haute South.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
The Bull Dog boys earned a couple second-place finishes with Brigham Kleinhenz in the pole vault (14-0) and Logan Abbott in the discus (155-10). Abbott also placed fourth in the shot put with a 48-6½ throw. Ben Malone earned third and fourth-place finishes in the 110-meter hurdles (15.97 seconds) and 300 hurdles (42.83). Damon Hunter Jr. tied for third in the 100 (11.66) and finsihed third in the 200 (23.0). Drew Thompson placed third in the 800 (2:01.28), and Charlie Allen was third in the 3,200 (9:43.02).
“I was very happy with our performances tonight,” Sipe said. “I thought we outperformed our seeds in a lot of events. Anytime you can do that, good things are going to happen. I was very proud of our kids tonight.”
Third-place finishers for the girls were Kennedy Cook in the 400 (1:05.07) and Olivia Morlok in the 3,200 (11:39.67). The 4×800 relay team of Morlok, Emma Smith, Kirsten Ballard and Aric Tong also placed third in 10:16.15.
The Bull Dogs are happy with their performance, but are already looking forward to getting better for the postseason.
“We are already preparing for our practice on Monday,” Smiley said. “We have (today) off, but we’re preparing. We’re going to do some box jumps. We already know what our next practices are going to look like … and we’re going to prepare for sectional already just to get ahead.”
