High school track and field: Mishawaka, Penn take NIC titles

ELKHART — The name of the sport, after all, is track and field.

A lot of high school teams forget that. Mishawaka didn’t, which is the main reason the Cavemen claimed their first Northern Indiana Conference boys track championship since ... well, that’s a good question.

“I asked around school and nobody could remember us ever winning this thing,” said Mishawaka coach Kyle Shaw after his Cavemen fought off Penn, 129-122, in a dandy conference meet Tuesday night at Elkhart’s Rice Field.

“I know we probably have, but it’s been a long time ago.”

Mishawaka dominated the field events, going 1-2 in both the high jump and pole vault, and winning the discus and long jump. That was almost half the Cavemen’s points, right there.

“We are strong in the field events,” said Shaw. “Everybody gets so caught up in what’s happening on the track, they forget about what’s going on over at the discus or pole vault. That was a huge lift for us.”

The girls meet, meanwhile, was convincingly won by Penn, 159-123½ over Mishawaka. And at the same time, the Kingsmen may have found their star of the future.

Freshman Ashleigh Macleod won the girls feature race, clocking a conference record 2:14.99 in the 800-meter run. She needed every bit of that to hold off Riley’s Kacie O’Neal (2:16.64), as both of them dipped under the previous NIC record of 2:17.99.

“I don’t know how tired I am, but my legs do,” quipped Macleod.

It was a classic championship race, with the two girls running stride-for-stride up the backstretch and around the final turn, where Macleod broke free.

“I’ve been in races like that before,” said Macleod. “I thought, ‘not again.’” I wasn’t going to lose this one.”

Penn’s girls claimed titles in seven out of 16 events. Like Mishawaka, the Kingsmen powered through the field events to make up for any deficiencies on the track.

“Our field events were great today,” said Penn coach Josh Fletcher.

Penn’s Tangi Moala won both the shot put (39-3) and discus (111-10). Madelyn Hendershot cleared 5-3 to win the high jump and Mikaylah Woods sailed 15-10½ to take the long jump. Kelly McNarney won the pole vault.

Even when they weren’t winning, the Kingsmen had some great performances. Maddie Woods clocked 10:50.42 in the 3200-meter run, breaking the old conference record by more than eight seconds.

However, she still finished second to Mishawaka’s Anna Rohrer. The defending state champ ran 10:37.74, lowering the conference record by 21 seconds.

She also set a new conference standard in the 1600, clocking 5:02.83.

Believe it or not, that’s her weaker event.

“I was concentrating on the 1600 tonight,” she said. “I didn’t really feel all that great, though.”

Dezha Moore of Adams set a girls conference record in the 100-meter hurdles (15.11). She also won the 300-meter hurdles in 47.63, as the Eagles showed some tremendous speed.

Same story in the boys meet. Shaq Vann of Adams false-started out of the 100-meter dash, then blistered a 22.08 in the 200. He also made up a tremendous deficit on the anchor leg of the 4 x 100 relay.

Adams won in 42.79.

“I was upset after the 100,” said Vann. “But I feel like I made up for it.”

Andrew Timmons of Adams was absolutely terrific in the distance races, winning the 1600, 3200 and finishing second in the 800. He was named the boys conference MVP.

Thomas Gales of Penn took the 800 title, charging the last lap to record a 1:57.33.

“I spent the winter in the weight room and that really helped my foot speed,” said Gales.

Mishawaka won both hurdle races, but neither by the Caveman who was expected to win. Tim Clark took the 110 highs in 15.80, while David Carlos swept the 300 intermediates.

Combine that with field event strength, and the Cavemen earned a rare trophy for their case.

Adam Trejo won the long jump (21-1-¾) on his first effort and cleared 6-4 to win the high jump.

Tanner Bradley won the pole vault. Erik Escobedo took the discus.

BOYS

TEAM SCORES: MISHAWAKA 129, PENN 122, SOUTH BEND ADAMS 114, SOUTH BEND ST. JOSEPH 69, SOUTH BEND RILEY 60, ELKHART CENTRAL 47, SOUTH BEND WASHINGTON 42, SOUTH BEND CLAY 25, MISHAWAKA MARIAN 15.

4 x 800 relay: 1, Penn (Jon Koellner, Tommy Varner, Tyler Krathwohl, Christian Wittendorf) 8:20.2. 2, Elkhart Central 8:25.6. 3, Mishawaka 8:33.2. 4, St. Joseph 8:36.50. 5, Adams 8:57.20. 6, Marian 9:07.2. 7, Riley 9:40.1.

