When Center Grove girls track coach Wes Dodson scored out Tuesday’s regional meet based on sectional performances, his Trojans were projected to finish 14 points behind the same Columbus North team that they had narrowly defeated a week ago.
Dodson knew his girls had to pick up some points in a few places — and they answered the call, allowing the Trojans to outpoint the Bull Dogs yet again, 109-104, at Franklin.
The win marked Center Grove’s first outright regional crown since 2000; the 2012 team shared the title with Warren Central.
“I knew that it was going to be super, super tough today,” Dodson said, “but we came in with points that we weren’t supposed to get — and we advanced a boat-ton of girls to the state finals. … I’m real proud of them; it’s hard to win this.”
Freshman Shelby Wingler, who came in seeded seventh in the discus, gained the Trojans some points early by winning the event with a throw of 119 feet, 10 inches. Wingler then followed up with a second-place showing in the shot put, turning in a heave of 41 feet, 4 1/2 inches.
Going up against a tough field in both events, the sophomore welcomed the challenge.
“I tend to get very mentally focused, and I like to chase,” Wingler said, “so having girls in front of me really helps out.”
Senior Taylor Jarosinski had no trouble winning the pole vault, clearing 12 feet, 6 inches with ease to establish herself as one of the favorites heading into state — where she feels good about her chances to go even higher when she doesn’t have to waste energy clearing the lower qualifying heights.
“It’s more beneficial at regionals to be like, ‘Okay, I cleared state standard; I’m going to state,’ and from there it’s like, ‘Let’s have fun,'” Jarosinski said. “But at state, we go all out. We save our energy for the higher attempts, we come in higher and just be more ready to go.”
The Trojans also got individual victories from Kate Henselmeier, who held on to take the 400-meter dash by two hundredths of a second with a time of 58.89 seconds, and Makensie Kramer, who won the 100 hurdles in 14.76. Kramer was fourth in the 300 hurdles in 46.864 seconds, missing an automatic state qualifying spot by two thousandths of a second.
Also moving on for Center Grove individually were Bella Hodges, who was second in the 800 meters with a school-record time of 2:15.64; Madi Kramer, the runner-up in the 200 in 26.15; and Skylar Sichting, who placed third in the 100 hurdles in 15.43.
The Kramer sisters, Sichting and Kristen Lavergne advanced in the 4×100 relay, finishing second in 49.40 seconds.
For Whiteland, which was fourth with 68 points, senior Bella Jackson won the high jump by clearing 5 feet, 9 inches to edge Warren Central’s Tacoria Humphrey by an inch. The two had come into the meet tied for the best performance in the state this season at 5-8.
“It definitely helped me do better,” Jackson said of battling Humphrey head to head. “I definitely do good when I have better competition, because the pressure pushes me and I do good under pressure.”
Classmate Gabi Allen punched her ticket to state in two individual events, placing second in the 100 hurdles (15.32) and third in the 200 (26.19) and anchoring the Warriors’ third-place 4×100 relay. Allen and teammates Emma Gill, Hailee Park and Gabrielle Vargo crossed the line in 49.77 seconds.
Whiteland’s 4×800 relay team of Victoria Jackson, Katia Olmstead, Claire Overfelt and Lauren Fish rallied late to clinch a state berth of its own, finishing second in 9:43.89. Fish helped the Warriors move all the way up from fifth on the final leg.
“She just ran an absolute stud last leg for us,” Whiteland coach Brandon Bangel said, “and it was so exciting to watch, because those girls have worked so hard this year, and they deserve it.”
Franklin’s Kendall Mirise advanced in the pole vault with a third-place finish (10-0).
Both the Trojans and Warriors, ranked first and 12th in the state, respectively, are eager to see what they can do on the big stage at Ben Davis come June 5.
“We’re going to score as many as we can next week,” Dodson said, “but we’re excited with what we’ve got.”
