Girls track and field: Taylor wins state title for Tigers with incredible .002-second margin

THE REPORTER

Maya Taylor made history Friday night for Fishers High School on Friday, in the most incredible way.

The Tigers senior was running in the finals of the 100 dash at the IHSAA girls state track and field meet, which took place Friday night at Indiana University. Taylor was running toe-to-toe with Warren Central’s Jila Vaden and the two zoomed to a photo finish.

In the end, the winner was Taylor. She edged out Vaden by a margin of two thousandths of a second – Taylor finished in 12.101 seconds, Vaden finished in 12.103 seconds. What was contained in those .002 seconds was history – Taylor earned the first-ever girls track and field state championship win for Fishers.

Also remarkable was how much speed Taylor dropped in her win from the prelims to the finals. Taylor placed fourth in the 100 dash prelims with a time of 12.26 seconds, so the senior improved her time by .15 seconds in a few hours.

The meet finished with another win for a Hamilton County team. Carmel’s 4×400 relay squad of Gabriela Grande Rosas, Sadie Foley, Olivia Cebalo and Emily Norris won that event, cruising home in 3 minutes, 50.90 seconds. The Greyhounds’ time was 0.45 seconds ahead of runner-up North Central and a big part of the Carmel team finishing tied for fifth place.

Overall, four county teams placed in the top 12 by the meet’s conclusion. Warren Central was the team champion with 57.5 points; the Warriors won two events, including a 1-2 finish in the long jump. Bloomington North scored 41 points for the runner-up trophy; the Panthers picked up three event victories.

Hamilton Southeastern was the highest-placing county team, taking third with 29 points. The Royals began the meet with a third-place result for their 4×800 relay (Elizabeth Butler, Elise Herman, Anissa Lammie and Maggie Powers), then finished the evening by taking third in the 4×400 (Ciara Kepner, Addison Smith, Lammie and Chloe Senefeld).

In between, Powers finished fourth in the 1600 run, while Butler took fourth in the 3200 run. Kepner also earned an individual medal by taking seventh in the 800 run. The top nine in each event receive medals.

Carmel totaled 24 points, tying it with Brownsburg for fifth place. In addition to the 4×400 victory, the Greyhounds’ 4×800 relay team of Audrey Ricketts, Larkin Taylor, Katelyn Oshimura and Cebalo placed second in that event.

Grande Rosas also made the medal stand individually, taking sixth in the 400 dash. Emily Norris placed eighth in the 200 dash.

Noblesville, the defending team state champion, finished seventh with 23 points. Delaney Teachnor led the way for the Millers by taking second in the pole vault.

Hannah Alexander earned two more medals in the throwing events, placing fourth in the discus and sixth in the shot put. Noblesville’s 4×800 relay team took fifth; Brinkley Cooper, Gretchen Graham, Riley Flynn and Summer Rempe competed on that relay.

Fishers scored 18 points as a team to place 12^th. In addition to her state champion 100 dash run, Taylor joined Mireya Benjamin, Zinnia Pineda and Kylee Black to take fourth in the 4×100 relay. Macey Miller placed eighth in the shot put.

Westfield scored 7.5 points, good for 38^th place. Lucy Hauser finished third in the 300 hurdles, while Alexandra Hamilton made the medals stand, tying for ninth in the pole vault.

Hamilton Heights’ Waverly Woolever tied for seventh place in the high jump, scoring 2.5 points for the Huskies and tying them for 57^th place.