110 high hurdles: 1, Tim Clark (Mishawaka) 15.80. 2, Max Weaver (Penn) 15.99. 3, Donald Swanson (Washington) 16.26. 4, Elliott McCoy (EC) 16.56. 5, Bryce Talbott (Penn) 16.61. 6, Troy Bradley (Mish) 17.04. 7, Nick Quarandillo (EC) 17.24. 8, Sean O’Brien (St. Joe) 17.58.

100: 1, Deonne Witherspoon (Washington) 11.12. 2, Prince Gee (Adams) 11.13. 3, Anthony Taborn (Clay) 11.20. 4, Tony Brazier (Wash) 11.24. 5, Austin Laughman (Penn) 11.33. 6, Andrew Taborn (Clay) 11.40. 7, Daniel Campbell (Riley) 11.68. 8, Kylan McCullough (Mish) 11.71.

1600: 1, Andy Timmons (Adams) 4:28.80. 2, Jacob Turner (St. Joe) 4:32.77. 3, Jake Timmons (Adams) 4:35.86. 4, Travis Kulczar (Riley) 4:37.14. 5, Taylor Neff (Penn) 4:38.30. 6, Matt Morris (St. Joe) 4:38.50. 7, Colin Richardson (Mish) 4:38.80. 8, Andrew Collins (Mish) 4:43.70.

4 x 100 relay: 1, Adams (Joel Nyjrongo, Prince Gee, Brian Otieno, Shaq Vann) 42.79. 2, Washington 42.87. 3, Mishawaka 43.49. 4, Penn 44.16. 5, Clay 44.54. 6, Riley 44.83. 7, St. Joseph 45.10. 8, Elkhart Central 46.19.

400: 1, Thomas Capers (Riley) 48.91. 2, Zach Oakley (Penn) 49.67. 3, Aaron Hensley (Mish) 51.90. 4, Maxwell Otiato (St. Joe) 52.53. 5, Matthew Cuskaden (Riley) 52.58. 6, Tre Taylor (EC) 52.86. 7, Quincey Johnson (Wash) 53.62. 8, Luke Kleppe (Penn) 53.99.

300 intermediate hurdles: 1, David Carlos (Mishawaka) 40.52. 2, Diante Swanson (Wash) 41.98. 3, Max Weaver (Penn) 41.99. 4, Elliott McCoy (EC) 42.96. 5, Sean O’Brien (St. Joe) 43.46. 6, Nick Quarandillo (EC) 43.69. 7, Bailey Mott (Penn) 44.08. 8, Donald Swanson (Wash) 44.87.

800: 1, Thomas Gales (Penn) 1:57.33. 2, Andy Timmons (Adams) 1:58.05. 3, Nathan Munet (EC) 1:59.20. 4, Steven Siade (Riley) 1:59.42. 5, Tyler Krathwohl (Penn) 2:00.27. 6, Chris Meyer (Mar) 2:04.80. 7, Jacob Macdonald (Mish) 2:06.45. 8, Jacob Klaybor (St. Joe) 2:06.89.

200: 1, Shaq Vann (Adams) 22.08. 2, Prince Gee (Adams) 22.83. 3, Davendrick Hall (Clay) 23.16. 4, Greg Higgins (Penn) 23.28. 5, Tanner Bradley (Mish) 23.29. 6, Jacquan Williams (Riley) 23.44. 7, Thadeous Phillips (Riley) 23.47. 8, James Colvin (Penn) 23.54.

3200: 1, Andy Timmons (Adams) 9:50.99. 2, Travis Kulczar (Riley) 9:52.45. 3, Jacob Turner (St. Joe) 10:03.70. 4, Jake Timmons (Adams) 10:07.58. 5, Jack Mader (Penn) 10:13.95. 6, David Salmon (Riley) 10:14.80. 7, Colin Richardson (Mish) 10:16.24. 8, AJ Glick (Mish) 10:17.39.

4 x 400 relay: 1, Penn (Nate Ohlson, Christian Wittendorf, Thomas Gales, Zach Oakley) 3:25.22. 2, Mishawaka 3:26.72. 3, Adams 3:30.02. 4, Riley 3:34.95. 5, St. Joseph 3:36.46. 6, Elkhart Central 3:36.93. 7, Washington 3:43.43. 8, Marian 3:45.38.

High jump: 1, Adam Trejo (Mish) 6-4. 2, Robert Lambert (Mish) 6-2. 3, Sam DeTrempe (St. Joe) 6-1. 4, Trey Burns (Penn) 6-0. 5, Yoshua Reed (Riley) 5-10. 6, Josh McLendon (Adams) 5-10. 7, Brian Otieno (Adams) 5-8. 8, Daniel Campbell (Riley) 5-8.

