KOKOMO – The Penn Kingsmen won the last event, and because of it, got the last laugh. With a victory in the 1600 relay, the eighth-ranked Kingsmen won Thursday’s boys track regional at Kokomo High School with 83 points. Capping their evening off with a second-place finish in the meet’s final race, the seventh-ranked Warsaw Tigers left Kokomo with 82 points and a runner-up finish. Truly, the only thing hotter than Thursday’s temperatures at the start of the meet was the battle between the two state-ranked teams. “You can’t deny the effort we had tonight,” said Warsaw coach Matt Thacker, whose team won the regional last year for the first time in nearly 30 years. “The guys wanted to win. Not everything went our way tonight, but those things happen. We’ve had a lot of things go right this year. Second is difficult, but we have nothing to hang our heads about or be ashamed of.” A total of 32 teams scored at least one point. Mishawaka finished third with 62.5 points, followed in the top 10 by South Bend Clay (49), Kokomo (44), Fairfield (43), Elkhart Memorial (32), St. Joe (31), Concord (26) and Goshen (23). Among other local teams, Manchester finished 13th with 15 points, Tippecanoe Valley was 23rd with four points, and Wawasee finished 27th with two points. After eight events were completed and scored, Warsaw held a 10-point advantage over Penn. Going into the final event, the Tigers’ advantage was down to a mere point, and the foursome of Mark Richards, Christian Hall, Conner Sowders and Timothy Deal won the 1600 relay in a time of 3:21.47. Warsaw’s quartet of Wyatt Jones, Spencer Rheinhardt, Ryan Goon and Chad Goon crossed the finish line in 3:22.06. “Penn has a heck of a group,” said Thacker, whose team lost 67-65 to the Kingsmen in a dual meet on March 29 but beat them at both the Max Truex Invitational and Goshen Relays. “It’s the regional, and we knew it would be a grind. That’s the way it is. There’s all kinds of intangibles at this meet. The regional is just a different animal. It’s just the nature of the beast.” The top three individuals or teams in each event, as well as those who met the state standard, advanced to the state meet on June 2 at Indiana University in Bloomington. Penn won five events Thursday. Warsaw won three events, and will be represented in the state meet in six events. Sophomore Stephen Kolbe was the Tigers’ first winner of the evening, as he took top honors in the high jump with a height of 6-7. “Finally,” said Kolbe when asked how good it felt to win the event. “I thought I deserved to win last year, but it came down to jumps and I finished second. This feels great.” Just moments after Kolbe’s victory, sophomore Ellis Coon (4:20.56) and junior Jacob Poyner (4:22.05) finished first and second, respectively, for the Tigers in the 1600. Warsaw’s third and final regional champion was senior Spencer Rheinhardt, who won the 800 in a time of 1:55.07. “It felt great,” Rheinhardt, who will run at Notre Dame next season, said of his race. “I had a lot left for that last 200 (meters).” For thhe majority of the two-lap race, Rheinhardt ran in a small pack with Fairfield’s Dillon Hinen, Joey Zielinski of St. Joe, and Poyner. Over the final 200 meters, however, Rheinhardt found another gear and a regional championship. Jones advanced to the state meet with a third-place time of 49.93 seconds in the 400. While finishing second in the overall team standings was disapppointing to Thacker and his team, Warsaw has had an outstanding season. The Tigers were 7-0 in Northern Lakes Conference meets. They won the NLC Meet and overall conference