KOKOMO - Move over Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Leonard Wells and a group of area track and field athletes were singing their own happy tune in Kokomo Thursday evening.
Wells, a Warsaw Community High School senior, won individual regional championships in the discus and shot put, while teammate David Spangle finished first in the high jump and Wawasee senior Eric Brown captured a championship in the 400 before teaming up with Tyson Kaase, Anthony Reyes and Ryan McDonald to win the 1,600 relay.The top three individuals or teams in each event, as well as those who met the state performance standard, advanced to the May 31 state finals at Robert C. Haugh Track Complex at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Other area competitors who advanced to next week's state meet were Warsaw sophomore Victora Sapara-Grant (long jump) and Triton senior Troy McIntyre (high jump).
Wells garnered a big share of the attention at Kokomo High School's Walter Cross Field, and deservedly so.
Competing in the final flight of the discus competion, the top-seeded Wells staged a battle with Mishawaka junior Nick Banke, a showdown that produced a new regional record and new school records at both WCHS and Mishawaka.
When all was said and done, it was Wells' winning effort of 189-0 that stood as the new Kokomo Regional record, while Banke finished second at 183-11.
The previous regional record of 181-1 was set by Huntington North's Derek Dyer in 1998.
"We knew that he had it in him," Warsaw coach David Hoffert said of the Tiger coaching staff's belief in Wells' talent. "(Assistant) Coach (David) Bailey has had nothing but great things to say about Leonard. Leonard is the type of competitor you want to have on your team. Some times you have trouble keeping senior athletes focused this late in the school year. We haven't had a problem with Leonard."
Wells' new school record beat the old mark of 183-1 set by Karl Ottersberg in 1984.
"I thought it was a bad throw at first," Wells said. "It didn't come out (of my hand) right. I used a different disc and I didn't think it was that good of throw at first."
In last week's Goshen Sectional, Wells won with a distance of 176-0, beating runner-up Isaac Burstfield of Fairfield by 35 feet.
After winning the regional, Wells said he was glad he competed against Banke, as the Mishawaka junior forced Wells to work harder.
"It helped so much to have someone to push me along the way," said Wells.
Wells was also the top seed in the shot put competition and backed it up by winning with an effort of 59-11. Banke finished second with a distance of 55-8.5.
Spangle won the high jump with a height of 6-5, while McIntyre finished second at 6-4.
In the long jump competition, Sapara-Grant finished fifth with a leap of 21-9.5, but advanced to state by meeting the performance standard of 21-8.5 on his final attempt.
"We're very proud of Victor," said Hoffert. "It took his last jump to do it, but we knew he was capable of meeting the state standard. He was only off by a little on each of his jumps, so for him to stick with it and get out on his last jump, we couldn't be happier for him."
Warsaw junior Kyle Allison competed in the shot put competition but was unable to advance to the state meet.
In all, there were four WCHS athletes that competed at the regional, with three of them advancing to state, something Hoffert was very proud of. The first-place finishes by Wells and Spangle led the Tigers to a sixth-place finish with 34 points as a team.
"We're ecstatic about getting the kids on to state," said Hoffert. "To be able to score in the 30s as a team with just field events, we're very happy with the guys' efforts tonight. Each one of them hit a PR (personal record) or tied their PR. They're peaking at the right time."
Brown was seeded No. 1 the 400-meter and backed it up with a win in a time of 49.16 seconds.
"I ran the first 200 kind of slow," said Brown, who said he didn't know why he started slow. "I had a bad first 200. I really had to push it to catch Alex (Korentstra of Fairfield)."
Korenstra finished second with a time of 49.64 seconds.
The Warrior foursome of Kaase, Reyes, McDonald and Brown won the 1,600 relay in a time of 3:22.10, more than a second faster than runner-up Elkhart Central.
Elkhart Memorial won the team championship, finishing with 58 points, followed in the top 10 by South Bend Adams (45), Mishawaka (44), Plymouth (39), Northridge (36), Warsaw (34), Elkhart Central (33), South Bend Clay (32), Fairfield (28) and South Bend Washington and Wawasee (26).