Long jump: 1, Adam Trejo (Mish) 21-1 ¾. 2, Haki Woods Jr. (St. Joe) 20-9 ¾. 3, Davendrick Hall (Clay) 20-1 ½. 4, Sabin Gorset (Penn) 20-1. 5, Brian Otieno (Adams) 20-0 ¾. 6, Yoshua Reed (Riley) 19-9 ½. 7, Hunter Clark (Penn) 19-7. 8, Treyton Harris (EC) 19-3.

Shot put: 1, Isaiah Cook (Penn) 51-11 1/2. 2, Erik Escobedo (Mish) 48-7. 3, Peter Wiegand (St. Joe) 45-7. 4, Nick Wawrzyniak (St. Joe) 45-2. 5, Izayah Newsom (Mar) 44-11. 6, Austin Coons (Adams) 44-1. 7, D’Lan Mose (Adams) 43-8. 8, Austin Kisrow (Mish) 42-2.

Discus: 1, Erik Escobedo (Mish) 152-8. 2, Austin Coons (Adams) 142-8. 3, Riley Norris (EC) 133-5. 4, Isaiah Cook (Penn) 132-11. 5, Travis Barnes (EC) 132-6. 6, Nick Wawrzyniak (St. Joe) 130-9. 7, Colin Crawford (Mish) 127-4. 8, D’Lan Mose (Adams) 127-0.

Pole vault: 1, Tanner Bradley (Mish) 13-6. 2, James Alexander (Mish) 13-0. 3, Peter Loughran (Penn) 13-0. 4, Cory Stamets (Adams) 12-0. 5, Jacob Burnham (Mar) 12-0. 6, Quentin Cooling (Penn) 12-0. 7, Joey Sawyer (St. Joe) 11-6. 8, Arron White (Adams) 11-0.

BOYS MVP: Andy Timmons (Adams)

BOYS COACH OF THE YEAR: Randy Griffith (Adams)

GIRLS

TEAM SCORES: PENN 159, MISHAWAKA 123 ½, SOUTH BEND ADAMS 115 ½, ELKHART CENTRAL 74, MISHAWAKA MARIAN 54, SOUTH BEND RILEY 42, SOUTH BEND ST. JOSEPH 26, SOUTH BEND WASHINGTON 17, SOUTH BEND CLAY 11.

4 x 800 relay: 1, Penn (Madison Woods, Emma Jankowski, Sarah Hamilton, Ashleigh Macleod) 9:51.72. 2, Marian 10:10.0. 3, St. Joseph 10:35.95. 4, Mishawaka 10:52.44. 5, Elkhart Central 10:58.98. 6, Adams 11:11.28. 7, Riley 13:02.4.

100 hurdles: 1, Dezha Moore (Adams) 15.11 (MEET RECORD). 2, Alexys Harper (Mish) 16.17. 3, Breanna Huff (Penn) 16.60. 4, Morgan Markel (EC) 17.03. 5, Emily Han (St. Joe) 17.06. 6, Jenna Thomas (Adams) 17.06. 7, Megan Darr (Penn) 17.29. 8, Hannah Staples (Mish) 18.10.

100: 1, Gabrielle Ravotto (Mar) 12.66. 2, Hannah Roth (Mish) 12.85. 3, Ariel Green (Clay) 12.94. 4, Ashley Moon (Adams) 13.00. 5, Sommer Domal (Penn) 13.18. 6, Tajaa Scott (Adams) 13.37. 7, Aleiyah Williams (EC) 13.57. 8, Alissa Marriott (St. Joe) 13.59.

1600: 1, Anna Rohrer (Mish) 5:02.83 (MEET RECORD). 2, Danielle Frank (Penn) 5:18.79. 3, Jessica Duvall (Mish) 5:22.87. 4, Molly Ogren (Marian) 5:23.90. 5, Emma Jankowski (Penn) 5:26.48. 6, Amanda Dibley (EC) 5:31.85. 7, Michaela Lewis (Adams) 5:35.34. 8, Megan Kitz (St. Joe) 5:40.70.

4 x 100 relay: 1, Mishawaka (Alexys Harper, Alexis Jackey, Ayanna Moody, Hannah Roth) 49.58. 2, Adams 50.15. 3, Penn 51.40. 4, Washington 51.92. 5, Elkhart Central 52.47. 6, Clay 52.99. 7, Marian 55.67.

400: 1, Ayiana Gaines (Riley) 56.58. 2, Ahmanah Woods (Adams) 58.91. 3, Madisen Kujawski (Penn) 1:01.92. 4, Makaya Young (EC) 1:02.38. 5, Eli Mott (Penn) 1:03.02. 6, Jasmine Cotton (EC) 1:04.08. 7, Inobia Bullock (Mish) 1:04.82. 8, Ashley Punch (Adams) 1:05.47.

