NA lands another track title

New Albany dominated the girls’ track sectional at Corydon last Tuesday night, with Floyd Central second, just over 20 points behind. Corydon, Crawford County and North Harrison also advanced runners to the Bedford Regional.
In the field events, Borden’s Lindsey Cook broke the first of two sectional records with a throw of 139 feet, 4 inches in the discus, bettering Ryan Lamp’s 1997 mark by nearly three feet. North Harrison’s Angela Collard finished third, and Corydon’s Stannye Wolfe was fourth. Wolfe came back to finish second in the shot put, with Lanesville’s Erin Smith capturing fourth for regional. Crawford’s Anna Bush finished fifth, but will go to Bedford following a late dropout.
In the high jump, Corydon’s Kate Jones finished second to Borden’s Sarah Allen. Floyd Central’s Alex Wolfe placed third. North Harrison senior Clara Rickman was seeded first in the long jump but had to settle for second behind New Albany’s Kayla Hardin. Amber Gresham gave the Lady Cats two qualifiers in the event with third, and Corydon’s Jessi Rhodes grabbed the fourth spot, advancing to Bedford.
‘For some reason, I just couldn’t get them right,’ said Rickman, who managed just 15 feet, 5-1/4 inches. ‘I remeasured and remeasured and ran through and things weren’t coming up right. Everything was just off today.’
In the first of the running events, Floyd Central took a big lead at the start of the 3,200-meter relay. On the second leg, however, New Albany began to regain some of its lost ground. Crawford held a qualifying spot during the first two legs but then dropped to fifth. With three laps to go, New Albany took the front position and stretched the lead. Sydney Gholston made a final charge for Floyd in the last 100 meters, but Lyndsay Overton kept New Albany in front. Crawford finished one spot out of the regional in fifth.
Corydon’s Jessi Rhodes and Floyd’s Rachel Martinson were third and fourth, respectively, in the 100-meter dash. Martinson finished second in the 200 with teammate Alex Wolfe fourth. In the 400-meter relay, New Albany set a sectional record with a time of 50.86 seconds. Floyd Central finished second and Corydon third.
In the 100-meter hurdles, New Albany’s Whitney Hickman got the win with Floyd’s Angela Zipp second. It was Crawford’s Crystal Nale, however, that could be heard yelping, after the junior outleaned South Central’s Sarah Pease at the line for the fourth position and a spot at regional.
‘My trials went really good, so I went into it pretty confident,’ said a beaming Nale. ‘When I saw that Sarah was right there, I kicked it in. That was my goal tonight, whether I made regional or not. Regional was a goal, but I wanted to get Sarah. I’m real excited.’
In the 300-meter hurdles, Floyd’s Sydney Gholston got the win over Hickman by just 0.07 of a second, in a time of 49.30 seconds.
In the first of the individual long distance events, Floyd’s Andrea Trinkle, Pekin’s Angie Sells and South Central’s Sarah Pease got up front in the early lap of the 1,600 meters. Pease and Trinkle broke away from Sells, who faded, and New Albany’s Jenise Wehmiller moved up. On the last lap, Trinkle and Pease were only a step apart, but Wehmiller made a move down the stretch for second. Trinkle won, with Pease settling for third, barely holding off Corydon’s Chelsie Reed.
In the 800 meters a few minutes later, however, Trinkle and Overton both got a surprise. On the second lap, Pekin Eastern’s Kristie Vest came up to challenge both runners. Vest pushed by Overton and then challenged Trinkle. The front pair ran side by side until the last meter, when Trinkle made a lunge to take the win, only 0.04 of a second ahead of Vest.
In the last of the distance events, the 3,200 meters, Sarah Pease got the early lead, but later dropped to third behind Floyd Central’s Lisa Miville and Allison Laird. Angie Sells moved up to fourth after a sluggish start. Pease seemed to struggle with three laps to go, some 30 meters behind Laird, but later began to gain. There wasn’t enough time, however, as the South Central junior settled for third.
‘I just came here with higher expectations I guess,’ said Pease with tears in her eyes and her voice cracking. ‘It’s just really frustrating. I’m just going to have to refocus and think about next week.’
