The Hoosier Crossroads Conference and records seemed to go hand in hand this week, with the girls starting off the week competing at Fishers HS and the boys rounding it out on Thursday at Zionsville Community HS.
Rain in the morning and record breaking times in the evening. This was the scene Tuesday at Fishers High School. After the diluted Hamilton County Championships the evening before that included many of the teams participating, expectations were high to see fast times. Many teams had sat out their top runners at county to save their legs for conference.
Noblesville was the exception to this, running top runners on back to back nights. Abi Little, who won the 800 and 1600 and was apart of the winning 4x400 team, appeared in the first race of the evening, the 4x800, she was a huge factor in Noblesville taking over the lead in the 2nd leg and pulling off the win in 9:25.27.
Avon's Diamond Mitchell had an amazing night, setting two new conference records. Her first came in the 100m dash, lowering the record by just a mere one thousandth of a second, to 12.16 seconds. Her second record came later in the evening during Long Jump, where she jumped 17' 09". Both records were previously held by Mitchell as well, having set them back in 2015 when she was a sophomore.
The records didn't stop with Diamond though, three other records were set as well. Two now belong to Zionsville HS and one to Fishers.
Junior Katie Isenbarger of Zionsville came to compete in the high jump and compete is what she did. She came out with a new record in the high jump, jumping 5 feet 10 inches. That's 5 inches taller than the average female! She beat 2nd place, Tayah Irvin, by 5.75 inches.
At this same time, Fishers showed up to get their second event win of the night, the 4x100. They didn't just get a win, they set a new conference record with a time of 48.16. Fishers also currently holds the state leading time in the 4x100 relay with a 47.54.
The final record of the evening came in the final moments with the 4x400 relay. This time by Zionsville. Earning their place in the number 2 spot in the state rankings with a time of 3:57.63.
The Eagles may have ended the night with a win in the 4x400, but they also scored some other notable points earlier the night. Their star junior distance runner, Sophia Rigg won two events, the 800m and the 1600m. Her first event, the 1600m, she took in a state number 2 time of 5:00.83. 2nd place,Reinhart of Brownsburg was a full 8 seconds behind. A little later in the night spectators got to see that spectacular kick that Rigg posses. She came from behind to out kick first and second place to win by thousandths of a second, in 2:18.464. It took for the photo finish to get the offical read that Sophia had won. Sophomore Ella Robinson, didn't set a conference record, but she did set a state leading time in the 300m Hurdles with a time of 43.77.
Other notable performances of the night came from HSE Sophomore LuLu Black, Noblesville Sophomore Maria Anderson, and Fishers Freshman Tamia Perryman. Let's look in event order at these top competing underclassmen. Anderson won the 400m dash, in 57.91, topping 2nd place by about 2 seconds. Maria competed in four events the night before at the Hamilton County meet, winning all of those as well. Freshman Tamia Perryman took the 200m dash in 25.83. HSE's Black took the 3200 in 11:22.96, running solo for most of the race and winning by 9 seconds ahead of teammate Lillian Cummins.
Zionsville came out on top though scoring 126 points, winning conference for the first time in school history!
The boys side didn't seem to disappoint either. The weather held out and gave for a chilly night but still fast times were able to be produced. With 10 of the 11 events producing faster times than the Marion County Meet the night before.
The star of the night was junior Isaac Guerendo of Avon. Setting 4 conference records AND 4 Avon high school records. All in one night!
First to kick off the night, the 100m dash for the win in 10.68. Then came the 4x100 relay, where he assisted in the first place finish in 41.90, a number 2 in the state thus far right behind Warren Central. He then took a break from the track to go get some jumps in at long jump. He had to step away from that to compete in the 200m finals. Guerendo barely held off HSE's Malone to finish 21.72 to 21.74. He still had three jumps over at long jump. He may have been exhausted from all his sprints but he went right back over and came out with a conference record with a jump of 23 feet 9 inches.
The surprise of the night came during the 800m. Another Avon runner, Madison King held off Gabe Fendel, who won the 1600 earlier, to set a new conference record of 1:53.87.
Westfield's Dainon Wray had a great night as well. He won the 300m Hurdles in 38.89, a new PR for him and a new Westfield High School record. He had just broken the record on Monday at the Hamilton County Championships with a 39.13. He now holds the number 3 spot so far this season. He then fired back in the 4x400 to assist in the win for Westfield, in a time of 3:21.04. This also set a new conference record and is the state leading time by just over a second.
Avon took home the win with 151 points on the night.
11 new HCC records between the girls and boys teams.