PREP BOYS TRACK: Concord, Northridge finish top five at Goshen sectional

May 20—GOSHEN — In what was a close battle for the team title throughout the night, Elkhart was able to edge Columbia City, Warsaw and Concord for boys track sectional team hardware at Goshen High School Thursday night.

Elkhart scored 110 points, while Columbia City had 101, Warsaw 99 and Concord 93. It's the Lions first sectional title in boys track since merging together two years ago and the first sectional title for any Elkhart school since Memorial won it in 2019. Elkhart won 49 boys track sectional titles as a school before splitting into Memorial and Central in the fall of 1972.

The top three in each event automatically advance to next week's regional, which will also be held at Goshen High School.

CONCORD TAKES FOURTH

Behind strong performances across the board, the Minutemen were able to automatically qualify for next week's regionals in seven different events.

Concord picked up two victories on the night as well. The first one was a little bit of a surprise, as sophomore Joseph Moon edged out his teammate, senior Jaton Thomas, at the finish line to win the 100-meter dash title in a time of 11.07 seconds. Thomas, after winning the event at last week's Northern Lakes Conference championship meet, finished second with a time of 11.30 seconds.

"He works hard, too," said Concord coach CJ Shafer of Moon. "He's got the advantage that he only has one event to work on. And he does work hard. He tore his ACL in football last year, so it's his first year of track and we weren't really sure what we had in him. He's put it together here the last couple of weeks; he was second in the conference meet last week, and (Thursday), he got the best of Jaton. We'll see what happens next week."

Thomas also qualified for regionals in the 200-meter dash individually and as part of Concord's 4X100-meter relay, finishing second in both of those events as well.

Minutemen senior Anthony Roberts picked up the other win for Concord in the 800-meter run. After struggling in the event at the NLC meet, the senior was able to bounce back to win with a time of 1:58.48, beating out Goshen senior Drew Hogan by 0.5 seconds.

Roberts also advanced in the 1,600-meter run with a second-place finish.

"Distance runners are a different breed ... that was very refreshing to see," said Shafer of Roberts' win in the 800. "He kind of controlled the whole race early on. He's going to have a shot (to go to state) in the mile and the half-mile, too."

All in all, Shafer was happy with how his athletes performed Thursday.

"We ran better than what we were seeded, and any time you get into a meet like this, that's what we're trying to do," Shafer said. "We were hoping some things would go our way and we'd have a shot at the team title, but it wasn't perfect (Thursday)."

FLORIA LEADS NORTHRIDGE TO FIFTH

Northridge saw winners in three events, which helped the Raiders take fifth as a team with 63 points.

Senior Mason Floria swept the hurdles events, winning dramatically in both the 110-meter and 300-meter events. Floria trailed early in both races, but was able to finish strong to win both events.

"You saw, with his hurdle races, the strength of his finishes and the training that he goes through," said Northridge coach Aaron Brick of Floria. "Both of them — the 110, really fighting them off, and then in the 300, cramping up coming into the front stretch and still able to hold off a pack there. He's a returning champion, and that's what we wanted."

Senior Jack Moore also repeated as a sectional champion for the Raiders in the 3,200-meter event, winning with a time of 9:26.25.

Brick was also impressed with the performance of junior Jaxon Miller, who finished third in both the 1,600-meter run and as the final leg of the 4X400-meter relay team to advance to next week's regional.

"Jaxon Miller was fantastic with that third place (in the 1,600)," Brick said. "Drew Hogan is a fantastic athlete; we've been chasing him around. We pushed on him and pushed on him, and finally we pushed past him. So, I was really impressed with his 1,600."

OTHER TGN AREA WINNERS

Goshen started the meet strong, as the quartet of Cole Johnston, Luis Loera, Tommy Claxton and Hogan were 4X800-meter relay champions with a time of 8:08.55. Claxton was also able to qualify in the 3,200-meter run individually with a second-place finish.

NorthWood senior Brevin Miller had a strong day in the throwing events, finishing second in the discus and winning the shot put with a toss of 55-10 feet.

Other Goshen News area schools competing Thursday that didn't automatically advance competitors to regionals were Bethany Christian, Fairfield and Wawasee.

