Watch Mason Childers compete in the 800 at the Dave Fulkerson Classic
The outdoor season is now underway in the Hoosier State!
MileSplit Indiana breaks down 5 boys sprinters to keep an eye on this outdoor season!
Who are you excited to watch compete?
Pike's Kalen Cummings comes into the 2021 outdoor track season as one of the state's premier sprinters. Cummings opened the year with a win in the 60 meter dash at the Warsaw Tiger Showcase during the indoor season. That race was won by more than half a second as the Red Devil clocked a time of 6.80, faster than anyone in Indiana since 2018. Although his first shot at the state tournament ended with the sectional, Cummings looks poised to be a state title contender in his Junior campaign.
Mason Childers heads into his Senior season as an elite runner in the 400 meter dash. Childers, a Dartmouth commit, ran the fastest 400 time in the state this indoor season with a decisive win at the Drew Fulkerson Classic. Childers' time that day was a 49.59, nearly three seconds faster than he was a year ago.
Although Childers has yet to advance past the Regional round of the state tournament, the Bloomington North Senior has shown incredible improvement over the last two years. Childers ought to be a shoo-in to make the state finals this spring, and expect him to make some noise in the first weekend of June.
Someone Childers will have to compete with for the 400 state title is Valparaiso's Brett Otterbacher. Otterbacher is one of the few athletes this season with significant experience at the state finals, notching a third place finish in 2019 and fourth place as a freshman in 2018. Otterbacher has only run the 400 meter dash competitively in one event since the 2019 state finals, winning the CMB Classic last summer with a 47.48.
Otterbacher has committed to continue his track career at Purdue next year. Purdue head coach Norbert Elliot said "We want to recruit the state's best talent to Purdue, so we are fortunate to have Brett become a Boilermaker."
Angola's Garrett Sauter is quickly becoming one of the state's top hurdlers. He truly burst onto the season in the indoor season last winter with three wins and a best time of 8.27, good enough to rank Sauter as one of the top five indoor hurdlers in the state last year. Of course, Sauter was not able to prove what he could do on an outdoor track.
This year, Sauter has picked up right where he left off, with a win at the Warsaw Tiger Showcase and an impressive time of 15.07 in the 110 meter hurdles at the NSAF USA Meet of Champions.
Luke Collins has been one of the most active athletes in the state this year. Collins competed in five indoor meets this winter, and already has a couple of early outdoor meets under his belt this year. Collins' best performance came at the Youngstown State Open #2, where he nearly topped a loaded field of runners, finishing five hundredths of a second behind Ohio's Xavier Preston. Collins' time that day was a 7.05, second only to Kalen Cummings in the 60 meter dash in Indiana.