Manchester Happy With Second-Place Finish At Plymouth Sectional
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Anthony Gadson-agadson@timesuniononline.com
PLYMOUTH — The Plymouth boys track and field team won its 19th sectional Thursday, but not without being pushed by the Manchester Squires. Winning their eighth-straight sectional crown, the host Pilgrims racked up 128 points, but Manchester was right there until the final few events, finishing second with 89. “I’m very proud of the boys,” Manchester coach Julie Cassel said about her team. “A wonderful time to peak. When we can hang with the big dogs, you’ve got to be proud.” Rochester finished third with 86 points, while Tippecanoe Valley’s 41 was good for seventh and Triton finished eighth with 24. In order to qualify for Thursday’s Kokomo Regional, athletes from the Plymouth Sectional had to finish in the top four, and under those parameters, Manchester will be represented in eight events. Among those events will be the hurdles, where there will be two Squires in both the 110 and 300. At the sectional, junior Brodi Carter and junior Gunner Ream finished second and fourth, respectively, in the 110-meter event, then came back in the 300, with Carter winning in 43.40 seconds, followed by Ream in second (44.95). Along with qualifying for the regional in both hurdle events, Ream shocked some by winning the long jump with a distance of 20-8.5. “After I jumped that, I was just hoping to stay in first the whole way,” Ream said about his personal-best leap, which occurred in just his second prelim attempt. Going into the sectional, Ream was seeded seventh in the long jump with a distance of 18-11, but surpassed that mark in a big way. “I’m always telling him he thinks too much,” Cassel said of Ream. “The key thing about Gunner is, that boy is a junior and he always does such a great job for us, but he’s always one place out of the medals. So he’s sectional champ today, but there’s no medals.” Instead of a medal, Ream will have to settle for a patch on his letter jacket, which is much more than he was anticipating. “My goal was to make the finals,” he said. Manchester’s third first-place finish of the night was in the 400 relay, where freshman Colin McNeeley, junior Austen Oaks, freshman Eric Knight and sophomore Jacob Casper won in 46.00 seconds. The victory was Manchester’s second-straight in the event, but this year’s relay was without Tom Naragon and Kegan McNeeley, who was a two-time sectional champion in the 100. “There’s two returning guys and we have freshmen running those two other spots, so we are young,” Cassel said. Valley also has a young squad, and with low numbers, coach Alysha Wachtmann was just looking to advance some individuals. Among those individuals was junior Derrick Cunningham, who finished second last year in the high jump and fourth in the long jump. However, seeded fourth in both events this year, he finished fifth in the high jump and sixth in the long jump. “Derrick didn’t do as well as we thought he was going to, and he’s pretty bummed about that,” Wachtmann said. Valley did advance two individuals, as sophomore Michael Thacker was second in the 100 and junior Nolan Sponseller finished runner-up in both the 200 and 400. “Nolan Sponseller did really great for us, getting second in the 200 and the 400,” Wachtmann said. “He’s running his best times of the year, which is right where we want him to be. “Besides Derrick, we’re moving on the people that we thought would go,” she added. “So, we had a good night.” Triton freshman Jeremy Jones will be his team’s only representative in Kokomo, finishing fourth in the 100. Outside of Plymouth celebrating with the trophy, Cassel and the Squires were the most excited team at the meet, considering their only sectional title was in 1997. “I’m pretty excited about what they did,” Cassel said. “(Senior) Cole (Sellers) had personal records) in discus and shot,” she added, as Sellers was second in the discus. “We had PRs all over the place tonight. Both my hurdlers PR’d, long jump PR’d, high jump PR’d, I mean you just name it, we PR’d tonight. The kids did awesome.” Manchester’s other regional qualifiers are McNeeley (3rd place, 100), sophomore Matthew Fahs-Brown (4th, 3200) and Carter (4th, high jump).
PLYMOUTH SECTIONAL Team Scores – Plymouth 128, Manchester 89, Rochester 86, Culver Military Academy 85.5, Northfield 62, Culver 62, Tippecanoe Valley 41, Triton 24, Caston 22.5, North Miami 21 (Top 4 Advance to Kokomo Regional; Winners and Local Results) 100 – 1. Michael Hartman (Ply) 11.48, 2. Michael Thacker (TV) 11.68, 3. Colin McNeeley (Man) 11.78, 4. Jeremy Jones (Tri) 11.88, 6. Jacob Casper (Man) 11.93; 200 – 1. Hartman (Ply) 23.08, 2. Nolan Sponseller (TV) 23.13, 5. Jones (Tri) 24.36; 400 – 1. Hartman (Ply) 50.87, 2. Sponseller (TV) 51.30, 9. Drew Mosson (Tri) 55.21, 13. Eric Knight (Man) 57.03, 15. Simon Diefenbaugh (Man) 58.48, 16. Bryce Wanemacher (Tri) 58.56; 800 – 1. William Hibbard (CMA) 1:59.93, 7. Trenton Stackhouse (Tri) 2:13.06, 8. Derek Johnston (Tri) 2:14.04, 11. Shay Merley (TV) 2:17.76, 16. Skyler Burke (Man) 2:25.73; 1600 – 1. Alex Gudeman (Roch) 4:35.61, 5. Stackhouse (Tri) 4:41.35; 3200 – 1. Caleb Augustus (Nfield) 9:53.03, 4. Matthew Fahs-Brown (Man) 10:09.04; 110 Hurdles – 1. Micah Budzinski (Culver) 15.87, 2. Brodi Carter (Man) 16.38, 4. Gunner Ream (Man) 17.40, 6. Deonte’e Smith (TV) 18.87, 7. Blake Johnson (Tri) 18.99; 300 Hurdles – 1. Carter (Man) 43.40, 2. Ream (Man) 44.95, 8. Anthony Leadford (TV) 47.78, 9. Smith (TV) 48.22, 11. Johnson (Tri) 48.80; 400 Relay – 1. Manchester (McNeeley, Austen Oaks, Knight, Casper) 46.00, 6. Tippy Valley 46.60, 10. Triton 50.54; 1600 Relay – 1. Plymouth 3:32.38, 6. Tippy Valley 3:44.03, 7. Manchester 3:47.08, 8. Triton 3:51.00; 3200 Relay – 1. Rochester 8:18.60, 6. Manchester 9:28.70, 7. Triton 9:39.64; High Jump – 1. Bradley Beaver (Culver) 6-5, 4. Carter (Man) 6-0, 5. Derrick Cunningham (TV) 6-0, 8. Dalton Day (Man) 5-6; Long Jump – 1. Ream (Man) 20-8.5, 6. Cunningham (TV) 19-10.5, 14. Phillip Stepp (Tri) 16-8; Pole Vault – 1. Cameron Bugno (Roch) 13-0, 6. Jessi Burkholder (Tri) 10-0; Shot Put – 1. Adam Lacefield (Ply) 52-10.25, 5. Cole Sellers (Man) 46-3, 10. Aaron Hoffman (TV) 40-8, 11. Codi Hutchinson (Man) 40-4, 12. Nick Gamble (TV) 40-0, 16. Kain Coomer (Tri) 37-3.5, 17. Justin Martin (Tri) 35-8; Discus – 1. Dan Samuelson (Ply) 151-0, 2. Sellers (Man) 150-0, 8. Gary Blevins (Man) 117-0, 13. Zackery Shumaker (Tri) 109-0, 14. Bennett Ullery (Tri) 108-9, 15. A. Hoffman (TV) 108-5, 19. Jordan Fraser (TV) 81-11
