Highlanders cruise to boys sectional crown

The Floyd Central Highlanders controlled the boys’ track sectional at Corydon Friday night, scoring a 67-point win over runner-up New Albany. North Harrison finished third in team scoring.
The teams had to return after getting in only four events the night before when heavy thunderstorms halted action.
Floyd Central put 53 points on the board in the field events. Andrew Slaton was first in the high jump, while Mitch Anderson and Kenny Alexander swept the pole vault. FC finished fourth in the long jump.
Steven Hnat won both throwing events. Hnat threw a personal best of the 181 feet, 7 inches in the discus and threw 58 feet, 2 inches in the shot put for first place.
‘I went 60 in the third round on a foul,’ Hnat said. ‘Getting it in my fingers gives me another two or three feet. I was happy with my positions. The energy here was pretty slow. Survive and move on is the game right now till we get to the state meet.
Lanesville’s Tom Richmer will also go to the regional in both throwing events, finishing fourth in the shot put with a throw of 46 feet, 9-1/2 inches and was third in the discus with 144 feet, 2 inches.
Corydon’s Shaun Walker finished second in the high jump and North Harrison’s Jason Harrell was third after being seeded first. Corydon’s Andrew Melton finished fourth. Pat Lasher of Corydon finished fourth in the pole vault.
In the long jump, North Harrison freshman flew Bryan Schroeder 21 feet, 1 inch. Corydon’s Brandon Wood was third, and Floyd’s James Renton finished fourth. North Harrison’s Ian Oehmann just missed a regional spot finishing fifth.
‘I thought maybe Ian (Oehmann) would get out,’ said North Harrison coach Dana Striegel. ‘I’m a little disappointed about that. He went up last year in the long jump. He only missed it by four inches, and he scratched on two over-20-foot jumps. He probably should have had third place.’
Floyd’s Zach Koetter finished second behind New Albany’s Jeffrey Lane in the 100-meter dash. Brandon Wood of Corydon was third, with South Central’s Russell Farris grabbing the fourth regional spot. Farris also qualified for the regional in the 200-meter dash. Brandon Wood and Floyd Central’s Doug Bostock and Brandon Johnson ran 2-3-4 in the 400-meter dash, with North Harrison freshman Alex Kleinke just missing in fifth.
Ryan Byrne’s first race, the 1,600-meter run, was a fast one. Byrne wasted no time getting out front and gained a sizable margin on the first lap. The North Harrison senior set a sectional record 4:24.49 for the four laps. Crawford’s Chris Humphrey just missed a regional spot in fifth.
‘No time wasted at all,’ Byrne said. ‘I just ran what I thought was my own pace. If the others had been out there with me, I’d still have run that time. I just wanted to go out at a 1:05 or 1:06 (on the first lap).’
In the 400-meter relay, North Harrison saw its race come crashing to an end as the squad missed an exchange zone and was disqualified.
‘They’ve been perfect all year long,’ Striegel said. ‘Rusty Hobble worked himself into that spot, so he was kind of mad. We were seeded second, and I think we could have got second pretty easily, but you’ve got to get it around the track.’
Byrne also won his second race in the 800 meters, with Floyd Central’s Matt Riley finishing second. The big surprise was Crawford County’s Chris Humphrey, who passed four runners on the last lap to finish fourth and get a chance to run at Edgewood tomorrow night.
‘I just stayed back like I did in conference and then took off on the last lap,’ Humphrey said. ‘(The inside lane) helped me a lot. It helped me to know what I had to do to get there. I can’t go out with Byrne. I wanted to hang with Craig Blackman from South Central.’
With Byrne having completed the 800-meter run only a few minutes before, Floyd Central’s Ben Draper took advantage with a dominating win in the 3,200-meter run. Draper won over Byrne by nearly 16 seconds with a time of 9:53.53. Floyd’s Mark Hamilton took third.
North Harrison also just missed a regional spot in the 1,600-meter relay, finishing fifth. Striegel said the big thing for the sectional was to just get runners advanced.
‘We don’t care about the score,’ he said. ‘We knew Ryan would get out in his events. He’s going to pick one probably. He just wanted to qualify (in the 3,200-meter run). He’ll make a decision on what he’s going to drop. He may run the mile for the state and the two-mile for the school. The two-mile is the only record he doesn’t have. He’s missed it twice by two seconds. It’s a 9:36 by Scott Robertson. Almost everybody has done a personal best today.’
