Emma Wilson earned herself a spot in Flashes Showcase History, setting a new meet record.
Even with being on Friday the 13th this year, the Flashes Showcase caught a big break with the weather. With temps being in the upper 60's the whole night we were bound to see some fast times and competitive racing. Three state leading times were set between the guys and gals that raced Friday Night.
Girls-
In the first girls event of the evening, the 4x800 relay, Bloomington South took it out fast and didn't look back from there. They easily won by over 10 seconds, in a current IN #2 of 9:51.25. Saturday's Midwest Prep saw the new IN #1 by the school down the street from them Bloomington North in 9:44.17. Coming in seeded 16th in her heat, Brooke Dixon put on a show to win heat 3 of the mile in 5:06.10, which would have put her 7th in the fast heat. For those that speak in 1600 meters, that time would convert to a 5:04.32. The big time came about 30 minutes later with the fast heat. Expectations were high coming in with the meet record possibly going down. Emma Wilson had some challengers through the entire race, with Phoebe Bates and Abby Lynch racing right on her heels. She found that extra surge in the final home stretch to come across the line in 4:54.94, getting a new meet record and PR in the end. Phoebe Bates put on a kick to finish in 4:59.24 and Abby Lynch raced faster than any other freshman all night, crossing in 5:00.84.
Boys-
The boy's relay did not disappoint, producing a state leading time of 8:12.42 were the Red Devils from Lowell. The state's top freshman boys get a chance to go head to head with each other. The top 6 boys all were under 4:40. Spencer Carpenter of Westview got the win coming across in 4:27.06. Lucas Guerra finished not far behind in 4:29.72. In the showstopper performance of the night, the boys fast heat of the mile, many expected stud Gabe Fendel to run away with the win just like he did last year. Fendel did take out the first 800 or so, like we're accustomed to seeing but after that he quickly faded to the back half. Jesse Hamlin of Snider took over the lead with Cole Hocker right there with him. Coming around the final turn into the straightaway, Matt Schadler found another gear and made a fight for the finish, coming across the line just .22 before Hamlin in a winning time of 4:13.7. Schadler has come into his own ever since the state cross country meet, finishing 26th at Footlocker Nationals with a separated shoulder after taking a hard fall in the first half mile of the race.