Munster wins Noll invite

Updated: March 23, 2011 3:48PM

Track and field teams across the region are eager to get a taste of competition after three months of conditioning and practicing. Bishop Noll has been an annual dress rehearsal site, hosting an indoor girls meet.

In this year's Bishop Noll Girls Invite, 12 schools from Indiana and Illinois participated as Munster dominated the invite with a score of 105 points. The Mustangs nearly doubled second-place TF South with 57. Chicago Simeon finished with 56. The host Warriors came in fourth place with 25 points. Rounding out the top five was Bowman and North Newton with 23.

Munster, which finished 13th in state last year, returns with a promising young squad. The Mustangs returned to the Bishop Noll Invite after a six-year absence and placed first in four events.

Underclassmen took center stage with Bishop Noll's Carrisa Jones and Asya Hobbs leading the way. The freshmen participated in seven combined events and finished in the top five of three.

But the freshmen are still going through some growing pains.

After 12 pre-jump attempts to clear 4-feet-8 inches, the frustration was at a boiling point for Jones. Noll coach Karl Repay pulled a dejected Jones to the side for a brief motivational talk to correct the main issue preventing Jones from jumping.

"I told her I'd kill her if she didn't make the jump," joked Repay. "We have a lot of young girls and I just think that seeing this many competitors made her very nervous and intimidated."

The talk and approach worked as Jones finally jumped and cleared the bar effortlessly and went on to place second with a jump of 4 feet, 10 inches.

"I just wasn't mentally prepared for the jump and I kept psyching myself out," said Jones about her dozen plus failed attempts to jump. "I just needed a pep talk and coach came over and sent me to run off my nervous energy and then asked me to visualize myself going right over the bar and looking straight up."

Jones' jump height was matched by teammate Hobbs as the other fantastic freshman was bouncing between the high jump and the 60-yard dash, which she dominated with a time of 7.81 seconds.

"My friend was laughing at me because I kept running between the high-jump and the 60-yard dash the whole time," Hobbs said.

But no one was laughing at her at the end of the 60-yard final as she kicked it into another gear before the finish line, separating herself from the field.

Defending invite champ Griffith had a strong showing from Janessa Salinas, who threw for a personal best in the shot put with a throw of 35-8. Coach Alex Brandon has high hopes for the junior who he compares to former Panthers athlete Stephanie Negrett, who is currently at Western Michigan University on a scholarship.

"My goal coming into this meet was to beat the school record (36-11½) held by Stephanie Negrett, but it didn't happen," Salinas said. "Maybe next year."

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