What does seeding matter?
Apparently, it doesn’t matter at all.
Not if you happen to be a local state meet qualifier, that is.
On Saturday, Johnson County sent a wealth of athletes to the IHSAA Boys Track and Field State Finals at Indiana University.
Not one was a No. 1 seed.
By the time the meet ended, the county boasted three state champions.
The day was historic on a number of fronts.
Take Ryder Emberton, for example.
A Whiteland junior, he was seeded second in the shot put. He won the event with a school-record throw of 62 feet, one-half inch, well ahead of his nearest challenger, top-seeded Jalil Brewer of Ben Davis.
In the process, Emberton became Whiteland’s first-ever state champion.
Then was Cameron Tidd, a Center Grove senior who was seeded No. 6 in the discus.
Tidd, ironically, was the defending state champion. But he also is a Vanderbilt football recruit who split his attention this spring between football preparation and track practice.
Not surprisingly, discus wasn’t at the top of Tidd’s priority list. Hence the surprisingly low seeding.
But when the championship was on the line, he delivered.
Tidd won the event on his sixth and final attempt, a throw of 181 feet, 11 inches. With it, he earned his second state title of the school year (he was a starting defensive tackle on the Trojans’ undefeated Class 6A football team) and became the county’s first repeat track and field champion since Center Grove’s Austin Mudd won the 800-meter run in 2010 and 2011.
Then there was Center Grove’s 1,600 relay team, lightly regarded as the seventh seed.
Yet there was nothing light about the Trojans’ performance.
Powered by junior Logan Bontrager, senior Zak Smith, junior Tyler Boyer and senior Jackson Hohlt, the Trojans ran away with the championship in a time of 3:18.66, nearly a full second-ahead of runner-up Avon.
What’s in a seed?
Motivation, it would seem, if you run or throw in this county.
Trojans tennis player gets All-Star nod
Center Grove senior Madison Smeathers has been selected to play in 18th annual North/South Senior Tennis Team All-Star Cup on June 12 at Marian University.Sponsored by the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association, the event features a host of the state’s top high school seniors. Play starts at 10 a.m. Each player competes in three rounds.
Smeathers is an Ohio State volleyball recruit who at various times this spring played Nos. 1 and 2 doubles for the Trojans.
Center Grove advanced to the IHSAA Team State Finals for the first time since 2010.
FC coach part of global event
Franklin College football head coach Mike Leonard is in Monterrey, Mexico, for the 2016 World University Games American Football Championships.Leonard is serving as an assistant on the U.S. team’s coaching staff. Organized by Athletes in Action, the World Games began June 1 and conclude June 12.
On Saturday, the U.S. football team opened with a 55-0 win against China.
