Track & field: Carmel girls defend state championship

HSE finishes fifth with two event wins; GC’s Smith is pole vault champ

By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com

INDIANAPOLIS – How did the Carmel girls track & field team defend its state championship?

The same way the Greyhounds won last season. Score any way they can.

“We need to get points everywhere,” said Carmel coach Aaron McRill as his team celebrated with the big trophy at the Friday, June 5 IHSAA state finals at North Central. “We don’t have one individual to get 30 points or anything.”

Instead, the Greyhounds used their familiar depth, anchored by their outstanding distance runners, and picked up some extra points here and there. At the end, Carmel had 49.5 points, enough to finish comfortably ahead of runner-up Bloomington South’s 35 points.

The Hounds started the meet with a record-setting win in the 4×800 relay. Annabel Pollert, Sadie Foley, Kaitlyn Oshimura and Larkin Taylor set a new state mark in that race by finishing in a time of 8 minutes, 49.46 seconds.

Foley and Taylor finished 2-3 in the 1600 run (4:49.51 and 4:51.47 respectively), then Oshimura and Taylor placed third (2:10.69) and sixth (2:11.22) respectively in the 800 run.

Gabriela Grande Rosas, a senior, helped out with a fifth-place finish in the 400 dash (56.24). She also ran on the Greyhounds’ sixth-place 4×400 relay team, joining Molly Foley, Elise Maurer and Kalinda Lee (3:54.97).

“It feels amazing,” said Grande Rosas. “We’ve just been strong with all of our athletes. It’s definitely a team effort. We had people in discus, we had people in [pole] vault this year, and they really helped contribute points to our team score.”

Kate Hammond tied for seventh in the pole vault (11 feet, 3 inches) and Ellie Cooley took eighth in the discus (138 feet, 7 inches).

Hamilton Southeastern’s Anissa Lammie won the 400 dash
and was part of the Royals’ victorious 4×400 relay team. (Mike Navarro)

Fifth place, two wins for HSE

Hamilton Southeastern earned another top-five team finish, scoring 28 points to place fifth.

The Royals won two events. Anissa Lammie cruised to victory in the 400 dash with a time of 54.32 seconds. Lammie finished the meet by joining Cianna Cunningham, Kaleah McCarter and Chloe Senefeld to win the 4×400 relay, an event HSE was first in last year. The Royals won this year in 3:47.29.

“One of the girls on our team [Senefeld] is a senior, so it was just really special, and we’ve all worked so hard for this and we really deserve it,” said Lammie. “We just wanted to go out there and give it our best shot.”

Senefeld finished second in the 300 hurdles in a time of 42.19 seconds.

Hamilton Heights represented itself well, with two podium finishes. Junior Norah Reiger led the way with a second-place finish in the 400 dash. Her time in that race was 55.25 seconds.

Reiger picked up another medal as part of the Huskies’ 4×400 relay team. She joined Gracie Bortone, Reagan Van Kirk and Waverly Woolever for a seventh-place finish (3:55.54).

“I thought it was pretty good,” said Reiger. “Definitely more than what we expected coming in as one of the smallest schools here. And then our [relay] team being able to get on the podium, it was great, it was cool.”

Guerin Catholic’s Amelia Smith won the pole vault, clearing 13 feet. (Mike Navarro)

Guerin Catholic’s Amelia Smith gave her school its first-ever track & field win by soaring to victory in the pole vault. Smith cleared 13 feet.

“I’ve just been super consistent with my training leading up to this,” said Smith. “I was confident in what I could do and I knew that coming in, 13 feet was probably the bar I’d have to clear.”

Zoe Travelsted tied for seventh in the pole vault (11 feet, 3 inches).

Westfield’s Ella Jenkins finished third in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet, 6 inches. She also won the Mental Attitude Award at the conclusion of the meet. Gracie Czubik placed seventh in the high jump (5 feet, 5 inches) and Jenna Rhodes finished eighth in the 300 hurdles (45.11 seconds).

Noblesville’s Ainsley Meinerding was a double medalist, taking seventh in the long jump (18 feet, 7.25 inches) and ninth in the 200 dash (25.31 seconds).

Fishers’ Devyn Day placed ninth in the 300 hurdles (45.19 seconds) and joined Kylee Black, Ava Underwood and Zinnia Pineda for an eighth-place finish in the 4×100 (48.18 seconds). Mia Tobias was ninth in the discus (136 feet, 2 inches).