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2022 GOSHEN BOYS TRACK SECTIONAL — Automatic regional qualifiers and final team standings

Regional is next Thursday, May 26 at Goshen High School

100-meter dash: Joseph Moon, Concord, 11.07 seconds; Jaton Thomas, Concord, 11.30 seconds; Rodney Gates, Elkhart, 11.40 seconds.

200-meter dash: Rodney Gates, Elkhart, 22.54 seconds; Jaton Thomas, Concord, 23.17 seconds; Jeremy Johnson, Warsaw, 23.19 seconds.

400-meter dash: Jeremy Johnson, Warsaw, 49.91 seconds; Luke Schramm, Elkhart Christian Academy, 52.25 seconds; Bishop Williams, Jimtown, 52.68 seconds.

800-meter run: Anthony Roberts, Concord, 1:58.48; Drew Hogan, Goshen, 1:58.83; Seth Mills, Columbia City, 1:58.86.

1,600-meter run: Austin Hall, Columbia City, 4:19.84; Anthony Roberts, Concord, 4:23.41; Jaxon Miller, Northridge, 4:28.31.

3,200-meter run: Jack Moore, Northridge, 9:26.25; Tommy Claxton, Goshen, 9:34.27; Austin Hall, Columbia City, 9:40.01

110-meter hurdles: Mason Floria, Northridge, 15.65 seconds; Andrew Frush, Warsaw, 15.70 seconds; Parker Baker, Columbia City, 15.99 seconds.

300-meter hurdles: Mason Floria, Northridge, 41.47 seconds; DaeSean Emerson, Concord, 41.64 seconds; Parker Baker, Columbia City, 41.70 seconds.

4X100-meter relay: Elkhart (Zachary Anderson, Christopher Williams, Rodney Gates and Nathan Munson), 43.76 seconds; Concord (Jaron Thomas, DaeSean Emerson, Jack D'Arcy and Jaton Thomas), 43.90 seconds; Warsaw (Haydin Rodriguez, Morgan Johnson, Tucker Curtis and Ashton Wade), 44.41 seconds.

4X400-meter relay: Warsaw (Morgan Johnson, Andrew Frush, Colton Martin and Jeremy Johnson), 3:31.42; Concord (Darian Decker, DaeSean Emerson, Armen Koltookian and Jaton Thomas), 3:32.38; Northridge (Quinton Long, Max Estep, Jett Mann and Jaxon Miller), 3:32.52.

4X800-meter relay: Goshen (Cole Johnston, Luis Loera, Tommy Claxton and Drew Hogan), 8:08.55; Columbia City (Marcus Ridge, Seth Mills, Jackson Smith and Jack Mills), 8:12.14; NorthWood (Jordan Burden, Daniel Medina, Brady Hunsberger and Titus Stutsman), 8:14.10.

Shot put: Brevin Miller, NorthWood, 55-10 feet; Ty'shaun Williams, Elkhart, 53-07 feet; Noah Chew, Warsaw, 52-08.50 feet.

Discus throw: Ty'shaun Williams, Elkhart, 163-09 feet; Brevin Miller, NorthWood, 152-10 feet; Cole Mosier, Columbia City, 143-10 feet.

Long jump: Nicholas Edwards, Elkhart, 21-00.25 feet; Martin Smith, Columbia City, 20-00.25 feet; Aalias Leonard, Elkhart, 20-03.75 feet.

High jump: Landon Gause, Lakeland Christian Academy, 6-02 feet; Nicholas Edwards, Elkhart, 6-02 feet; Noel Wiebe, Warsaw, 5-10 feet.

Pole vault: Morgan Johnson, Warsaw, 13-00 feet; Ian Stahl, Columbia City, 13-00 feet; Tucker Curtis, Warsaw, 12-06 feet.

Final team standings:

1. Elkhart, 110 points

2. Columbia City, 101

3. Warsaw, 99

4. Concord, 93

5. Northridge, 69

6. Goshen, 48

7. NorthWood, 43

8. Fairfield, 17

9. Lakeland Christian Academy, 15

10. Jimtown, 14

11. Elkhart Christian Academy, 10

12. Wawasee, 4

13. Bethany Christian, 1

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.