Sectional track meets are Tuesday and Thursday at Terre Haute North

Andy Amey, The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
·3 min read

May 17—High school track and field sectionals are this week throughout Indiana, with 14 teams competing at Terre Haute North for girls competition on Tuesday and boys competition on Thursday.

Field events and trials for the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles, plus the 4x800 relay, will start at approximately 5:30 p.m. each night, with running finals usually beginning around 7.

Teams competing at North are Clay City, Cloverdale, Greencastle, North Central, North Putnam, Northview, Parke Heritage, Riverton Parke, South Putnam, South Vermillion, Sullivan, North, Terre Haute South and West Vigo.

Bloomfield, Linton, Shakamak and White River Valley will compete in the Bloomington North Sectional, while North Vermillion will compete at the Benton Central Sectional.

Top three individuals and top three relay teams advance to regional competition the following week. Bloomington North is also the regional host for all except the athletes from North Vermillion, who will advance to Lafayette Jeff.

Terre Haute South has won the last four girls sectionals, after Terre Haute North had won 14 straight and 25 of the previous 26 (Northview won in 2001). North's boys won in 2018 and 2019, and either North or South has won every boys sectional since 1988. So those two, with depth the smaller schools in the field can only envy, are favored again.

But athletes from the other 12 schools who can compete individually with the best the Braves and Patriots have to offer appear to be more plentiful this year than usual, so a little bit of strangeness could crop up.

South's Courtney Jones probably won't be caught in the two hurdles races on Tuesday, and will be among the favorites in whichever other events she enters.

But Northview looks uncatchable in the 4x800 relay and will score big points in the distance events run by Gnister Grant and Ellia Hayes.

Addisyn Osburn of North Putnam has the best time in the 100, while West Vigo's Dusty Welker and Kyarra DeGroote, Clay City's Emily Hyatt and Northview's Rylie Vitz are other sprint contenders.

South Vermillion's Claire Kendrick could win the 200 and possibly the 400, with West Vigo's Corynn DeGroote and Greencastle's Kennedy Trigg other main contenders in the one-lap race. South Vermillion's Torie Williams is a contender in high jump; Trigg, Hyatt and Corynn DeGroote have the top three long jump statistics so far; and South Putnam's Bree Mahoney-Sutherland will challenge North's Teddy Clark in throws.

The South boys have their version of Jones in Brayden Bender, the big favorite in 100 hurdles and long jump and a contender in anything else he enters.

But the best 100 time belongs to Sullivan's William Newby, while Clay City's Jaryn Patterson and West Vigo's Eli Roach are also contenders there. Newby and Roach look like favorites in the 200, with West Vigo's Zander Wilbur and Northview's Joshua Wright in the conversation in that event.

North Putnam's Colton Clifford has the best 400 time, and his teammate Gabe Garcia the best 300 hurdles time, just ahead of Northview's John Garrison. Distance events will probably shake down to some combination of Braves, Patriots and Knights, but Clay City's Mason Laswell is a favorite in high jump and Sullivan's Grant Bell in pole vault. North's Keegan Collins has the best discus throw this spring, South's Donnie Smock should contend in both throws and South Vermillion's Joey Shew should also be in the mix.

At Bloomington, Jaci Stone and Emma Booher are sprinters to contend with from Shakamak and Bloomfield's 10-person boys team is coming off a SouthWestern Indiana Athletic Conference championship.