Here’s an interesting trivia question: How many track and field teams have won a regional championship before ever winning a sectional championship?
Whatever the answer is, now Fishers can be added to the list. The Tigers won their first-ever post-season track and field title Thursday by claiming the Lafayette Jefferson regional. Fishers emerged out of a crowded field, scoring 90 points.
“I’m thrilled for them,” said Tigers coach Nathan Warnecke. “Great night.”
Athletes of all ages had a part in Fishers’ historic win. Senior Ethan Meyer had a part in three of the Tigers’ five event wins, starting with the 4×800 relay. Meyer joined senior Hunter Christy, junior Drew Smith and sophomore Jayden Castillo in placing first in that event.
Meyer later won the 1600 run, finishing over five seconds ahead of second place. Then in the 4×400 relay, Meyer joined senior H.L. Lewis, Castillo and freshmen Keefer Soehngen to win that race, beating out West Lafayette by a quarter of a second.
“I just want to help our team score as much as we can, because we knew it was going to be a close meet,” said Meyer.
Soehngen cruised to victory in the 400 dash. In the throwing events, junior Hayden Tobias won the shot put and also placed third in the discus, while his classmate Wyatt Puff was second in the discus and third in the shot put.
“It feels amazing,” said Tobias. “Putting in all that hard work. It feels great for it to finally pay off.”
All of the above athletes qualified for next Friday’s IHSAA state finals at Indiana University. The top three finishers in each event make it to state, and the Tigers totaled eight state qualifiers. A few others may receive callbacks to state as well.
“State’s a whole different animal,” said Warnecke. “Hopefully we get a few more callbacks and we’ll just go down there to Bloomington and do the best we can.”
Hamilton Southeastern finished fourth with 70 points. The Royals won three events and had top-three finishes in three more, giving them six state qualifiers.
Senior Noah Malone continued his post-season dominance. Malone won the 100 dash in a new regional record time of 10.61 seconds, beating the old record of Avon’s Issac Guerendo by .02 seconds. Malone also easily won the 200 dash. Senior Jacob Wiggers placed first in the 3200 run.
Also qualifying for state from Southeastern were sophomore Chris Stein in the 400 dash, sophomore Xan Cluff in the pole vault, and the 4×100 relay of team of freshman Stephen Sydnor, sophomore Gage Pratt, junior Caleb Durden and Malone. All of the above finished third in their respective events.
Carmel finished fifth as a team with 65.5 points. Junior Logan Sandlin picked up a win for the Greyhounds in the pole vault and also finished second in the 300 hurdles, qualifying for state in both events.
“It feels great,” said Sandlin. “It takes a lot of work in the pole vault just because it’s such a technical event. So to see everything come together in a big meet, it means a lot.”
Carmel had two other state qualifiers. Senior Pat Campbell was the runner-up in the 3200 run, and the 4×800 relay team of senior Drew Thornton, freshman Charlie Schuman and seniors Robert Kinney and Thomas Gastineau placed second as well.
Noblesville and Westfield both finished with 26 points. The Millers had three state qualifiers, all of whom where third in their events. Junior Shomari Rogers-Walton was part of two of those events, as he qualified in the long jump and as part of the 4×400 relay with juniors Shawn Kinslow and DeVontez Cox and senior Mitchell Conard. Sophomore Andrew Anderson qualified in the 800 run.
“It was a really fun race,” said Anderson. “I did what I wanted to do today and I’m looking forward to state next week.
The Shamrocks had one state qualifier, as its 4×800 relay team of junior Mahamat Djour, seniors Max Gutwein and Noah Douthit and junior David Mannella placed third.
Guerin Catholic senior Quinn Gallagher finished fourth in the 3200, but could receive a callback, as the distance runners from this regional are historically strong.
Hamilton Heights sophomore Bayden Lutz placed 10th in the pole vault, while Sheridan senior Nick Burnell tied for 11th in the high jump.
Team scores: Fishers 90, Harrison 81, Brownsburg 80, Hamilton Southeastern 70, Carmel 65.5, West Lafayette 53, Avon 36, Zionsville 29, Westfield 26, Noblesville 26, Lafayette Jefferson 12, Western Boone 10, Guerin Catholic 8, McCutcheon 7, Plainfield 6.5, Lebanon 6, North Vermillion 4.5, Fountain Central 4, Cascade 3, Southmont 2, Mooresville 2, Danville 1.5, Delphi 1.
4×800 relay: 1. Fishers (Ethan Meyer, Hunter Christy, Drew Smith, Jaylen Castillo) 7:56.22, 2. Carmel (Drew Thornton, Charlie Schuman, Robert Kinney, Thomas Gastineau) 7:56.63, 3. Westfield (Mahamat Djour, Max Gutwein, Noah Douthit, David Mannella) 7:58.63, 8. Southeastern (Alexander Brisben, Elliott Robinson, Jack Struss, Grant Wilson) 8:18.87, 9. Guerin Catholic (J.P. Spoonmore, Matthew Fletcher, Nicholas Schramm, Joseph Barrett) 8:22.62, 11. Noblesville (Nick Dombroski, Andrew Knight, Luke Shinneman, Seth Koszyk) 8:32.74.