300 intermediate hurdles: 1, Dezha Moore (Adams) 47.63. 2, Jenna Thomas (Adams) 48.09. 3, Kelcie Bailey (Penn) 48.59. 4, Morgan Markel (EC) 49.23. 5, Alexys Harper (Mish) 49.51. 6, Iesha Tobar (Wash) 49.77. 7, Hannah Staples (Mish) 50.15. 8, Angelica Hall (Clay) 51.34.

800: 1, Ashleigh Macleod (Penn) 2:14.99 (MEET RECORD). 2, Kacie O’Neal (Riley) 2:16.64. 3, Jessica Duvall (Mish) 2:26.02. 4, Maggie Hartnagel (Mar) 2:27.70. 5, Lauren Pottschmidt (Penn) 2:28.92. 6, Hannah Conner (St. Joe) 2:31.86. 7, Jessica Limon (Riley) 2:37.89. 8, Morgan Mahoney (Mish) 2:37.99.

200: 1, Ayiana Gaines (Riley) 25.41. 2, Gabrielle Ravotto (Mar) 26.11. 3, Ayanna Moody (Mish) 26.32. 4, Jessiyan Lottie (Adams) 26.94. 5, Kaleigh Feldkamp (St. Joe) 27.79. 6, Alyssa Quinlan (Penn) 27.99. 7, Annyca Brown (Wash) 28.53. 8, Alissa Marriott (St. Joe) 29.09.

3200: 1, Anna Rohrer (Mish) 10:37.74 (MEET RECORD). 2, Madison Woods (Penn) 10:50.42. 3, Danielle Frank (Penn) 11:19.58. 4, Kiera Pelletier (Mish) 11:48.30. 5, Amanda Dibley (EC) 12:00.21. 6, Molly Ogren (Mar) 12:04.17. 7, Michaela Lewis (Adams) 12:09.61. 8, Megan Kitz (St. Joe) 12:30.70.

4 x 400 relay: 1, Adams (Catherine Mittiga, Dezha Moore, Ahmanah Woods, Jenna Thomas) 4:01.82. 2, Penn 4:01.94. 3, Riley 4:12.22. 4, Mishawaka 4:15.22. 5, Elkhart Central 4:19.00. 6, St. Joseph 4:28.05. 7, Washington 4:34.70. 8, Clay 4:55.49.

High jump: 1, Madelyn Hendershot (Penn) 5-3. 2, Makaya Young (EC) 5-2. 3, Dezha Moore (Adams) 5-0. 4, Eli Mott (Penn) 4-10. 5, Donya McKinney (EC) 4-8. 6, Tie between Keenan White (St. Joe), Haley Wilson (Mish), Angie Wise (Riley) 4-6.

Long jump: 1, Mikaylah Woods (Penn) 15-10 ½. 2, Alexys Harper (Mish) 15-7 ½. 3, Gabrielle Ravotto (Mar) 15-4. 4, Brittany Adams (Wash) 15-4. 5, Ashley Jerue (Adams) 15-3. 6, Dinuka Cooray (Mar) 15-1 ½. 7, Ayanna Moody (Mish) 15-1. 8, Ashley Punch (Adams) 14-9.

Shot put: 1, Tangi Moala (Penn) 39-3. 2, Alissa Richhart (Penn) 37-8. 3, Taloni Reese (Adams) 36-3. 4, Jenai White (EC) 36-1. 5, Queen Walker (Mish) 36-0. 6, Caitlin Snyder (Riley) 33-5 ½. 7, Carmen Chambliss (Adams) 32-3. 8, Destiny Bonds (EC) 31-2.

Discus: 1, Tangi Moala (Penn) 111-10. 2, Jenai White (EC) 106-9. 3, Taloni Reese (Adams) 105-3. 4, Queen Walker (Mish) 101-9. 5, Jenna Thomas (Adams) 98-1. 6, Kalee Ann Hampton (Mish) 97-3. 7, Destiny Bonds (EC) 96-2. 8, Merissa Middlestaat (Mar) 91-10.

Pole vault: 1, Kelly McNarney (Penn) 10-3. 2, Ashley Jerue (Adams) 9-6. 3, Francesca Spalding (Mish) 9-6. 4, Libby Yeakey (EC) 9-0. 5, Cecelia Taylor (Mish) 9-0. 6, Margaret Berta (Mar) 9-0. 7, Alex Downs (EC) 8-6. 8, McKenna Hummel (Penn) 8-6.

IHSAA officials: Mike Alspaugh, Ray Hedstrom

GIRLS MVP: Anna Rohrer (Mishawaka)

GIRLS COACH OF THE YEAR: Josh Fletcher (Penn)