5 records set as Neville, Pirates dethrone Crown Point

LOWELL -- Rebecca Neville claimed she was speechless, but just about anybody who knows the Merrillville star would quickly refute that.

At Tuesday night's Lowell Sectional, Neville let her athleticism do the talking first before speaking about the all-around amazing performance of her teammates, who outlasted defending champion Crown Point to win the team title.

The Pirates amassed 130 points compared with 118.50 for the Bulldogs. West Side was a distant third with 73.

Neville set a sectional record in the long jump -- breaking her own mark of 171/2 inches by going 181/4 -- won the 100 hurdles in 15.02.

Her time was 2.19 seconds faster than Roosevelt's Tierra Stegall, who placed second.

Neville also tied for second place in the high jump with Crown Point's Zarah Cecich (5-0) and ran the anchor leg on the Pirates' 400-meter relay team, which finished second to West Side, which finished in a record 49.06.

"Really, I'm speechless," Neville said. "Our team stepped up so much tonight. We were really down coming out of the conference meet last week because we lost. But our team really wanted to show what we could do."

Neville couldn't stop talking about the performance of her teammates, particularly the underclassmen, who played a big role in the Pirates' win.

Freshman Eva Foley won the shot put (39.50) while sophomore Nakel McClinton placed second (38-4.50).

The Pirates also finished third and fourth in the discus as McClinton went 104-7 and Kacey Cole, another freshman, placed fourth with an effort of 102-2.

"It was great, because our underclassmen really did what they needed to do," Neville said. "They all really came through for us. It feels really good. I'm glad about the way they performed."

Merrillville coach Jeff Eaton was pleased with the way his team responded to last week's performance in the DAC.

"We felt coming in that if our girls ran what we thought they could, we could win," Eaton said. "It's just a great way to start the postseason."

Kate Tarr won the 3,200 for the Pirates, while Tierra Simpson took second in the 200.

Bowman Academy freshman Chayil Henderson set a sectional record in the 100 (12.61) and also took first place in the 200 (25.69) and 400 (58.34).

Crown Point's Alexis Villarreal set a sectional record in the pole vault (10-3) while teammates Laicee Pierce and Lauren McCarroll went one-two in the 1,600 run and placed second and third, respectively, in the 3,200.

The Bulldogs' Margaret Schwuchow won the 800, while teammate Elizabeth Schrader won the 300 hurdles.

Crown Point also won the 3,200 relay in a sectional record of 9:45.69, as well as the 1,600 relay.