HIGH SCHOOL

Athletes gearing up for conference, postseason meets

The Marion County Track Meet is the launching pad for the rest of the season for area athletes.

Rob McCurdy
Reporter
Pleasant's Jed Charpie cross the bar in the boys high jump Tuesday during the Marion County Track Meet at Pleasant. Charpie won the event at 6-foot-2.

MARION - Michaela Fown knows what she is. The Ridgedale senior is a hurdler.

"I've always done the 100 (meter) hurdles, and I've always been pretty good at those. I've struggled choosing between the 300 hurdles and the 800 because they are back-to-back. This is the first year that I've stuck with the 300 hurdles, and I'm pretty happy that I have," she said. "This is like the payoff. I'm strictly hurdles now."

At Tuesday's Marion County Track Meet at Pleasant, Fown easily won the 300 hurdles in 50.8 and was runner-up in the 100 hurdles behind Pleasant's Lydia DePrey, 16.5 to 17.2.

She won the 300 by nearly three seconds and said she shaved more than three seconds off her personal record.

"It makes me feel pretty good because there for a while I wasn't sure what my time would be," Fown said. "(Dropping) three seconds for a 300 is a lot, so it makes me feel good for the meets coming up. This is the part of the season when I start to drop time."

That was a common theme Tuesday as county athletes use the meet to launch their way into the most important part of the season.

"I'm feeling very confident in where my training is going," DePrey said after the 100 hurdle victory. "I think I'm mentally and physically ready for higher competition."

DePrey is ready for what awaits. Last year she missed it due to a knee injury after showing promise as a freshman en route to the regional finals.

Ridgedale's Michaela Fown

"I take every track meet as I would a state meet," she said. "You have to take everything seriously to do good in the end."

Up next week for the athletes are their respective conference meets with the following week kicking off the postseason with districts.

River Valley's David Blanton was a double winner in the boys hurdles, taking both in 16.0 and 43.5, but going forward he is going to concentrate on the 300 instead of the 110."It's good to get out there and win," Pleasant sprinter Logan Thompson said after winning the boys 100. "We have to make sure everything is perfect and in good form and as fast as we can be."

"The hurdles are a bit shorter," Blanton joked of his reasoning. "I like to run longer than just the 110."

Over the next two weeks his focus will be in cutting time in the 300.

"I'm not at the peak I was last year," Blanton said.

Pleasant's Kamryn Kimmel, who hasn't run track since her freshman year while concentrating on playing AAU basketball, won the girls 800 by six seconds over teammate Martin Valentina.

"It means a lot, but it's just another meet," Kimmel said of being a county champ. "I'm just trying to improve for what matters, which is the MOAC and districts and so on. I'm no where near where I want to be for my time. I want to keep improving."

"We have good coaches and our practices are pretty hard," she said.She would like to take 10 seconds off the 2:35 she posted Tuesday, but knows she has about two weeks to get there.

There were five athletes who were double county champions and four of them were from River Valley: Blanton, Austin Woodruff (shot put and discus), Josh Rivers (1,600 and 3,200) and Tatyana Young (100 and 200). Pleasant's Grace White swept the shot put and discus.

The RV boys and Pleasant girls won team titles.

Pleasant's Joe Craycraft, a winner in the boys 200, was excited to race and keep racing.

"Anytime you can get out there and compete it's fun," Craycraft said. "I'm feeling good. I enjoy running against other people and doing anything competitive."

Marion County Track Meet Winners, Runners-Up

Boys Scores: River Valley 109, Pleasant 86, Elgin 26, Ridgedale 25.

Girls Scores: Pleasant 111, River Valley 91, Ridgedale 31, Elgin 9.

Boys Shot Put: 1. Austin Woodruff, RV 47-2-5; 2. Nick Lovett, RV 41-11.5.

Girls Shot Put: 1. Grace White, P 39-10.5; 2. Christie Longo, RV 36-0.75.

Boys Long Jump: 1. Cole Bailey, RV 20-6; 2. Clay Cheney, P 19-7.5.

Girls Long Jump: 1. Anna Hopkins, RV 16-5.5; 2. Allison Ward, P 16-4.

Boys Discus: 1. Austin Woodruff, RV 128-3; 2. Chase Tipsword, P 118.

Girls Discus: 1. Grace White, P 108; 2. Courtney Clark, R 102-11.

Boys High Jump: 1. Jed Charpie, P 6-2; 2. Evan Main, RV 6-0.

Girls High Jump: 1. Karmen Linder, P 5-0; 2. Kamryn Kimmel, P 5-0.

Boys Pole Vault: 1. Brock Wooten, RV 14-4; 2. Rhett Kantzer, P 11-0.

Girls Pole Vault: 1. Allison Ward, P 9-6; 2. Lydia DePrey, P 9-0.

Boys 4x800: 1. Pleasant 9:12; 2. River Valley 9:25.

Girls 4x800: 1. Pleasant 10:16; 2. River Valley 12:54.

Boys 110 Hurdles: 1. David Blanton, RV 16.0; 2. Kory Pytlarz, P 16.6.

Girls 100 Hurdles: 1. Lydia DePrey, P 16.5; 2. Michaela Fown, R 17.2.

Boys 100: 1. Logan Thompson, P 11.4; 2. Tyler Spears, RV 11.4.

Girls 100: 1. Tatyana Young, RV 13.1; 2. Brooke Edington, RV 13.4.

Boys 4x200: 1. River Valley 1:32; 2. Pleasant 1:34.

Girls 4x200: 1. River Valley 1:54; 2. Pleasant 1:55.

Boys 1600: 1. Josh Rivers, RV 5:02; 2. Aaron Poling, E 5:10.

Girls 1600: 1. Hannah Peltier, P 5:40; 2. Jaylynn Lewis, RV 5:47.

Boys 4x100: 1. River Valley 44.0; 2. Pleasant 44.4.

Girls 4x100: 1. River Valley 53.8; 2. Pleasant 54.1.

Boys 400: Bailey Cole, RV 51.8; 2. Greg Perez, RV 53.2.

Girls 400: 1. Kendall Stuckman, RV 1:07; 2. Carlie Craycraft 1:11.

Boys 300 Hurdles: 1. David Blanton, RV 43.4; 2. Noah King, P 45.5.

Girls 300 Hurdles: 1. Michaela Fown, R 50.8; 2. Nelson Kerrington, P 53.2.

Boys 800: 1. Duvan Bautista, R 2:06; 2. Austin Hernandez, R 2:08.

Girls 800: 1. Kamryn Kimmel, P 2:35; 2. Martin Valentina, P 2:41.

Boys 200: 1. Joe Craycraft, P 23.3; 2. Tyler Spears, RV 23.7.

Girls 200: 1. Tatyana Young, RV 27.6; 2. Anna Hopkins, RV 27.7.

Boys 3200: 1. Josh Rivers, RV 11:16; 2. Doug Sabo, P 11:22.

Girls 3200: 1. Gabi Kowalczyk, P 12:48; 2. Jaylynn Lewis, RV 13:03.

Boys 4x400: 1. Ridgedale 3:41; 2. River Valley 3:44.

Girls 4x400: 1. River Valley 4:25; 2. Pleasant 4:32.

rmccurdy@gannett.com

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