By RYAN WALKER
FORT WAYNE — Norwell is heading home with some state qualifiers.
The Knights entered the boys’ track and field regional at Carroll High School, hopeful to at least get a few moving on to next week’s state championships at Indiana University. By the end of the night, three athletes in four events will make the road trip.
“It’s awesome,” Norwell head coach Adam Prater said after the meet. “I mean, we’re used to one of two. I don’t know the last time we’ve had three on the guys’ end, so it’s nice.”
Winston Frauhiger made it in the high jump at 6-5, placing second in the event, and was one inch short of Angola’s Alex Meyer.
Trevon Stoppenhagen made it in with a second-place finish in the 200m dash with a time of 22.12 and as a callback in the 100m dash with a time of 10.93 in fourth-place. He was .03 seconds short of first in the 200m dash.
Finally, Jake Parker placed third in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.79. Parker hit a personal record and crushed his seed time, which was set at 15.16.
The senior hurdler was happy that he got it out of the way, having some butterflies in the days before the big race.
“It was really good. I was really happy with my 110s and felt great to get it out o the way because I was pretty nervous about this all week. I was happy to advance.”
For Frauhiger and Parker, this will be their second go-around at the state meet, but Stoppenhagen is going for the first time.
Coach Prater has seen a fire in the eyes of his sprinter, saying that he knew Stoppenhagen was on a mission to head to Bloomington the moment he stepped onto the track this year.
“For Trev, from day one of stepping foot on the track this year, it was I’m making it to the state,” he said. “He made it to the indoor state and got to run with some fast guys, and he just knew. He knew he was going to get there. You could see it in his eyes. ‘I’m going to get there.’ And he put that work in, and that was the mindset all year for him.”
From a team score standpoint, Norwell held its own with a sixth-place finish with 35 points. Churubusco was the winner with 55.
There were a few events from Norwell and one from Bluffton that nearly made the cut.
Tigers shot put thrower Johnny Cruz, the sectional champion last week at Marion, finished fourth with a throw of 50-10.25, less than an inch away from third place and a state qualification.
Tigers’ Andrew Hunt also competed at the regional in the 110m and 300m hurdles, finishing outside of the time necessary to make it to the finals in the regional. Hunt ran his best time, according to head coach Brent Kunkel, and he was happy to see that.
Kunkel also said he was happy for both of his athletes representing Bluffton on Thursday but knows Cruz was a little disappointed considering the small margin away from the state meet.
“I’m happy for both Johnny and Andrew to get big meet experience,” Kunkel said. “Andrew ran his best 110 hurdles time of the year. You can’t ask much more than that. I thought he looked really clean and focused heading into his race. I think he learned a lot that will hopefully pay off for him heading into next season. Johnny would probably be the first to admit that he was a little disappointed with his performance tonight, obviously finishing fourth is not where he wanted to be, but he showed a ton of improvement over the course of the year. I expect big things from him over the course of his senior year.”
Parker just missed going in the 300m hurdles with a time of 40.28, and discus thrower Kyle Zeddis placed sixth at 148-4.
The state finals will begin at 3 p.m. Friday, June 2, starting with the pole vault, long jump, and discus.
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Final individual results:
• Trevon Stoppenhagen finished fourth in the 200m with a time of 10.93 and second in the 200m with a time of 22.12.
• Jake Parker finished third in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.79 and fourth in the 300m hurdles with a time of 40.28.
• Winston Frauhiger finished second in the high jump with a jump of 6-5.
• Johnny Cruz finished fourth in the shot put with a throw of 50-10.25.
• Kyle Zeddis finished sixth in the discus with a throw of 148-4.
• Norwell’s 4x800m relay team of Bobby Kwandrans, Kyler Morris, Marin Melcher, and Kline Neuenschwander finished 13th with a time of 8:41.72.
• Zach Waldman finishes 11th in the 1600m with a time of 4:35.91.
• Norwell’s 4x100m relay team of Timothy Bonjour, Brady Smith, Ryan Smith, and Alex Fojtik finished 16th with a time of 45.65.
• Cohen Bailey finished 14th in the long jump with a jump of 19-1.50.
• Andrew Hunt 13th in the 110m hurdles with a time of 16.02 and 14th in the 300m hurdles with a time of 42.51.
