Death, taxes and Center Grove sweeping the Johnson County track and field meet.
The Trojans put on their annual display of local dominance at Franklin on Tuesday, as the boys won their 23rd consecutive championship and the girls took their 18th straight.
Center Grove’s boys outpointed runner-up Whiteland 236-94, while the girls defeated the Warriors by a score of 210.5 to 109.5.
“Every time we have the opportunity to run a track meet, whether it be the county meet or the Ben Davis Invitational, or wherever, they take a real professional attitude,” Trojan boys coach Eric Moore said. “We work hard for this, we want to come here and we want to win. We want to do the best every time; we want to run the fastest that we can, we want to jump the farthest and throw the farthest. We’ve got a lot of depth, and I think it showed tonight.”
Brandon Wheat, who took first in the 100 (10.80 seconds) and the 200 (21.88), was named the outstanding male performer of the meet. He also anchored the winning 4×100 relay, teaming with Eli Hohlt, Brady Dicken and Drew Wheat to set a new county record of 42.53.
“I think we did really good considering the weather,” Brandon Wheat said. “It was really cold out, and we ran some really good times. … It’ll just get better as the season goes on and it gets warmer outside. I’m pretty proud of how we performed today.”
The Trojan boys led off the meet with a convincing victory in the 4×800 relay, where the team of Kyle Montgomery, Christian Antal, Griffin Hennessy and Parker Mimbela put up a time of 8:14.84 — nearly a full 37 seconds clear of the field. They never let up, winning all 11 running events and 12 of 16 overall.
Jarrett Rockwell used a strong finishing kick to slip past Mimbela and win the 1,600 by less than half a second (4:32.36 to 4:32.80), and he edged younger brother Gavin Rockwell to win the 800 in 2:04.45.
Also claiming individual wins for the Trojans were James Schott won the 110 hurdles (14.84 seconds), Zach Greller in the 400 (50.77), Parker Doyle in the 300 hurdles (40.23) and Connor Burries in the pole vault (13 feet, 6 inches).
Greller, Doyle, Brevin Holubar and Drew Wheat capped the meet by winning the 4×400 with a time of 3:28.74.
On the girls side, Kristen Lavergne was named the top performer. She was first in the 100 meters, narrowly defeating Whiteland’s Sydney Rodgers (12.89 to 12.95), and the long jump, where her leap of 15 feet, 5 3/4 inches was four inches past teammate Ashley Lauffler. She also placed second in the 200 and was on the winning 4×100 relay along with Ashley Lauffer, Madi Kramer and Skyler Sichting.
Kramer edged Lavergne to win the 200 and cruised to a first-place finish in the 100 hurdles (14.96), tying the meet record set just last year by her older sister, Makensie.
“My expectations were just to run better times than I’ve normally been running this season,” Kramer said, “and I did in all of my events, so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Bella Hodges was also a double winner for the Trojan girls, taking the 1,600 meters in 5:19.96 and the 800 in 2:20.44, while Shelby Wingler came out on top in the discus (124 feet) and won the shot put with a meet-record throw of 41 feet, 8 1/2 inches.
“I’m really happy with how I performed,” Wingler said. “I’m happy with how I set myself up and how I prepared. It’s obviously a really big season-booster, especially since we don’t have conference now. … This, definitely going into sectional with the same teams that we’ll face, it really sets us up nice.”
Skyler Sichting, the runner-up in the 100 hurdles, was victorious in the 300 hurdles (48.74). Kate Henselmeier claimed the 400 meters (59.32).
Center Grove’s 4×800 quartet of Marissa Pogue, Hallie Mimbela, Diana Hodges and Lillian Brunsman took first in 10:01.92. The 4×100 team of Lauffer, Kramer, Lavergne and Sichting won in 51.02, and the 4×400
Franklin’s Sydney Woodward broke up a complete Center Grove sweep of the running events, winning the girls 3,200 meters. The Grizzly Cubs were third in the team standings for both the boys (72.5 points) and the girls (90).
The other county schools enjoyed greater success in the field events.
Whiteland’s boys got wins in the long jump from Benian Walls, who leapt 20-9 to win by nearly a foot and a half, and in the shot put from Dalton Hughes, who heaved 52-4 to edge Greenwood’s Dylan Mayhew by 9 1/4 inches.
Greenwood’s Ellie Irwin won the girls high jump, clearing 5 feet, 6 inches to edge Franklin’s Brooke Coffman by an inch, and Amy Luttrell was first in the high jump (10-0), beating Center Grove’s Khloie Walker on the fewer-misses tiebreak. The Woodmen boys got first-place finishes in the discus from Brayden Gardner, whose heave of 144-11 was 18 inches better than the Trojans’ Will Boas, and in the high jump from Christopher Price (5-8).
Both Greenwood teams placed fourth overall, with the boys scoring 63 points and the girls 48.
Overall, the night belonged to the Trojans, who hope that a victory here will set the tone for greater conquests later this spring.
“This shows us that we have a lot of talent and keep pushing through the season,” Kramer said.
“So far, I think we’ve been performing pretty well,” Wheat added, “but we’ve just got to keep practicing, keep improving. The goal at the end of the year is ultimately to win state.”
