While most of the country wrapped up the indoor season this weekend Indiana was just getting warmed up. With the HSR finals set to take place in two weeks in Indianapolis, several individuals and teams traveled to either the prestigious New Balance Indoor Nationals or competitive Nike Indoor Nationals to get some fast times against some of the nation's best high school runners.
We'll start with the Armory at Nike Indoor Nationals where we saw several Hoosiers earn All-American Indoor status.
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One of the main highlights from the weekend were the Hamilton Southeastern girls as the team fielded three relay teams that all placed top ten nationally including their national championship 4x400m squad. This squad would run 3:51.57 to break Lawrence Central's 12 year old indoor state record in the event set at the HSR Finals back in 2012. The team consisted of two lap efforts from Ciara Kepner, Addison Smith, Anissa Lammie, and Chloe Senefeld. The Royals' 4x800m Relay and DMR would also run to impressive times with both placing 10th with times of 9:28.86 and 12:19.71, both of which currently lead the HSR large division.
Photo by Mike Kepner of the HSR Girls 4x400m National Championship Squad
On Friday distance standouts Addison Knoblauch and Libby Dowty would run in the two mile with some of the nation's best. Knoblauch would finish in the top ten with a ninth place finish running a 10:15.49 (10:11.83 3200m split). Addison ran a 10:12.69 at the Carmel 3200m Showcase last season which means this race would technically be a new 3200m PR for the Homestead senior. She will still rank IN #5 All-Time. Also in the race finishing just about 100m behind was sophomore Libby Dowty. She finished with a 10:31.90 to place 14th out of the 30 competitors in the championship field (10:28.23 3200m).
Will Conway would also compete on Friday night where he would kick his way into a silver medal finishing with a 8:51.40 (8:48.32 3200m). The Tennessee commit would run this performance just a few weeks after running to Indiana's second fastest 3200m ever on Notre Dame's oversized track. Conway would double back in the mile on Sunday finishing third out of the 39 competitors with a time of 4:07.979 (4:06.54 1600m).
Will Conway in an interview with MileSplit after his silver medal 2 mile performance on Friday
Knoblauch would double back to win her heat in the mile with a 4:51.44 (4:49.633 1600m split). After the second heat her time would place her 10th out of the extremely competitive field of 20 athletes. She would finish an impressive double achieving a new personal best by just over three hundredths of a second. Her previous best came from her Nike Outdoors Nationals race last spring where she went 4:49.67. In the girls emerging elite miles sections Dowty would also double back to run a 5:01.54 (4:59.79 1600m) to place 7th/55. Elizabeth Butler and Henriette Schminke would also race in these sections to place 18th and 49th respectively. Their times would be 5:08.33 (5:06.54 1600m) and 5:24.76 (5:22.88 1600m). Josie Kinnaman would also race in the freshman mile finishing 12th/41 with a 5:20.53 (5:18.67 1600m).
At the high jump Kya Crooke would jump to a silver-medal finish with a clearance of 5' 10.5", just a quarter inch off of her lifetime best. She would lose a tiebreaker to Mackenzie Dagrosa who also jumped to the same height. Crooke is the top returner for the national meet for next year and has the highest jump in the state currently by over an inch. Her sister, Kenzie Crooke, competed in the freshmen girls long jump where she would take 5th with a distance of 17' 2".
Kya Crooke in an interview with MileSplit after her silver medal performance in the high jump
In the 60m hurdles Andres Langston would place 46th/55 with a time of 8.66. He would also take a 16th place finish in the emerging elite sections of the boys 400m where he would run a 50.47.
In the girls 5K championship Maggie Powers would break 18 minutes in the first heat to place 15th out of the 21 athlete field. In the second section Julia Score, an NXN qualifier from this past fall, ran a 17:26.06 to place 12th. Elizabeth Leachman from Texas would win the championship with a new national record of 15:28.90, breaking Katelyn Toughy's previous record of 15:37.12.
In the girls 800m Championship Henriette Schminke from West Lafayette would finish 35th/49 with a 2:17.86 with Ciara Kepner from Hamilton Southeastern finishing 38th/49 with a 2:18.45.
The Indian Creek boys would also run 8:18.84 to place 28th/32 in the boys championships 4x800m relay.
