St. Joe Track Regional: Make It Six Straight For Warsaw Ladies
SOUTH BEND – The rain, for the most part, stayed away from Leighton Stadium Tuesday night.
The orange and black of the Warsaw girls track team though made sure to reign in the regional once again.
The Tigers made it six straight regional championships by outscoring Penn 68-61 to claim the title of the South Bend St. Joseph Regional.
Warsaw showed its quality and quantity to hold off the Kingsmen again for the eighth regional title in program history. Warsaw edged past Penn 92-89 a year ago to win the Kokomo Regional championship.
The top three finishers in each event Tuesday night earn a spot in the State Finals on June 3 at Indiana University in Bloomington.
The Tigers, who were tested in winning their 11th straight sectional title at home last week, won this one under a new captain of the ship.
Matt Thacker, the highly-successful coach of the Warsaw boys track team, took over for Scott Erba this season on the girls’ side.
“Our girls have a lot to be proud of,” said Thacker, who guided the boys team to its seventh straight sectional title at Goshen last Thursday night. “This all goes back to the effort that they have put in at practice from December until now.
“It speaks to the depth we have. The quality depth we have. Our assistant coaches have just done a great job working with the girls. We definitely expected a battle tonight with Penn up there. Concord (which was third) laid it on the line. They are greatly improved and coach Redmond has done a great job with them.”
“We had a competitive sectional last week and that and our conference really helps out getting us prepared for the regional.”
Warsaw had a trio of winning performances to highlight the championship night.
Junior Lexie Day led the way with an impressive effort to win the high jump. Day went 5-6 on her final attempt to win the regional crown and tie the school record held by Julie Seiss.
“My main focus tonight was on making the standard for State and not so much caring where I placed,” said Day. “It’s redemption for me for last year at the regional (when she only cleared 5-0). I thought about last year and just wanted to do better tonight.
“All my attempts felt good tonight. Going 5-6 seemed impossible my freshman and sophomore year. I’ve just giving it my all this year and this gives me more confidence.”
Day’s top jump prior to Tuesday night was clearing 5-5 at the sectional last week.
The Tigers also got a championship effort from Mia Beckham in the 1,600. The junior held off Manchester senior Rae Bedke to win in a time of 5:01.32. Bedke was second in 5:01.38.
The Warsaw 4 X 100 relay team also took championship honors. The team of juniors Shunterra Davis and Abbi Curtis and sophomores Maygan Bellamy and Makayla Clampitt won in 49.88.
“It’s a pretty cool thing to have Lexie tie the school record tonight,” noted Thacker. “Mia gives everything she has. She’s just a battler. She did a tough double tonight with the 1,600 and 3,200. All of our relays came through, especially the 4 X 100.”
Warsaw was also third in both the 4 X 800 and 4 X 400 relay events to move those quartets on to State. The 4 X 800 team consisted of Emma Bohnenkamper, Angie Sanchez-Vijil, Allison Miller and Dayton Groninger, while the 4 X 400 team was Bellamy, Sanchez-Vijil, Kenzie Martz and Remi Beckham.
Other finishers for the champions were Clampitt (eighth in the 100), Curtis (fifth in the 200), Bellamy (sixth in the 400), Groninger (sixth in the 800), Mia Beckham (sixth in the 3,200) and Caitlin Kehler (seventh in the pole vault).
Charlene Orr of the Tigers was fourth in the 3,200 in a personal-best time of 11:28.07.
Wawasee got itself a State qualifier in the discus with senior Alexis Manges placing third with a throw of 117-04.
Junior Hannah Marie-Lamle of the Warriors was fourth in the long jump and eighth in the hurdles. Sophomore Jada Parzygnot was fourth in the pole vault as she set a school record by clearing 10-4. Elizabeth Zorn was sixth in the 1,600 for Wawasee.
NorthWood junior Erica Stutsman punched her State ticket with a second place finish in the 800.
Stutsman was also part of the 4 X 800 relay team that placed fourth for the Panthers and the 4 X 400 relay team that finished fifth. Mackenzie Moren was fifth in the 100 for the Panthers.
Whitko senior Suzanne Sickafoose was fourth in the 400 and eighth in the 200 for the Wildcats.
Manchester senior Bedke was outstanding in the distance events. She won the 3,200 in a time of 11:04.06 after finishing right behind Warsaw’s Beckham in the 1,600.
IHSAA GIRLS TRACK REGIONAL
At South Bend St. Joseph
Team scores: Warsaw 68, Penn 61, Concord 53, Culver Academies 47, Plymouth 39, North Miami 30, Mishawaka 26, Kokomo 25, Pioneer 23, Elkhart Central 22, Elkhart Memorial 22, Manchester 22, NorthWood 21, Columbia City 20, Wawasee 20, Mishawaka Marian 19, South Bend Adams 13, South Bend Washington 13, Fairfield 11, Goshen 10, Madison-Grant 9, Northridge 9, Whitko 9, Maconaquah 7, Logansport 7, South Bend Riley 4, Tipton 4, Lewis Cass 4, LaVille 2, South Bend Clay 2, Bremen 1, Western 1.
