In Hamilton County, the focus has been on HSE star Junior Gabe Fendel, but Monday it was a different story. Carmel Senior Ryan Lipe became the star of Hamilton County.
Lipe is the defending state champion in pole vault, having vaulted 17 feet last year. So far this year he hasn't vaulted all that often. He had surgery back in November to repair a hip impingement. Once back to training though, he didn't return to practice with his brother over at pole vault, he began working with the sprinters.
Lipe, easily won the 100m dash in a time of 11.00. A week ago he clocked a wind-aided 10.57 at MIC. Ryan didn't just run in the 100m dash, he was back in the pole vault as well. A good hour after the last 4x400 finished, Lipe was still vaulting. He hit the 16 ft mark and decided to keep going, he had already won, but knew he could go higher. So he tried for 16' 06" next, two tries later he cleared it, setting a new meet record as well. He then decided he wanted to try once more and go for the Carmel High School record and attempt 17' 01". Lipe had to switch poles to the tallest pole that was on hand to attempt this height. Unfortunately for the 15 or so people left, Ryan tried 3 times and missed, no new school record. He's not done yet though. The state tournament starts next Thursday back on Carmel's track for Sectionals.
Lipe's brother Mitch took second and fellow teammate Alex Audia took 3rd.
Westfield boy's cranked out a state leading time in the 4x400 setting it at 3:21.04.This time also secured them a new school record back home at Westfield.
The girls side of the championship also so impressive performances from Noblesville sophomore Maria Anderson. She won all four events she competed in, 200, 400, long jump, and 1600 relay.
The star studded event of night was the girls 1600m run. Four runners were under 5:05. Noblesville junior Abi Little won in 5:02.38, the second-fastest time in Indiana this season. She was closely followed by Guerin Catholic senior Megan Slamkowski in 5:02.87. Rounding out the top four was the Carmel duo of Dalton (5:03.87) and Anderson (5:04.35).
The favorite event of the night for the boys, was the 300m Hurdles. It was neck and neck to the end with Carmel's Jalen Walker out leaning Westfield's Dainon Wray to take the win in 39.07 to Wray's 39.13.
Another neck and neck finish happened on the girls side of the action when Noblesville's Anderson edged out Carmel sophomore Reagan Hune in the 200 dash, by .05 seconds.
Carmel easily cruised to 1st place on both the girls and boys side. Girls scored 213 while boys scored 168.