By JOSH BURRIS
MARION – Three track and field athletes from Wells County qualified for the boys’ state meet after placing in the top three of their events in Thursday’s regional meet at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Norwell’s Winston Frauhiger cleared 6 feet 1 inch in high jump to place third, and teammate Jake Parker placed third in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.31.
Bluffton’s Gus Martinez placed third in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 39.9.
Frauhiger may have been the biggest surprise of the trio after placing fifth at last week’s sectional meet, but received a call back to the regional meet. The top three placers in each event advance as well as those that meet the state standard and then a handful receive a call back to fill in the remaining gaps.
Frauhiger was ready to make the most of his opportunity.
“I told myself to just jump as high as you can and that’s all that matters and just went for it,” he said.
Parker and Martinez have gone at it in the hurdles all season long, but Parker had always come up short of beating him, including in the regional prelim.
Parker said before the final began though that he had a feeling this would be his time.
“Right before the finals, I had a runout, and it felt really good. So I knew I could do it,” he said.
“It was awesome to see the hard work pay off,” Parker added about being a state qualifier. “I knew I needed to attack in the finals, and I did and it paid off.”
While Parker and Martinez may be rivals on the track, the two are good friends and are both excited about the other also making it to state.
“Seeing him (Martinez) get out in the 300, it’s awesome that both of us are going down,” Parker said.
“It’s competitive,” Martinez said about running against Parker. “Like at the beginning of the meet, we were kind of not talking and not looking. We are good friends, like right before we said good luck and stuff. He earned it.”
Martinez said anticipated moving on to state in both events, and just missed out on doing so. He finished 0.08 seconds behind Parker in the 110 with a time of 15.39.
After missing the cut in the 110, he made sure the same did not happen in the 300.
“I was kind of expecting to get out in both, but then obviously lost in the 110,” Martinez said. “I did not feel good about that. My dad came and talked to me and gave me a little pep talk, and I was not going to lose in the 300.”
Parker also scored in the 300 hurdles by placing seventh with a time of 40.49.
Dylan Osborn also scored points in the meet for the Knights, finishing sixth in the 400 meter dash with a time of 51.25.
The Knights tied for 13th in the team standings with 17 points.
Martinez was the only Tiger to score points. Bluffton’s 4×800 meter relay of Sam Baumgartner, Jude Baumgartner, Tyler Godwin, and Markis Crosbie just missed out on doing so, placing ninth with a time of 8:27.91.
The 11 points Martinez scored tied the Tigers for 19th in the standings.
Carroll finished as the team champion with 99 points. Churubusco scored 61.5 points to finish as the runner-up.
Rounding out the top five were Concordia with 54 points, Homestead with 39, and Angola with 24.
The Knights competed in five other events in the meet.
Osborn finished 14th in the 200 meter dash prelim with a time of 23.65.
Trevon Stoppenhagen finished 11th in the 100 meter dash prelim with a time of 11.58 and 16th in the 200 prelim with a time of 24.57.
Kyle Zeddis placed 11th in discus with a throw of 138 feet 5 inches.
The Knights’ 4×800 meter relay of Eli Behning, Zach Waldman, Bobby Kwandrans, and Zander Huss placed 11th with a time of 8:33.52. The 4×100 meter relay of Timothy Bonjour, Noah Fromm, Blake Haiflich, and Parker Stringer placed 16th with a time of 45.64.
Kellen Zimmer competed in the pole vault, and Drew Ringger competed in the high jump, but both failed their first three attempts in the event.
Two other Tigers competed in the meet.
Johnny Cruz placed 12th in shot put with a throw of 46 feet 3.25 inches.
Carter McConnell placed 16th in the 400 meter dash with a time of 53.47. He also competed in high jump, but failed his first three attempts.
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