New Albany won the 1,600-meter relay by two seconds over Floyd, who almost got edged out by North Harrison. The Lady Cats just missed the second position by 0.09 of a second behind the Lady Highlanders. Corydon finished fourth for the last regional berth in the event.
‘That’s the best time we’ve run this year,’ said Lady Cat coach Traci Kerns of the team’s 4:17.42. ‘We haven’t run this relay team, but three times this year.
‘We haven’t beat Floyd yet. We thought we’d see how we’d do. Clara’s not really big on running the 400, but she does a really good job in it. With this team, we did really well.
‘We got Clara out in the long jump and relay, Amber in the 400, long jump and relay, and Angela (Collard) in the discus. It’s been pretty good. I’m happy. We did as well as I thought we could.’
Team Scores – New Albany 149.5, Floyd Central 129, Corydon 76, Borden 60.5, Salem 47.5, Eastern 44.5, North Harrison 43, Crawford County 40, South Central 23, Lanesville 9.
Girls’ Results (Top four to regional) – 100-meter Dash-1. Whitney Todd (NA) 12.91, 2. Kristen Roberts (NA) 13.23, 3. Jessi Rhodes (Co) 13.24, 4. Rachel Martinson (FC) 13.47; 200-meter Dash-1. Whitney Todd (NA) 26.72, 2. Rachel Martinson (FC) 27.42, 3. Dekota Johnson (NA) 28.64, 4. Alex Wolfe (FC) 29.14; 400-meter Dash-1. Kristie Vest (PE) 1:01.04, 2. Carissa Martin (NA) 1:02.50, 3. Sarah Nixon (NA) 1:02.93, 4. Amber Gresham (NH) 1:03.65; 800-meter Run-1. Andrea Trinkle (FC) 2:27.94, 2. Kristie Vest (PE) 2:27.98, 3. Lyndsay Overton (NA) 2:29.06, 4. Jenise Wehmiller (NA) 2:30.60; 1,600-meter Run-1. Andrea Trinkle (FC) 5:39.55, 2. Jenise Wehmiller (NA) 5:40.53, 3. Sarah Pease (SC) 5:41.29, 4. Chelsie Reed (Co) 5:41.37; 3,200-meter Run-1. Lisa Miville (FC) 11:48.30, 2. Allison Laird (FC) 12:07.47, 3. Sarah Pease (SC) 12:12.80, 4. Angie Sells (PE) 12:26.21; 100-meter Hurdles-1. Whitney Hickman (NA) 17.21, 2. Angela Zipp (FC) 17.62, 3. Natalie Riley (NA) 17.83, 4. Crystal Nale (CC) 18.29; 300-meter Hurdles-1. Sydney Gholston (FC) 49.30, 2. Whitney Hickman (NA) 49.37, 3. Cassie Winslow (Sa) 51.41, 4. Natalie Riley (NA) 51.92; 400-meter Relay-1. New Albany 50.86*, 2. Floyd Central 52.17, 3. Corydon 53.48, 4. Borden 55.65; 1,600-meter Relay-1. New Albany 4:15.07, 2. Floyd Central 4:17.33, 3. North Harrison 4:17.42, 4. Corydon 4:29.60; 3,200-meter Relay-1. New Albany 10:10.09, 2. Floyd Central 10:15.54, 3. Corydon 10:35.19, 4. Salem 10:39.52; High Jump-1. Sarah Allen (Bor) 5-0, 2. Kate Jones (Co) 5-0, 3. Alex Wolfe (FC) 4-10, 4. Lauren Morris (NA) 4-10; Long Jump-1. Kayla Hardin (NA) 15-10, 2. Clara Rickman (NH) 15-5-1/4, 3. Amber Gresham (NH) 15-4-1/2, 4. Jessi Rhodes (Co) 15-1; Shot Put-1. Lindsey Cook (Bor) 36-4, 2. Stannye Wolfe (Co) 34-7, 3. Sean Romero (Sa) 33-5, 4. Erin Smith (L) 32-5; Discus-1. Lindsey Cook (Bor) 139-4*, 2. Krystal Scott (PE) 107-8, 3. Angela Collard (NH) 99-9, 4. Stannye Wolfe (Co) 96-9
*Sectional Record