title, the Goshen Relays and the Goshen Sectional. Thacker is in his fourth season as Warsaw’s head coach, and the Tigers have made strides each year. “It’s amazing what this team has done,” said Thacker. “It’s been an impressive ride, from winning a few meets, to winning a few more, to what we did last year, to this year. It’s about the kids buying in to what we’re trying to do.” Manchester’s Keegan McNeeley finished fourth in the 100 in a time of 11.13 seconds, just behind third-place finisher Wesley Thomas of Clay’s time of 11.05. McNeeley will compete in the state meet due to a competitor at Kokomo scratching from the event. McNeeley’s teammate, Cole Sellers, was fourth in the discus with a distance of 154 feet, 5 inches. Sellers was just two inches short of advancing to state. Tippecanoe Valley’s Nolan Sponseller finished fifth in the 400 in a time of 51.35 seconds. Wawasee’s best finish came from Jacob Schwartz, who was seventh in the shot put with a distance of 50 feet, 2-1/2 inches. KOKOMO REGIONAL Note – top three finishers, and those who met state standard, advance to June 2 state finals at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Team scores – Penn 83, Warsaw 82, Mishawaka 62.5, Clay 49, Kokomo 44, Fairfield 43, Elkhart Memorial 32, St. Joseph's 31, Concord 26, Goshen 23, Eastern-Greentown 23, Riley 20, Manchester 15, Jimtown 12, Adams 15, Northfield 8, Rochester 8, Northridge 7.5, Culver Academies 6, Western 6, Elkhart Christian 5, Bremen 5, Tippecanoe Valley 4, John Glenn 4, LaVille 3, Elkhart Central 3, Pioneer 2, Wawasee 2, Lewis Cass 2, Plymouth 2, Taylor 1, Logansport 1. 3200 relay (State standard 7:55.55): 1, Mishawaka (Jordan Annis, Justin DuVall, Miguel Lozano, Eric Hancock) 8:03.08. 2, Penn (Zach Johnson, Tyler Krathwohl, Aaron Long, Thomas Gales) 8:07.46. 3, Goshen (Luke Kaufman, Louis Kissinger, Logan Schlabach, Reid Zimmerman) 8:12.91. 4, Warsaw 8:25.22. 5, Elkhart Memorial 8:26.95. 6, Eastern-Greentown 8:30.08. 7, St. Joseph's 8:30.68. 8, Culver Academies 8:32.50. 110 hurdles (State standard 14.74): 1, Jordan Hunt (Clay) 14.94. 2, Taylor Killings (Kokomo) 14.95. 3, Curlean Williams (Mishawaka) 15.38. 4, Grant Bass (Concord) 15.55. 5, Taylor Cone (Warsaw) 15.60. 6, Colin Huff (Penn) 15.89. 7, Drew Shepherd (Lewis Cass) 16.21. 8, Jay'Shon Jones (Taylor) 16.58. 100 (State standard 11.06): 1, Thomas Grant (Penn) 10.92. 2, Davontea Millsaps (Elkhart Memorial) 10.99. 3, Wesley Thomas (Clay) 11.05. 4, Kegan McNeeley (Manchester) 11.13. 5, Brett Baumgartner (Fairfield) 11.32. 6, Devan Emerson (Jimtown) 11.36. 7, Blake Thomas (Eastern-Greentown) 11.47. 8, Wyatt Jones (Warsaw) 11.56. NOTE: Thomas Grant (Penn) scratched from state finals competition in this event. 1600 (State standard 4:18.20): 1, Ellis Coon (Warsaw) 4:20.56. 2, Jacob Poyner (Warsaw) 4:22.05. 3, Joey Zielinski (St. Joseph's) 4:26.53. 4, Joel Hartman (Elkhart Christian) 4:30.14. 5, Lucas Runyan (John Glenn) 4:32.27. 6, Bruce Bragg (Riley) 4:36.35. 7, Leo Burguete (Culver Academies) 4:39.55. 8, Dominic Patacsil (Logansport) 4:44.90. 400 relay (State standard 42.53): 1, Penn (Joseph Weller, Sean Domal, Thomas Grant, Tim Deal) 42.04 (REGIONAL RECORD. Previous record: 42.10 by Lawrence Central, 1989). 2, Elkhart Memorial (Davontea Millsaps, Caleb Platz, Derek Fisher, Urston Smith) 42.32. 3, Clay (Justin Cavallo, Wesley Thomas, Tony Shead, Jordan Hunt) 42.72. 4, Warsaw 43.33. 5, Fairfield 43.36. 6, Kokomo 43.55. 7, Eastern-Greentown 44.06. 8, Riley 44.44. 400 (State standard 49.40): 1, Tony Moses (Kokomo) 48.70. 2, Conner Sowders (Penn) 49.73. 3, Wyatt Jones (Warsaw) 49.93. 