Stay Connected with YourSeason
Depth helps Indians trump Vikings
Updated: May 24, 2011 10:56PM
Jaaelon Washington didn’t know until afterward exactly how important winning her heat of the 300 intermediate hurdles was for Lake Central at Tuesday’s Chesterton girls track regional.
All the Indians senior knew was that she’d already won the heat earlier in the day— only to run it over at the end of the meet because a technical timing glitch wiped out the first one.
“I was angry,” said Washington, a senior. “I was really angry … and then I almost lost (the re-run heat). At the curve, I thought I was going to lose. Then the tears came and I got angry because I was going to lose it.”
Instead, she turned her temper into a win in the heat — which ultimately decided the regional team championship by a half point in Lake Central’s favor. The Indians edged Valparaiso 61.5 to 61 after losing the regional title last year to Munster by three-quarters of a point.
If Washington hadn’t won that second running of her heat and picked up a point by placing eighth, Lake Central would’ve lost by half a point to Valparaiso.
“I didn’t know any of that at the time,” Washington said. “I didn’t know until they called out the final team scores and (my teammates) ran up to me and said I did it. It was amazing.”
Just as amazing is LC’s depth, which allowed the Indians to bag their third regional title in the past four years despite winning just the 1,600 relay.
“That was the one sure thing that I had,” Lake Central coach Ron Frederick said his winning relay. “After that, it was just about having depth and seeing what we could do.”
The Indians scored points in 14 events, but only advanced to state the 1,600 relay team of Katelin Smierciak, Alana Eatinger, Andrea Alvarez and Isis Thomas plus LeVisa Evans in the high jump (fourth place, 5-41/4) and Katelyn Brown in the pole vault (10-7).
Valparaiso was in seemingly good position to win the team title thanks to a big day by junior Katelyn Devries — who ran a leg of the winning 3,200 relay, won the 1,600 meters and capped an impressive triple effort by winning the 3,200 meters in 11:21.39 on a cold, windy day.
“It’s pretty hard,” she said of winning all three. “I tried to stay calm and not waste my energy, because I knew I was going to need a lot of energy for those races. It’s exciting.”
Her win in the 1,600 (5:17.50) was also memorable after edging Boone Grove’s Jordan Chester (5:17.51) at the finish line — while also holding off Kankakee Valley’s Kristin Fritts in third (5:17.70).
Munster finished third with 53 points, while Merrillville came in fourth with 51. Chesterton (45), West Side (44), Portage (33), Crown Point (32), Hobart (26) and Bowman Academy (25) rounded out the rest of the Top 10.
Portage’s Tori Bliss, the two-time defending state champion in the shot put, had another impressive meet. She won the discus (143-9) and also broke her own regional record in the shot (50-09) — which topped the mark of 48-01 from last season.
Chayil Henderson won both the 100 dash (12.28) and the 400 (58.18) for Bowman, but felt the effects of both in the 200 — finishing fourth, just .08 of a second out of third after posting the best prelim time.
Wheeler’s Taylor Gilles also advanced to the state meet in the 100 hurdles, winning that event for the Bearcats in a blazing 14.63 seconds — just .08 slower than the Chesterton regional record of 14.55 set in 2004 by Michigan City’s Tekisha Martin.
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment