Bluffton has two individual sectional champs as well
By JOSH BURRIS
MARION – The Norwell Knights placed second in Thursday’s sectional track and field meet at Indiana Wesleyan on Thursday with 104.5 points.
Only Oak Hill outscored the Knights, finishing as the team champion with 111 points.
Marion took third with 99.5 points, folowed by Mississinewa with 72, Bluffton with 69.5, Frankton with 40, Eastbrook with 38, Wabash with 29, Blackford with 19, Southwood and Alexandria with 15 each, Elwood with 7, Northfield with 2.5, and Southern Wells with 2.
Norwell had athletes qualify for regional in nine of the 16 events. The top three finishers in each event will compete again at IWU next Thursday.
Trevon Stoppenhagen finished second in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.59 and the 200 meter dash with a time of 23.22.
Jake Parker was second in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.61 and third in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 40.83.
Dylan Osborn was second in the 400 meter dash with a time of 51.28, Kyle Zeddis was second in the discus with a throw of 136 feet 3 inches, and Kellen Zimmer was third in pole vault clearing 11 feet 6 inches.
Two Norwell relays also advanced to regional with third-place finishes. The 4×800 meter relay of Eli Behning, Zach Waldman, Bobby Kwandrans, and Zander Huss finished with a time of 8:34.9, and the 4×100 meter relay of Timothy Bonjour, Noah Fromm, Blake Haiflich, and Parker Stringer finished with a time of 44.74.
Norwell held a slim lead over Oak Hill in the team standings going into the 4×400 meter relay, but a first-place finish for Oak Hill and a sixth-place finish for Norwell bumped the Golden Eagles into first place.
The runner-up finish for Norwell is the highest it has placed at sectional since 2016 when it placed second with 91 points.
Norwell coach Adam Prater said they came in with hopes of their first championship since 2003, so the second-place finish was not a surprise to him.
“We knew we could get first if everything hit the right way,” Prater said. “We are not shocked by what happened tonight in any way, shape or form. We came to win. We just came up short.”
Still, Prater was happy to see how much his team has improved from start to finish this season. The Knights lost to Bluffton at the Wells County meet and finished behind Bluffton in the South Adams Invitational, but won the Heritage Invite and nearly won the NE8 Conference meet.
Prater said those were moments that helped get his team to buy in.
“From the start of the season to now, I just became that hype man. I’ve said ‘Hey, believe what you can do. Believe this hype,’” Prater said. “And that was it, and it was just building every week that confidence and being that hype man. Just buy in and believe.”
Bluffton qualified for regional in five events and had two individual champions.
Gus Martinez won the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.41 and the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 40.48.
Johnny Cruz won the shot put with a throw of 48 feet and 5 inches.
Joining them at regional will be Carter McConnell, who placed third in the 400 meter dash with a time of 51.62, and the 4×800 meter relay of Sam Baumgartner, Jude Baumgartner, Tyler Godwin, and Markis Crosbie that placed second with a time of 8:32.52.
“Obviously winning the conference meet, we felt really good about where we were, but as we kind of looked at seed times and projections, we adjusted our lineup over the last few days and pulled some guys back to give them an opportunity to move on,” Kunkel said. “Phenominal night for our guys. I look at times and stuff like that and yeah we are in fifth place, but we ran better times tonight than we’ve ran all year.”
Southern Wells scored points in two events, but did not have any athletes advance to regional. The top eight finishers in each event score poitns for their team.
Potter Garrett finished eighth in the 1,600 meter run with a time of 4:56.28. Garrett, along with Rio Horner, Andrew Aker, and Joshua Bricker also finished eighth in the 4×800 meter relay with a time of 9:29.58.
Raiders coach Gary Paxson said while his team is young and still getting experience, he liked the effort.
“We competed as best we could in all our events. I was really proud of Potter Garrett in the 1,600,” Paxson said. “Our kids tonight, just like our girls on Tuesday, have really performed at their best in the last couple weeks. We’ve taught our kids most of the year that we don’t want to be our best at the beginning of the year. We want to be our best at the ACAC and the sectional. And that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Norwell’s regional qualifiers scored in other events as well.
Zeddis was fourth in shot put with a throw of 44 feet 6.75 inches. Waldman was fourth in the 3,200 meter run with a time of 10:31.99. Osborn was fifth in the 200 meter dash with a time of 23.59. Bonjour was sixth in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.13. Huss was sixth in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:07.64.
Hayden Bennett was fifth in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 42.96. Winston Frauhiger was fifth in high jump, clearing 5 feet 10 inches. Grant Meyer was fifth in pole vault, clearing 10 feet. Drew Ringger was sixth in high jump at 5 feet 10 inches and eighth in long jump at 19 feet 1 inch. Andrew Renninger was seventh in the 1,600 meter run with a time of 4:52.25.
The Knights’ 4×400 meter relay that placed sixth finished with a time of 3:37.
On the Bluffton side, Martinez was fourth in long jump at 20 feet 4.25 inches, McConnell was fourth in high jump at 5 feet 10 inches, and Godwin was fifth in the 3,200 meter run with a time of 10:33.07.
Bluffton scored in six other events. Andrew Hunt was seventh in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 17.06 and eighth in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 43.74. Jon San Juan was seventh in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.16. Cameron Farmer was seventh in the shot put at 42 feet 3.25 inches. Austin Geimer was eighth in high jump at 5 feet 8 inches.
Bluffton’s 4×100 meter relay also placed fifth with a time of 45.88.
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