Whitko Second At Plymouth

PLYMOUTH -ÊWhitko's Tim Mason did one practice long jump then walked over to the chain-linked fence where his coach, Ron Cherry, stood.

"I think I'm going to be on tonight," he told his coach.

He was. Then again, he's been on all year long, going undefeated in the long jump, 100- and 200-meter runs. Mason helped Whitko to three first places and 32 points Thursday as the Wildcat track team placed second in Thursday's Plymouth Sectional.

The only surprise was who the Wildcats lost to. Culver Military Academy - not Plymouth, the favorite - won the meet with 113 points. Whitko finished a close second with 109.5 points, while Plymouth pulled in third with 102. CMA had one loss this season. It came to Plymouth.

"We figured Plymouth was the team to beat, and that we were chasing them," Cherry said.

Afterward as the coaches gathered under the Plymouth press box to collect the results, they talked about the 200 and the consequences of the race. Mason's teammate, Aaron Engle, tripped and fell at the arrows near the finish line.

Cherry had Engle at least fourth. Northfield's coach said maybe third, if not second. Instead, Engle finished last in eighth place. Second place would have earned him eight points; eighth place earned him one.

"We lost a few points when Aaron fell in the 200," Cherry said. "He would have finished in the top four had he not fallen. But he did well in the pole vault (fourth), actually better than we had hoped for. So I guess that was a trade-off."

The meet marked the second time in three days a Whitko track and field team just missed first place in a sectional. The Whitko girls track and field team fell by one point, 97-96, to Plymouth in Tuesday's Tippecanoe Valley Sectional.

All the Whitko boys did this year was win their first Three Rivers Conference title since 1983 and go 10-0 in dual meets. Cherry has said often this is the best Whitko team he has had in his 14 years as Whitko coach.

Had the Wildcats found a way to beat CMA, they would have won their first sectional title. They have finished second at the sectional three times.

But the Eagles, who won their third sectional title, finished strong. With only five events left, CMA found itself in fourth place, trailing first place by 13 points.

They ended the evening by taking second in the 3,200 run and first in the 1,600 relay, the last two events. Those two finishes earned them 18 points and a sectional championship.

For Whitko, the story, as it has been all year, was Mason. He won three individual first places; no other athlete did that. Only two others won two individual events. Manchester's Nick Iden swept the hurdles, and CMA's Nathan Melicharek won the 800 and 1,600.

Mason won the 100 with a time of 11.05 seconds and the 200 with a time of 22.60 seconds. He long jumped 22-feet, 3-inches.

In the track world, he won easily. He finished .45 seconds ahead of Manchester's Brandon Reimer in the 100 and nearly a full second ahead of Reimer in the 200. He beat Reimer by nearly a foot in the long jump. Reimer jumped 21-3 1/2.

"It's nice to have Tim to count on," Cherry said. "He didn't really have anyone close to him this week, but next week will be a different story."

Mason had help. Whitko's Eboka Mullins won the discus with a throw of 161-8 and took third in the shot put with a toss of 46-2 1/4. Teammate Jimmy Linn took third in the 300 hurdles, while Jered Deckena took fourth in the 400. The Wildcats finished second in the 400 relay and third in the 3,200 relay.

"We did well, and in very few instances, I'm not sure we could have done a whole lot better," Cherry said. "We competed tonight about as well as we could have."

The top four individuals in each event advance to Thursday's Kokomo Regional.

PLYMOUTH BOYS TRACK & FIELD SECTIONAL

May 21, 1998

CMA and top four individuals/relay teams advance to Kokomo Regional

Point system (for top eight places): 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1

Team results - 1. CMA 113, 2. Whitko 109.5, 3. Plymouth 102, 4. Manchester 100, 5. Northfield 57, 6. Tippecanoe Valley 45.5, 7. Rochester 41, 8. Triton 27, 9. Culver 18, 10. Argos 8, 11. Caston 1

3,200 relay - 1. CMA (members not available) 8:20.68, 2. Northfield 8:30.71, 3. Whitko 8:36.49, 4. Plymouth 8:38.68, 5. Rochester 8:41.07, 6. Triton 8:57.75, 7. Manchester 8:58.70, 8. Culver Community 9:04.98

100 - 1. Tim Mason (WHI) :11.05, 2. Rex Reimer (MAN) :11.50, 3. Raul Valenzuela (CMA) :11.57, 4. Michael Hendrix (MAN) :11.77, 5. Robert Shumowsky (CC) :11.79, 6. Rob Riewoldt (PLY) :11.86, 7. Mike McNeal (TV) :11.88, 8. Aaron Engle (WHI) :11.95

1,600 - 1. Nathan Melicharek (CMA) 4:29.30, 2. Andy Cook (PLY) 4:31.46, 3. Daniel Sweet (CMA) 4:32.26, 4. Mason McIntyre (TRI) 4:36.51, 5. Jason Parks (NF) 4:37.99, 6. Jeremy Stacy (MAN), 4:51.70, 7. Cody McClure (NF) 4:56.84, 8. Dan Jefferies 4:57.43