4, Thomas Capers (Riley) 50.05. 5, Nolan Sponseller (Tippecanoe Valley) 51.35. 6, Jordyn Williams (LaVille) 51.84. 7, Matt Dorris (Pioneer) 52.30. 8, Aaron Hensley (Mishawaka) 52.36. 300 hurdles (State standard 39.06): 1, Grant Bass (Concord) 38.68. 2, Tim Deal (Penn) 38.74. 3, Jordan Hunt (Clay) 39.29. 4, Tyler Bradley (Mishawaka) 39.37. 5, Taylor Cone (Warsaw) 40.95. 6, Christian Barron (Goshen) 41.25. 7, Bryson Sparks (Kokomo) 41.37. 8, Ryan Goon (Warsaw) 42.02 800 (State standard 1:54.84): 1, Spencer Rheinhardt (Warsaw) 1:55.07. 2, Dillon Hinen (Fairfield) 1:56.50. 3, Joey Zielinski (St. Joseph's) 1:56.55. 4, Jacob Poyner (Warsaw) 1:58.51. 5, Eric Hancock (Mishawaka) 2:01.58. 6, William Hibbard (Culver Academies) 2:02.01. 7, Jared Peek (Elkhart Memorial) 2:02.33. 8, Matt Lee (Plymouth) 2:02.83. 200 (State standard 22.22): 1, Thomas Grant (Penn) 22.14. 2, Brett Baumgartner (Fairfield) 22.29. 3, Shaquille Vann (Adams) 22.54. 4, Kegan McNeeley (Manchester) 22.67. 5, Sam Lacher (Bremen) 22.92. 6, Wesley Thomas (Clay) 23.14. 7, Tony Moses (Kokomo) 24.89. 8, Urston Smith (Elkhart Memorial) 25.58. 3200 (State standard 9:18.32): 1, Miguel Lozano (Mishawaka) 9:35.54. 2, Caleb Augustus (Northfield) 9:37.32. 3, Matt Grider (Western) 9:40.25. 4, Josh O'Brien (St. Joseph's) 9:43.36. 5, Robert Murphy (Warsaw) 9:44.62. 6, Andrew Timmons (Adams) 9:45.52. 7, Jordan Annis (Mishawaka) 9:45.59. 8, Blake O'Dell (Northridge) 9:47.53. 1600 relay (State standard 3:20.80): 1, Penn (Mark Richards, Christian Hill, Conner Sowders, Tim Deal) 3:21.47. 2, Warsaw (Wyatt Jones, Spencer Rheinhardt, Ryan Goon, Chad Goon) 3.22.06. 3, Elkhart Memorial (Stewart McNeal, Jared Peek, Blake Kramer, Davontea Millsaps) 3:25.91. 4, Mishawaka 3:26.13. 5, Fairfield 3:27.25. 6, Concord 3:29.75. 7, St. Joseph's 3:30.45. 8, Bremen 3:31.80. High jump (State standard 6-5 1/2): 1, Stephen Kolbe (Warsaw) 6-7. 2, Tony Shead (Clay) 6-6. 3, Reade Carboneau (Goshen) 6-3. 4, Ramsen Bet-Nimrod (Rochester) 6-3. 5, Robert Lambert (Mishawaka) 6-3. 6, Mike Buchanan (Mishawaka) 6-3. 7, Waylon Coulter (Kokomo) 6-2. 8, Zachery Rooney (Warsaw) 6-1. Long jump (State standard 21-8 1/4): 1, Tony Shead (Clay) 23-1 1/4. 2, Devan Emerson (Jimtown) 22-5 3/4. 3, Grant Cole (Eastern-Greentown) 22-2 1/2. 4, Tim Deal (Penn) 22-0. 5, Curlean Williams (Mishawaka) 21-5. 6, Armon Bridgeforth (Kokomo) 21-1 1/2. 7, Dillon Lockwood (Fairfield) 21-0. 8, Marquis Schieber (Jimtown) 20-3 3/4. NOTE: Tim Deal (Penn) scratched from state finals competition in this event. Shot put (State standard 54-3 1/2): 1, Josiah Price (Eastern-Greentown) 55-8 1/2. 2, Brandon Daniels (Goshen) 54-9 1/2. 3, Tony Thomas (Riley) 53-5. 4, Marcus Dozier (Riley) 52-0 1/2. 5, Darrion McAlister (Kokomo) 51-3. 6, Michael Snider (Elkhart Central) 50-11. 7, Jacob Schwartz (Wawasee) 50-2 1/2. 8, Adam Lacefield (Plymouth) 50-0. Discus: (State standard 165-2): 1, Joe Demaegd (St. Joseph's) 162-6. 2, Jason Spriggs (Concord) 162-2. 3, Kyle Ostrander (Fairfield) 154-7. 4, Cole Sellers (Manchester) 154-5. 5, Darrion McAlister (Kokomo) 152-0. 6, Alex Soptich (Elkhart Memorial) 149-4. 7, Dalton Hinen (Fairfield) 146-11. 8, Samuel Daggy (Penn) 146-4. Pole vault (State standard 14-9): 1, Kyle Johnston (Penn) 15-9 (REGIONAL RECORD. Previous record: 15-8 by Kyle Gann, Western, 2007). 2, Matt Horsman (Mishawaka) 13-9. 3, Josh Rheinheimer (Northridge) 13-6. 4, Cameron Kitson (Fairfield) 13-6. 5, Avery Barrett (Kokomo) 13-6. 6, Cameron Bugno (Rochester) 13-0. 7, Waylon Coulter (Kokomo) 13-0. 8, Tie between Tanner Bradley (Mishawaka) and Devin Puckett (Northridge) 12-6.