Despite the sectional title, coach Lane Oxley said he wasn’t satisfied at his Highlander team’s performance.
‘I don’t think we performed what we needed to perform,’ he said. ‘We got beat in the 4×100, and we were favored. We thought we had two people to score in the long jump in the regional. One is not even going now.
‘Steven threw well. He threw 58-2, and he threw well in the discus. Andrew Slaton won the high jump. We did well in the hurdles. We did OK in the high jump. We got 1-2 but didn’t jump real well. It’s nice to win sectional but theoretically we should win. We’re one of the biggest schools here.’
Boys’ Scores – Floyd Central 169, New Albany 102, North Harrison 74, Borden 69, Corydon 64, South Central 45, Salem 38, Pekin Eastern 23, Crawford County 16, Lanesville 13, West Washington 2.
Boys’ Results (Top four to regional) – 100-meter Dash-1. Jeffrey Lane (NA) 11.36, 2. Zach Koetter (FC) 11.51, 3. Brandon Wood (Co) 11.57, 4. Russell Farris (SC) 11.76; 200-meter Dash-1. Jeffrey Lanes (NA) 22.93, 2. Zachary Sharp (NA) 23.07, 3. Michael Gilliam (PE) 23.15, 4. Russell Farris (SC) 23.63; 400-meter Dash-1. Zachary Sharp (NA) 49.77*, 2. Brandon Wood (Co) 51.31, 3. Doug Bostock (FC) 52.23, 4. Brandon Johnson (FC) 53.45; 800-meter Run-1. Ryan Byrne (NH) 2:03.54, 2. Matt Riley (FC) 2:06.59, 3. Jacob Keeton (PE) 2:07.71, 4. Chris Humphrey (CC) 2:09.78; 1,600-meter Run-1. Ryan Byrne (NH) 4:24.49*, 2. Brad Robertson (FC) 4:41.58, 3. Eric Schulz (NA) 4:46.26, 4. Craig Blackman (SC) 4:46.32; 3,200-meter Run-1. Ben Draper (FC) 9:53.53, 2. Ryan Byrne (NH) 10:09.44, 3. Eric Schulz (NA) 10:14.93, 4. Mark Hamilton (FC) 10:20.91; 110-meter Hurdles-1. Zach Koetter (FC) 15.26, 2. Daniel Hoskins (FC) 15.95, 3. Brad Coats (Bor) 15.97, 4. Clayton Welbourn (Bor) 16.70; 300-meter Hurdles-1. Brad Coats (Bor) 40.95, 2. Jacob Klapheke (NH) 41.13, 3. Zach Koetter (FC) 41.49, 4. Clayton Welbourn (Bor) 41.93; 400-meter Relay-1. New Albany 45.34, 2. Floyd Central 45.38, 3. Pekin Eastern 46.43, 4. Salem 47.30; 1,600-meter Relay-1. Corydon 3:37.98, 2. South Central 3:38.39, 3. Floyd Central 3:39.50, 4. Salem 3:42.93; 3,200-meter Relay-1. Floyd Central 8:30.74, 2. South Central 8:50.02, 3. Salem 8:59.18, 4. New Albany 9:06.75; High Jump-1. Andrew Slaton (FC) 6-2, 2. Shaun Walker (Co) 6-2, 3. Jason Harrell (NH) 6-1, 4. Adam Melton (Co) 5-10; Pole Vault -1. Mitch Anderson (FC) 12-6, 2. Kenny Alexander (FC) 10-6, 3. Isaac Stockrahm (Sa) 10-6, 4. Pat Lasher (Co) 10-0; Long Jump-1. Bryan Schroeder (NH) 21-1, 2. Clayton Welbourn (Bor) 20-5 1/4, 3. Brandon Wood (Co) 20-3 1/4, 4. James Renton (FC) 19-10; Shot put-1. Steven Hnat (FC) 58-2, 2. Joshua Wells (NA) 51-6 1/2, 3. Logan Chanley (Bor) 47-10, 4. Tom Richmer (Lnvll) 46-9 1/2; Discus-1. Steven Hnat (FC) 181-7, 2. Joshua Wells (NA) 150-2, 3. Tom Richmer (Lnvll) 144-2, 4. Logan Hedrick (Bor) 143-2 *Sectional Record