SEYMOUR — All that’s left on the docket is postseason competition.
Columbus East placed fourth and Jennings County finished last at the Hoosier Hills Conference boys track and field meet on Thursday at Seymour.
Floyd Central won the meet with 143 points, Jeffersonville were runners-up at 122 and New Albany finished third with 92. East (74), Bedford North Lawrence (53), Seymour (52), Madison (46) and Jennings (40) followed.
The lone HHC champion for the Olympians was Zach Clark. Clark’s heave of 49-feet, 8 ½-inches proved the furthest in the shot put.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Owen Rupp clocked 41.16 seconds to finish runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles, and Zarrien Johnson-Bey claimed second in the high jump with a clearance of 6-2 for East. Luke Poindexter was fifth for the high jump at 6-2.
Leaping 20-3, the Olympians’ Mark McDonald finished fourth in the long jump. Cody Horner and Lance Griewe placed fifth and sixth in the 100 with times of 11.48 and 11.50.
The 4×100 relay of Lance Griewe, Mark McDOnald, Cody Horner and Johnsonn-Bey was fifth in 45.18. Poindexter and Crase Bergman took fifth and sixth in the 400, with times of 52.97 and 53.05. The night concluded with a fourth place finish in the 4×400 relay (3:41.54) from Rupp, Tanner Hatton, Crase Bergman and Poindexter.
“There were spots where we did better than our seeds, and other spots where we didn’t compete to our potential,” East coach Scott Pherson said. “I think we got a little bit better overall. We are going to come out with a game plan for sectional. We had some bright spots, but we have some places we still need to work on going into sectional.”
Pherson said the lineup will change this upcoming week.
“We’re going to tweak the lineup a little bit,” he said. “The conference is what’s best for the team. Sectional, we’re going to try and look to get as many people out individually as possible. The kids have done such a great job competing as a team this year. We want to reward them a little bit with some individual success..”
Jennings coach Bill Ludwig wasn’t pleased with his team’s performance in Seymour.
“They didn’t do very well,” Ludwig said. “ From what I know, we had one season-best. If you don’t come prepared to compete in the conference meet, you deserve to be eighth place.”
The Panthers’ team of Ryan and Jason Gasper, Franklin Sanders and A.J. Siener were runners-up in the 4×800 relay to Jeffersonville with a time of 8:37.61. Carter Leak also got a second place for the Panthers, timing 10:00.88 in the 3,200.
Dylan Carney cleared 10-6 for fourth in the pole vault. In the discus, Blaich Blanton tossed 125-2 for fifth place.
Timing 4:49.17, Sanders earned a sixth-place finish in the 1,600. Isaiah Ertel, Jared Corya, Dalton Craig and Ryan Gasper were sixth in the 4×400 relay (3:41.63)
“We’re going to challenge them,” Ludwig said. “We’re better than what we showed tonight.”
