Depth leads Lady Tigers to third-straight championship
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Anthony Gadson-agadson@timesuniononline.com
Winning its third-straight regional championship, the Warsaw girls track and field team will be represented in five events at the June 6 state finals in Bloomington. Competing at the Tigers Athletic Complex, Warsaw’s only first-place finish came from the 4x100 relay of junior Mariah Harter, sophomore Samantha Alexander, sophomore Audrey Rich and senior Ann Harvuot, but it had enough other points to tally 67 in total. Ninth-ranked Penn was second with 60.5 points, followed by 19th-ranked South Bend Adams’ 56 and 18th-ranked Mishawaka’s 50. “Those points add up,” Warsaw coach Scott Erba said. “Those sixth-place finishes, those fifth-place finishes, seventh, eighth – those are all points that mean something at the end of the meet. When we have an opportunity to score in 13 events, I like that. We don’t have to rely on someone winning 10 points. It’s great if we can, but if we can get those top three finishes, get girls into the finals, that’s a big deal for us.” Joining the 4x100 relay at the state finals will be the 4x800 relay of sophomore Brooke Rhodes, freshman Allison Miller, sophomore Hannah Dawson and freshman Anna Craig, which finished second, and the third-place 4x400 relay of junior Nicole Eckert, Rhodes, senior Jackie Ferguson and junior Tennie Worrell. Individually, Eckert also punched her ticket to the state meet with a second-place finish in the 300 hurdles and senior Claire Hickerson was second in pole vault. The 4x100 relay entered the race as a No. 3 seed, but had its best exchanges of the year, winning in 48.52 seconds, breaking the old regional record of 48.59, as well as the 2006 school record of 48.69, which was set by Tiffany Shepherd, Rachel Voorhorst, Mercedes Plummer and Karrie Burch during a seventh-place finish at the state finals. “Just an incredible performance,” Erba said of the relay. “We talked from the beginning of the season about how this group could break the school record. We kept linking them with the times the girls had in 2006. ‘Hey, in their last dual meet, those guys went 50.5 and you guys went 50.0.’ They’ve just been right there with them, kind of each step of the way, through NLC and sectional. We weren’t even thinking about the regional record, because I didn’t even know what that was.” Perhaps the added boost the relay needed stemmed from a negative for Harvuot. After finishing second in the 100 as a sophomore in the 2012 regionals, Harvuot had to miss the 2013 postseason because of an injury. Back on the track, Harvuot was seeded with the third-fastest time in the 100, but finished sixth. With only the top three places advancing to the state finals, the 4x100 relay was her last chance to keep her prep career alive, and she responded. “The 100 was definitely not my best race,” Harvuot said. “I just didn’t feel 100 percent. Something was off, and it was a really bad night to have something off. Not that it pushed me any more, but it was definitely motivation since it was my last chance to make it to state.” Harvuot acknowledged her job was made easier because Rich had already given the team the lead by the time she received the baton, but she took it home, finishing first and kind of surprising herself. “Our goal was to make it to state,” she said. “First was ideal, but we weren’t really expecting it. We are all really surprised right now, actually.” Another local competitor who keeps surprising herself is Manchester freshman Rae Bedke, who finished second in the 1600 to Mishawaka star Anna Rohrer. While Rohrer, the defending 3200-meter state champion and 2012 cross country state champ, was winning in 4:55.66, Bedke was second in 5:02.97, setting yet another Manchester school record. “I’m just sticking to all the training and all workouts that (distance coach Jody) Sarber gave me,” Bedke said. “It just made me peak at the right time, I guess.” She is definitely peaking and her times are taking some major dips. On May 15, Bedke finished second in the 1600 at the Three Rivers Conference Championships with a time of 5:18.41, then cut that time to 5:12.19 at last week’s Rochester Sectional. Competing against even tougher competition, she stepped her game up even more, cutting almost 10 seconds off her previous best. “I honestly don’t know how much more I can cut off,” she said. “I keep surprising myself. I’m just going to keep training this week, then see what I do. “I’m very competitive,” she added. “I do not like to lose very much.” Bedke was almost joined at the state meet by junior teammate Lindsey Dierks, but her 5-1.25 at high jump was only good for fourth place. Also nearly making the state cut for Warsaw was Alexander at long jump, as her 16-5 was an inch-and-a-half shy of the third-place distance. One girl that was able to make the cut was Hickerson, who also made it to state as a sophomore, but had some problems last year. Following her successful sophomore campaign, which saw her reach state by meeting the state standard of 11-2 at the regional, Hickerson placed eighth at last year’s regionals with a height of 9-6. “It was just one of those sports things, where something mentally just didn’t click,” Hickerson said of her junior season. “I didn’t have a lot of confidence. I crashed a couple times, but you do that and it happens. I’ve gotten back up before, but something just kept me down.” Working her way back into form, she says she didn’t begin to feel comfortable again until last week’s sectional, but she appears to have regained her confidence, clearing 11-0 at the regional. “I don’t think I’ve wanted anything so much for myself, personally and for my team,” she said. And her coach may have wanted it for her just as much. “You talk about perseverance,” Erba said. “To go from her freshman year, learning how to vault. In her sophomore year she had an outstanding start, then had an issue with crashing, but still made it to state. Then last year, just really mentally struggled with the event. This year, each week knowing that this deadline was coming up and knowing what she needed to do. I give her so much credit for taking those strides and really conquering her fears, because that’s what she was dealing with for over a year.” The state finals will take place at Indiana University’s Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex.
