Athletes from Warsaw and Wawasee will leave at different times, but will arrive at the same place this weekend.
State-qualifying Warsaw Tigers embarked for Bloomington this morning, while Wawasee Warriors plan to leave tomorrow morning, but both will be on time to compete in the 105th Annual Indiana Boys State Track and Field meet at Robert C. Haugh Track Complex Saturday.Competing on the Indiana University campus, Warsaw's Leonard Wells is the top seed in the discus and third in the shot put. Teammates David Spangle and Victor Sapara-Grant will also represent the Tigers, with Spangle making his second trip in the high jump and sophomore Sapara-Grant getting his first taste of competition at the state level in the long jump.
Making the trip from Syracuse will be the 1600 relay team of Tyson Kaase, Ryan McDonald, Anthony Reyes, Eric Brown and alternate Grant Ruch. On top of anchoring the 1600 relay, Brown is also the fourth seed in the 400, an event he placed eighth in a year ago.
Other area competitors are Whitko's Cory Snep in the high jump and Triton's Troy McIntyre will play an hour of baseball at South Central before traveling to Bloomington to also compete in the high jump.
Wells This Is It
When 3 p.m. rolls around Saturday, Warsaw senior Leonard Wells will begin to compete in the discus and shot put for the last time as a high school athlete.
"I'm going to approach it just like the first time I went to state," Wells said about Saturday's meet. "You just never know what's going to happen."
Wells' first trip to state came as a sophomore, when he placed 15th in the shot put. As a junior, he took 12th in the shot and third in discus, setting up an anticipated senior campaign.
"He's really worked hard in the weight room," Warsaw throwing coach David Bailey said.
"He has a perfect body for discus," he added. "As a freshman, his dad talked to me about wanting Leonard to get 60 feet in the shot put. I told him that Leonard could, but he'd be perfect for discus with his long arms and tall frame."
With the right tools in place, Wells began to work on his throws, even taking part in a camp at Indiana University, the site of the state meet.
"I did that for two summers," Wells said about the camp. "They really work with you on how to spin and glide to get the best throws you can."
The camp did benefit Wells, but it also set him back as well.
During his first camp, going into his junior year, Wells was hit on the arm by hammer thrown by another athlete. The setback broke his arm, leaving him unable to go 100 percent in the weight room, but not people would have been able to tell.
"Between his sophomore and junior years, he increased his best from 165 to 173," Bailey said of Wells performance in the discus.
That 173-11 came at the state meet, the perfect place to have a personal best.
"We try to peak at the end of the year," Bailey said. "Over my years here, I've learned not to worry as much about gearing up to win the Northern Lakes Conference meets. Before a meet, we still lifted hard the day before. If you want to go to state, you really have to push your body."
That mentality has Wells in a position to contend for two state titles. Immediately following the discus event, Wells will join many other discus competitors over at shot put.
"I'll prepare for one, then after that, get ready for the next," Wells said. "It should be pretty easy. Once you get pumped for the discus, you can get right back up for the shot put."
Wells' 189-00 seed in the discus is the top spot, followed by Tyler Hiatt of Noblesville's 185-6. In the shot, Well's 59-11 seed is fourth, with Brandon Pounds of Lawrence North taking the top seed with a distance of 66-9.
"I can't wait to see what happens," Wells said. "I just can't wait to throw. I'm not overly confident that I'm going to win, but I can't wait to see how I'll do."
As Wells is making his throws, Warsaw junior David Spangle and sophomore Victor Sapara-Grant will be making some jumps - Spangle's high and Sapara Grant's long.
"David Spangle was an inch away from placing last year," Warsaw coach Dave Hoffert said of last year's leap of 6-2. "Getting that experience as a sophomore is tremendous. Track and field is a junior and senior dominated sport. This year, he won't be as nervous and he'll be more prepared, knowing that everyone else there can perform at the same level. It's just a matter of who's more prepared for the situation."
Sapara-Grant will be one of those guys taking the state meet in for the first time, but after moving to Warsaw from Africa this year, the meet shouldn't be too much of an adjustment.
"He's been the biggest surprise this year," Hoffert said of Sapara-Grant. "We didn't' know what he could do when he transferred in. He's probably the most coachable kid I've had. He knows what he needs to do and how to make it better."
Wawasee's "Big Brown"
The state meet won't be anything new for some Wawasee runners, especially senior Eric Brown.
Brown enters his fourth state meet with the fourth-fastest time in the 400, and will also anchor the 1600 relay team, accompanied by Tyson Kaase, Ryan McDonald and Anthony Reyes.
"The experience definitely helps a lot," Brown said. "It can be pretty nerve-racking to down there, with the crowd and all the excitement."
As a freshman, Brown finished 21st in the 400 with a time of 50.49 seconds and placed eighth a year ago in 48.57. His sophomore year, Brown made the trip to state as part of the school's 1600 relay.
"By now, I'm not too worried," the Indiana Wesleyan-bound Brown said. "I've got my college decision made up, but I still want to do really well down there. But if I don't, I know it won't be the end of the world."
Also returning to the state meet will be Kaase and McDonald, who were part of the 12th-place 1600 relay team along with Brown and Luke Blakeslee last year. The relay team enters this year's meet with the sixth-fastest time at 3:22.10, but according to Brown, seed times don't count for too much.
"I really don't put a whole lot in the seed times when I get down there," he said. "You just never know what people are going to do when they get there."
One variable that does carry weight is experience.
"Anytime you have three out of four guys that have been there before, that's gotta be worth something," Wawasee sprint coach David Stookey said. "I've been down there a few years, and you can't duplicate what it's like. You have to experience it.
"Only a few can go down there their first time at perform at 100 percent," he added.
For Stookey, a coach with the Wawasee School Corporation for 44 years, his biggest concern is getting his guys physically right for the meet.
"It's always hard to know, as the season progresses, who much do I back off?," he said, while the 1600 relay guys were running 60-meter dashes. "The mistake for some teams is that they don't back off enough."
If his guys are able to run to their full capabilities, Stookey can see them doing all right for themselves.
"I like to think we can compete with those guys," he said of the state's best. "Nobody has a time that is out of the realm of possibility that we could match."
For the majority of the season, Grant Ruch has been running in place of McDonald, who suffered a broken bone in his foot early in the season. Now that McDonald is back, Stookey has seen the team's times drop.
"He's used to running about four events," Stookey said of McDonald, who was in the pool rehabbing at Wednesday's practice. "Now that he only has one event to concentrate on, it's been better on him.
"Right now, we plan on him running," he added. "If not, we'll go to (Ruch)."
McDonald may be able to drop the squad's time, but the track at Indiana University may also help.
"It's pretty much the same as Warsaw," Brown said about the long straightaway on the track. "It's definitely faster and smoother, which is why I think you see so many times drop there. Hopefully, we can get our 4x400 time down a little bit."