Team Scores - Elkhart Memorial 58, S.B. Adams 45, Mishawaka 44, Plymouth 39, Northridge 36, Warsaw 34, Elkhart Central 33, S.B. Clay 32, Fairfield 28, S.B. Washington 26, Wawasee 26, S.B. St. Joe 23, NorthWood 20, Penn 20, Goshen 19, Bremen 19, Marian 18, Concord 14 1/2, Oak Hill 13, Pioneer 9, Triton 9, Culver Military 8, North Miami 8, Western 7 1/2, Peru 6, John Glenn 6, Eastern (Green 5, S.B. Riley 4, Rochester 4, Logansport 3, Kokomo 2, Northwestern 2, Madison-Grant 2, Manchester 1.
4 x 800 relay: 1, Plymouth (Peter Johnson, Mark Danielson, Derek Hill, Curtis Ivy) 8:00.80. 2, Northridge (Austin Ball, Tony Yoder, Mitch Keyser, Andrew Albert) 8:01.70. 3, Goshen (Carmelo Castillo, Michael Murto, Tyler Wynn, Cameron Miller) 8:02.07. 4, St. Joseph's 8:03.08. 5, Mishawaka 8:05.55. 6, Elkhart Memorial 8:17.43.
4 x 100 relay: 1, Elkhart Memorial (Cortez Owens, Louis Gates, Jeremy Mack, Devington Halliburton) 43.13. 2, Clay (Jarrod Buchanon, Daniel Smith, Nick LaVerne, Andrew Adeniyi) 43.22. 3, Washington (Phillip Hobbs, Malcolm Pennix, Labbaeus Davidson, Troyvier Franklin) 43.62. 4, Marian 44.02. 5, Fairfield 44.13. 6, Wawasee 44.46.
400: 1, Eric Brown (Wawasee) 49.16. 2, Alex Korenstra (Fairfield) 49.64. 3, Tyler Sult (Mishawaka) 50.06. 4, Atwan Branch (Elk Memorial) 50.79. 5, Jeff Marbury (Elk Central) 51.10. 6, Brandon Wilson (Logansport) 51.42.
300 intermediate hurdles: 1, Logan Griffith (Adams) 38.58. 2, Devington Halliburton (Elk Memorial) 38.75. 3, Tyler Gangloff (Fairfield) 39.13. 4, Kyle Anderson (Oak Hill) 39.69. 5, Daniel Ching (Culver Military Academy) 39.77. 6, Anthony Reyes (Wawasee) 39.97.
800: 1, Lucas Roscoe (Elkhart Central) 1:58.57. 2, Michael Murto (Goshen) 1:59.21. 3, Jack Favorite (Adams) 1:59.49. 4, Andrew Albert (Northridge) 1:59.51. 5, Nathan Payne (Adams) 2:00.17. 6, Aaron Garretson (Peru) 2:00.31.
200: 1, Jared Miller (Bremen) 21.89. 2, Anthony Harper (Concord) 22.11. 3, Juanieco Brown (Adams) 22.47. 4, Andrew Adeniyi (Clay) 22.57. 5, John Brown (Riley) 22.58. 6, Alex Korenstra (Fairfield) 22.68.
Discus: 1, Leonard Wells (Warsaw) 189-0 (REGIONAL RECORD). 2, Nick Banke (Mishawaka) 183-11. 3, Marcus Macellari (St. Joe) 160-6. 4, Justin Ruff (Pioneer) 154-4. 5, Leneil Himes (Plymouth) 151-8. 6, Gregory Miller (No Miami) 149-0.
Pole vault: 1, James Reynolds (NorthWood) 15-3. 2, Kyle Campbell (Penn) 15-0. 3, Jeffrey Veal (Penn) 15-0. 4, Peter Roach (Elk Memorial) 14-8. 5, Braxton Dubois (Rochester) 14-0. 6, Tie between Dakota Swisher (Eastern-Greentown) and Kevin Jackson (Eastern-Greentown) 13-6.