400 relay - 1. Manchester (members not available) :44.35, 2. Whitko :44.71, 3. CMA :45.02, 4. Plymouth :45.06, 5. Tippecanoe Valley :46.09, 6. Rochester :47.15, 7. Culver Community :47.26, 8. Northfield :48.19

400 - 1. Michael Hass (CMA) :51.65, 2. Andy Barker (PLY) :52.65, 3. Matt Gidley (PLY) :53.05, 4. Jered Deckena (WHI) :53.47, 5. Eric Prater (TV) :53.60, 6. Andres Bueker (MAN) :53.71, 7. Ben Mohr (WHI) :54.15, 8. Brad Dester (CAS) :56.33

300 low hurdles - 1. Nick Iden (MAN) :39.71, 2. Annon Gaerte (MAN) :41.75, 3. Jimmy Linn :41.82, 4. Joey Manns (TV) :42.06, 5. Sam Pete (CMA) :42.13, 6. Troy Dittman (TV) :42.24, 7. Brian Teall (PLY) :43.30, 8. Trent Powell (ROC) :43.38

200 - 1. Tim Mason (WHI) :22.60, 2. Rex Reimer (MAN) :23.55, 3. Bamidele Adesida (CMA) :23.80, 4. Rick Redfern (CMA) :24.13, 5. Robert Shumowsky (CC) :24.35, 6. Kevin Jimenez (ROC) :24.45, 7. Travis Schmidt (PLY) :24.55, 8. Aaron Engle (WHI) :29.45

3,200 -Ê1. Chad Andrews (NF) 9:36.25, 2. Daniel Sweet (CMA) 9:48.87, 3. Mason McIntyre (TRI) 9:59.70, 4. Jason Parks (NF) 10:00.52, 5. Andy Cook (PLY) 10:33.71, 6. Bill McFarland (CC) 10:36.71, 7. Daryl Nicodemus (WHI) 10:41.33, 8. Jeremy Stacy (MAN) 10:45.24

discus - 1. Eboka Mullins (WHI) 161-8, 2. Dustin Burkett (ROC) 144-4, 3. Nathan Quick (PLY) 139-2, 4. Greg Groombridge (MAN) 137-8, 5. Ray Smith (WHI) 135-9, 6. Jason Arnett (ROC) 130-10, 7. Jon Reidy (CMA) 130-4, 8. Dan Denaut (PLY) 130-0

shot put - 1. Jason Arnett (ROC) 53-10 3/4, 2. Dan Denaut (PLY) 49-0, 3. Eboka Mullins (WHI) 46-2 1/4, 4. Ben Brubaker (ROC) 44-7 1/2, 5. Ray Smith (WHI) 44-3/4, 6. Greg Groombridge (MAN) 44-1/2, 7. Jeb Terry (CMA) 43-9 3/4, 8. Jon Reidy (CMA) 43-3

high jump - 1. Dave Schadek (PLY) 6-5, 2. Richard Warren (ARG) 6-4, 3. Brett Wiscons (PLY) 6-0, 4. Cory Brainard (NF) 5-10, 5. Josh Heck (TRI) 5-8, 5. Ben Mohr (WHI) 5-8, 7. Noah Silveus (TV) 5-8

pole vault - 1. Josh Heck (TRI) 13-6, 2. Taylor Thomas (CMA) 13-3, 3. Jared Haupert (NF) 12-6, 4. Aaron Engle (WHI) 12-0, 5. Su-Chin Lin (CMA) 11-0, 5. Josh Halon (PLY) 11-0, 7. Dan Smith (CC) 10-6

long jump - 1. Tim Mason (WHI) 22-3, 2. Rex Reimer (MAN) 21-3 1/2, 3. Cory Brainard (NF) 20-11 1/4, 4. Rob Riewoldt (PLY) 20-3, 5. Adam Bernicky (WHI) 20-2 1/2, 6. Joey Manns (TV) 19-7 3/4, 7. Jeremy Stotler (CC) 19-0, 8. Deric Beck (ROC) 18-10 3/4

1,600 relay - 1. CMA (Nathan Denkel, Michael Hass, Nathan Melicharek, Sam Pete) 3:30, 2. Manchester, 3. Whitko, 4. Plymouth

110 hurdles - 1. Nick Iden (MAN) :14.9, 2. Adam Smith (TRI) :15.5, 3. Andres Bueker (MAN) :15.58, 4. Travis Coles (PLY) :15.92

800 -Ê1. Nathan Melicharek (CMA) 2:01, 2. Kevin Hileman (TV) 2:02, 3. David Schadek (PLY) 2:03, 4. Nathan Denkel (CMA) 2:03.37