Staff Reports
NASHVILLE — When the results initially came out Brown County’s Talon Relays Saturday afternoon, Columbus North had won the girls team title, but fallen one point short of Terre Haute North for the boys championship.
A couple hours later, Columbus North had a sweep.
Thanks to an error on the meet’s scoring system that had not recorded a third-place finish in the boys pole vault, the seventh-ranked Bull Dogs were awarded six more points. That gave them 149 points to 144 for the Patriots.
“It was good to go over and win both,” North coach Rick Sluder said. “We even had some season-bests in the rough conditions. We were coming off Thursday still pumped up, but still kind of tired, and we ran off a little bit, but still did very well.”
The Talon Relays features mostly relay races, with a couple of individual events thrown in. In field events, places are determined by the combined efforts of two-person teams.
Columbus North’s Austin Pulkowski won the 3,200 meters in 9 minutes, 46.24 seconds. Matt Newell, Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff, Evan Carr and Clayton Guthrie took the 4×1600 relay in 17:48.82.
Tucker Smith combined with J.J. Montgomery to win the shot put (112 feet, 2 inches) and with David Sandusky to take the discus (278-10). Bryant Trinkle and Noah Abfall took the long jump (37-3 1/2).
Meanwhile, the Bull Dog girls cruised to victory with 174 points to 95 for runner-up Terre Haute North. Columbus North won 11 of the 16 events.
Sasha Goodlow won the 100 hurdles in 17.61 and teamed with Emma Long to take the high jump (9-8) and with Helena Ho, Natalie Ho and La’Monica Smith to capture the 4×100 relay (51.37). Emily Herndon teamed with Alivia Stienkoenig to win the shot (72-2) and with Moana Steele to take the discus (203-9). Bailey Miley and Mady Baker captured the pole vault (8-0).
Other winners for the Bull Dog girls were Mackenzie Barnett, Lily Baker, Brianna Newell and Julie Klaus in the 4×1600 relay (21:24.86); Alyssa Green, Nicole Meza Sanchez, Aric Tong and Sydney Morlok in the distance medley relay (13:29.72); Erin Rawlins, Ella Meek, Johnson and Helen Alderfer in the 4×400 relay (4:20.04); Alderfer, Smith, Helena Ho and Ava Collier in 4×200 relay (1:50.63) and Barnett, Newell, Jessica Meza and Baker in the 4×800 relay (9:55.90).
“Our girls performed really well up and down the lineup,” Sluder said. “We just have a really strong team, and we performed well top to bottom today.”
Brown County finished fourth in the boys meet with 72 points and fifth in the girls meet with 30 points. Cameron Fox, Ricky Stanley, Waylon Patrick and Chase Austin took second in the boys 4×400 relay (3:40.93).
The Eagles’ Natalie Suding and Tori Klaker finished second in the girls pole vault (8-0). Abby Fleetwood, Hadley Gradolf, Eme Koester and Madalyn Purlee were second in the 4×1600 relay (24:52.80).
