BEDFORD — Columbus East girls high jumper Elena Stoughton tied her season-best to become the Olympians only Hoosier Hills Conference champion on Tuesday.
Stoughton jumped 5 feet, 3 inches on her way to helping East score 52 team points, which was good enough for a sixth-place finish. Jennings County finished third with 97 3/4 points, and New Albany won the meet with 123.
“We were looking for a breakthrough, and she had kind of a minor breakthrough,” East coach Glen Brown said. “We’re hoping for a little bit more for the sectional next week.”
McKenna Downey finished second in the pole vault with a 9-0 leap. Sydney Wilson placed fourth in the 100 meters (13.19 seconds) and the 200 (27.55)
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The Olympians had 13 top-eight finishes, and Brown said Tuesday was the first big meet for the girls because of all of the early season cancelations that occurred.
“This is the first time we’ve been in any kind of situation like this, so I thought we did real well,” Brown said. “Having to come back from trials and finals and not having boys races inbetween, I thought we did really well.”
The Panthers had two individual conference champions. Alexis Harsh won the long jump with a 17-1 leap, and Kayla Truesdell took the discus with a 125-4.
“She didn’t throw as well as she did last week,” Jennings coach Leah McLeod said. “But again, there is a kid that, coming into next weekend, she’s got the state experience. She knows what she needs to do, and she is so competitive.”
Harsh also placed second in the 100 in 13.03. The other second-place finish for the Panthers came from Emma McPeek with a 5-0 high jump. Truesdell placed third in the shot put with a 36-7 throw, and Samantha Sproles’ 15-10 long jump earned another third place.
Jennings ended with 18 top-eight finishes. McLeod is confident that her team can build on the success they had in the conference to do well in the sectional.
“We have a couple tweaks that we need to do before next Tuesday, but I think we have a good shot to win the sectional,” McLeod said.
