By RYAN WALKER
The Norwell girls’ and boys’ track teams swept the Wells County track championships at Bluffton High School Thursday night.
The girls won with a team score of 86, Bluffton came in second with 55, and Southern Wells third with 14.
Norwell won the boys with a score of 87, Bluffton second with 60, and Southern Wells 9.
Even with the domination, the Norwell head coaches didn’t take the victories for granted after Bluffton did the same thing to the Knights last year.
“It feels really good because we had won it for so many years, and then last year, Bluffton clinched it from us, so it’s good to get that back,” Norwell girls head coach Deidre Stoppenhagen said after the meet. “We had some great performances, and we’re still running girls to get times to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. All of those girls showed up tonight.”
“It’s been since 19’, since before we had that COVID year off.,” Norwell boys head coach Adam Prater said. “We haven’t had it, and they’ve had our number the whole time. It’s nice to come in and take that back and show some dominance tonight.”
Bluffton’s group returned a load of its boys’ team from a year ago, but the girls lost a ton of its top team points to graduation. Both still had strong performances against a stronger and growing Norwell squad. Even head coach Brent Kunkel admitted it and has the most respect for the two Knight coaches.
“First off, we were just saying that’s a much, much better Norwell team than they were a year ago, so credit to coach Prater and coach Deidre,” Kunkel said, who is the head coach for both the boys and the girls. “They’re really good. I really think, looking at them right now, and I told coach Prater I don’t know if they’re a dual meet team, that’s a sectional team, though. They have some points that are going to hold up. It was a good test for us.”
On both squads, the Tigers have a lot to root for with their firepower.
The boys’ distance team of Tyler Godwin, Sam and Jude Baumgartner, and Levi Johns dominated the events at the meet. The four also came in first through fourth in the cross country season at the conference meet and are looking to keep the momentum rolling into the track season as they did.
The four are the primary scorers for the team, and Kunkel said they’re carrying the Tigers on the team score right now.
Lauren Reiff for the girls is coming off of an appearance at the state meet in the discus last year, where she placed seventh and could become a three-time conference champion in her senior campaign.
Reiff and a few others stood out to Kunkel the most, though, at the meet.
“I think Lauren Reiff, she’s phenomenal,” Kunkel said. “She’s going to go undefeated in the discus. I’ll tell you, Maryn Schreiber, from where she was a year ago as a mid-distance person to where she now has really stepped up. Our two young sprinters Ava Troxel, Rylynn Penick in the 100, Ava in the 200, and Haley Gibson in the long jump and the 200.”
Southern Wells has a young team and, despite finishing third, has shown promise with its mostly young roster.
Head coach for the Raiders, Gary Paxson, was telling his group that he was proud of the team and they need to continue to get better to prove they belonged at the meet.
“We did a lot of good things tonight,” Paxson said. “We’re getting better. That’s what I just told the kids. We’re getting better. I told the kids before we left the school tonight and earlier in the week, we’re going to see a lot of good kids from Bluffton and Norwell. We want to be like those kids, but we’ve got to know we’re not those kids right now, and we performed really well.”
Paxson said that a few of his runners were disappointed in the places they finished despite shaving off seconds in time. He said that his group is motivated to get better and that they truly work hard at what they do in practice and what they show in the meets.
One of the ways to compare those results is by using the Wells County Invitational and building off of those numbers by the end of the season. All three schools are in the same sectional at Indiana Wesleyan in mid-May.
“We’re going to compare our times and scores to what goes on at the sectional in May,” he said. “We’re going to see where we got better, and I believe we’re going to get better. We just have to believe in ourselves, and we have to trust ourselves, and we have to trust our teammates. We’re getting there.”
Both Paxson and assistant coach Monica Edgeman had high praise for a few of their events.
Brooke Tonner and Brianna Hughett earned first and second at the Owl Invitational recently. Kane Jenkins placed third in the 110 hurdles, and Sydney Alsoft got fifth in the 300 hurdles at the meet.
Norwell will be at the IPT relays at Heritage at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 15.
Bluffton will be at the Oak Hill Invitational at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 15.
Southern Wells will be at home against Adams Central and Heritage at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 18.
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