BLOOMINGTON
It leans in the direction of being cliché to suggest Sheryl Crum occupied the best seat in the house on Friday.
Her daughter, however, is sure of it.
The annual girls state track and field meet provided its usual share of feel-good storylines, few – if any – better than the one involving Center Grove senior Kylie Crum, who took home a sixth-place medal in the shot put.
Being able to stand on the awards podium tied a much-deserved bow on the career of Crum, whose mother, Sheryl, passed away in January after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
She was 46.
“That was a huge overcoming moment that I had to get through,” Crum said. “I relied heavily on my family and my friends. It was definitely a hard moment for me, and still is sometimes, but I rely on those close to me.
“They have helped so much, especially this track team. They have all put together so much effort to help me throughout this whole thing. I would not be here today without them.”
Crum is confident her mom would’ve been in full voice.
“She would’ve been so proud,” said Crum, 4.1 student who will be part of the women’s track and field program at Milwaukee School of Engineering. “I wasn’t even supposed to be here today, but I ended up getting a call back.
“I didn’t have a very good day during regionals. Coming into the season, I wasn’t even throwing 35 (feet) consistently. Today, I did 41-8¼.”
Crum had plenty of support in the muscle events in the form of junior teammate Shelby Wingler, whose second-place performance in the shot put was the best placing of any Johnson County athlete or relay.
Wingler’s top put of 45-4½ more than made up for the discus competition, in which she scratched on her first two tosses and wound up 24th.
“(Discus) was really bad. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Wingler said. “I can’t even tell you what the third one was. But it was definitely the driving factor (in the shot put). Having to come back from that is something I’ve never encountered before.
“It was new, but I’ve got the greatest support staff ever in my parents and my coaches. And it was absolutely amazing to be able to share this with someone on my team (Crum) who is so, so deserving of it with the stuff she’s gone through this year.”
Greenwood sophomore Ellie Irwin made her state meet debut memorable by tying for fourth in the high jump.
Irwin cleared 5 feet, 7 inches, and nearly made it over what would have been a personal-best height of 5-8, but clipped the fiberglass bar with her feet on the way down.
“I’m just super excited just to be able to come here this year because last year I didn’t,” Irwin said. “It’s just a really cool opportunity to be able to be a part of it. I’ve been practicing non-stop just preparing for this, so just taking what I’ve done in practice and applying it here is what I was most focused on.”
Another sophomore, Center Grove’s Madi Kramer, made the finals in both the 100-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash, placing sixth and eighth, respectively.
“I just wanted to make the finals as a sophomore,” said Kramer, after posting a hurdles time of 14.39 seconds. “I didn’t think I would win it, so I came here to have fun , PR and hopefully place, and I did all of those, so it was a good day.
“It feels like the hard work paid off.”
In the discus, Whiteland senior Drew Mallory finished seventh with her distance of 131-5.
Another Trojans runner, Kate Henselmeier, placed seventh in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.45 seconds; senior teammate Bella Hodges took home an eighth-place medal in the 800 with a time of 2:15.94.
Franklin’s Morgan Sandrock tied for 10th in the high jump, Whiteland’s Brooklyn Taylor was 10th in the shot put, and Greenwood sophomore Amy Luttrell took 12th in the pole vault with a top height of 11 feet. Woodmen freshman Emma Gardner placed 13th in the discus with a best throw of 119 feet.
Center Grove finished in a three-way tie for eighth in the final team standings with 23 points.