100 dash – Finals: 1. Noah Malone (HSE) 10.61, new regional record, 8. Gage Pratt (HSE) 11.15, 9. Alex Kukura (W) 11.17. Preliminaries: 11. Macalister Smith (N) 11.35, 12. Donnovan Duffy (C) 11.39, 13. Jason Lassic (F) 11.50.
110 hurdles – Finals: 4. Jakob Pearson (C) 14.71, 5. Cooper Boehm (W) 14.82, 9. Brandon Teater (C) 15.44. Preliminaries: 10. Marcus Roux (F) 15.64, 13. Caleb Durden (HSE) 16.24.
200 dash – Finals: 1. Malone (HSE) 21.48, 4. Pratt (HSE) 22.23, 5. H.L. Lewis (F) 22.38, 7. Francis Agbo (W). Preliminaries: 10. Ethan Zhang (C) 22.83.
1600 run: 1. Meyer (F) 4:12.52, 4. Eric Carothers (HSE) 4:21.07, 8. Gastineau (C) 4:29.18, 9. Eric Swinson (HSE) 4:31.23, 10. Cam Harless (C) 4:34.06, 13. Blake Hipkiss (N) 4:40.72.
4×100 relay: 3. Southeastern (Stephen Sydnor, Pratt, Durden, Malone) 42.71, 4. Westfield (Kukura, Mario Chalmers, Mason Piening, Agbo) 42.77, 5. Fishers (Trenton Mabry, Lewis, Lassic, Cole Carrithers) 42.85, 11. Noblesville (Shomari Rogers-Walton, Shawn Kinslow, Smith, Mitchell Conard) 46.17.
400 dash: 1. Keefer Soehngen (F) 49.95, 3. Chris Stein (HSE) 51.24, 4. DeVontez Cox (N) 51.24, 5. Emilio Rios Rojas (HSE) 51.32.
300 hurdles: 2. Logan Sandlin (C) 39.17, 4. Calvin Grenda (W) 39.45, 5. Colton Parker (C) 39.62, 6. Billy Freudenthal (GC) 39.68, 12. Durden (HSE) 41.81.
800 run: 3. Andrew Anderson (N) 1:55.52, 5. Castillo (F) 1:56.51, 8. Eli Konow (C) 1:58.27, 11. Smith (F) 2:02.22, 12. Justin Amburgy (N) 2:02.33, 13. Bing Hudson (C) 2:02.38.
3200 run: 1. Jacob Wiggers (HSE) 9:19.13, 2. Pat Campbell (C) 9:21.68, 4. Quinn Gallagher (GC) 9:28.28, 7. Brady Jarosinski (HSE) 9:40.45, 9. Will Clark (F) 9:42.32, 10. Cole Kimmel (N) 9:44.62, 16. Travis Hickner (N) 10:53.82.
4×400 relay: 1. Fishers (Lewis, Meyer, Castillo, Soehngen) 3:19.91, 3. Noblesville (Rogers-Walton, Kinslow, Cox, Conard) 3:20.24, 4. Carmel (Owen Schafer, Thornton, Sandlin, Konow) 3:21.23, 8. Westfield (Grenda, Djour, Kukura, Mannella) 3:27.86, 10. Southeastern (Clayton Toner, Rios Rojas, Stein, Kyle Gomez) 3:28.84.
High jump: 6. Andrew Herman (N) 6-2, 9. Nicolas Love (N) 6-1, 10. Anthony Campbell (F) 6-0, T11. Nick Burnell (Sheridan) 6-0, T13. Logan Burks (C) 5-10.
Long jump: 3. Rogers-Walton (N) 22-11.75, 4. Campbell (F) 22-0, 9. Durden (HSE) 20-5.5, 10. Jaedon King (C) 20-3.
Discus: 2. Wyatt Puff (F) 157-6, 3. Hayden Tobias (F) 154-3, 4. Nolan Ring (C) 151-6, 8. Graham Hatfield (C) 141-3, 12. Colin Caldwell (W) 130-8, 13. Jacob Netral (W) 129-5.
Shot put: 1. Tobias (F) 57-0.5, 3. Puff (F) 53-4.25, 4. Caleb Shaffer (C) 52-7.75, 5. Evan Lantz (HSE) 50-4.5, 6. Caldwell (W) 49-0, 9. Jon Williams (C) 47-9.25, 10. Netral (W) 46-6.25.
Pole vault: 1. Sandlin (C) 14-4, 3. Xan Cluff (HSE) 13-4, T4. Pearson (C) 13-0, 6. Jackson Dunn (F) 13-0, 10. Bayden Lutz (Hamilton Heights) 12-6, 13. Josh Thompson (HSE) 12-0.
The Fishers boys track and field team won its first-ever regional championship Thursday. The Tigers triumphed at the Lafayette Jefferson regional by scoring 90 points, winning five events and qualifying to eight to next Friday’s state meet. (Richie Hall)
Hamilton Southeastern’s Noah Malone won two events at the Lafayette Jefferson boys track and field regional on Thursday. Malone won the 100 dash in a new regional record time of 10.61 seconds, and also was first in the 200 dash. (Kent Graham)