4 x 800: 1, Penn (Lorena Daugherty, Jemmia Pennix, Emma Jankowski, Ashleigh Macleod) 9:28.27. 2, Columbia City (Eden Oddou, Lillie Oddou, Lauren Keller, Jasmine Early) 9:33.64. 3, Warsaw (Emma Bohnenkamper, Angie Sanchez-Vijil, Dayton Groninger, Allison Miller) 9:42.06. 4, NorthWood 9:53.66. 5, Concord 9:56.11. 6, Northridge 10:00.48. 7, Marian 10:07.91. 8, Western 10:10.26.
100 hurdles: 1, Addison Coy (Culver Academies) 15.15. 2, Rylin Bagarus (Mishawaka) 15.57. 3, Joselyn Mwenifumbo (Adams) 15.60. 4, Alyssa Tincher (Logansport) 15.63. 5, Makayla Peebles (Washington) 16.06. 6, Ally Dolan (Plymouth) 16.15. 7, Mariah Schaefer (Columbia City) 16.27. 8, Hannah-Marie Lamle (Wawasee) 16.27. NOTE: Addison Coy (Culver Academies) scratched from state meet competition in this event.
100: 1, Tionna Brown (Kokomo) 12.02. 2, Oniste Thomas (Concord) 12.59. 3, Janiyah Barnes (Concord) 12.71. 4, Paischence Johnson (Mishawaka) 12.71. 5, Mackenzie Moren (NorthWood) 12.73. 6, Madison Kiser (Pioneer) 12.75. 7, Cariondrea Petty (Marian) 12.96. 8, Makayla Clampitt (Warsaw) 12.99.
1600: 1, Mia Beckham (Warsaw) 5:01.32. 2, Rae Bedke (Manchester) 5:01.38. 3, Morgan Dyer (Elkhart Memorial) 5:07.73. 4, Anna Craig (Warsaw) 5:17.52. 5, Miah Martin (Lewis Cass) 5:18.80. 6, Elizabeth Zorn (Wawasee) 5:23.14. 7, Hannah Selis (Penn) 5:25.16. 8, Brooke Neal (Penn) 5:25.98.
4 x 100: 1, Warsaw (Shunterra Davis, Maygan Bellamy, Abbi Curtis, Makayla Clampitt) 49.88. 2, Concord (Janiyla Holloway, Janiyah Barnes, Shenais Colton-Flores, Oniste Thomas) 50.15. 3, Washington (Tanasia Jefferies, Lauraine Davidson, Deana Griffin, Claire Pittman) 50.26. 4, Marian 50.58. 5, Elkhart Central 50.79. 6, Elkhart Memorial 50.90. 7, Adams 51.05. 8, Penn 51.22.
400: 1, Jasmine Hudson (Concord) 59.01. 2, Rachel Crawford (Plymouth) 59.24. 3, Jemmia Pennix (Penn) 59.53. 4, Suzanne Sickafoose (Whitko) 59.96. 5, Marissa Rivera (Culver Academies) 1:00.18. 6, Maygan Bellamy (Warsaw) 1:01.53. 7, Erin Anderson (Culver Academies) 1:02.51. 8, Alayna Benavides-Johnson (Riley) 1:03.55.
300 hurdles: 1, Addison Coy (Culver Academies) 43.06. 2, Carlee Lefebvre (North Miami) 45.45. 3, Jillian Kissinger (Goshen) 46.01. 4, Winifred Sceniak (Fairfield) 46.09. 5, Megan Darr (Penn) 47.99. 6, Kacee Peters (Plymouth) 48.21. 7, Alyssa Tincher (Logansport) 48.84. 8, Sydney Simon (Concord) 49.06.
800: 1, Madison Kiser (Pioneer) 2:12.48. 2, Erica Stutsman (NorthWood) 2:14.11. 3, Ashleigh Macleod (Penn) 2:14.79. 4, Emma Jankowski (Penn) 2:17.09. 5, Jasmine Early (Columbia City) 2:17.70. 6, Dayton Groninger (Warsaw) 2:22.05. 7, Kaitlyn Carothers (Plymouth) 2:23.99. 8, Mary Terhune (Culver Academies) 2:24.26.
200: 1, Tionna Brown (Kokomo) 25.16. 2, Janiyah Barnes (Concord) 25.72. 3, Alayna Bailey (Elkhart Memorial) 25.83. 4, Paishence Johnson (Mishawaka) 26.12. 5, Abbi Curtis (Warsaw) 26.19. 6, Claire Pittman (Washington) 26.83. 7, Ja’lila Newbill (Clay) 26.90. 8, Suzanne Sickafoose (Whitko) 27.50.
3200: 1, Rae Bedke (Manchester) 11:04.06. 2, Lauren Frank (Penn) 11:06.59. 3, Morgan Dyer (Elkhart Memorial) 11:11.95. 4, Charlene Orr (Warsaw) 11:28.07. 5, Allyse Smith (Concord) 11:33.82. 6, Mia Beckham (Warsaw) 11:38.25. 7, Jenna Miller (Northridge) 11:48.37. 8, Bailie Brown (Columbia City) 11:49.86.
4 x 400 relay: 1, Culver Academies (Erin Anderson, Marissa Rivera, Mary Terhune, Addison Coy) 3:58.44. 2, Penn (Jemmia Pennix, Elli Mott, Ashleigh Macleod, Megan Darr) 3:59.90. 4, Warsaw (Maygan Bellamy, Angie Sanchez-Vijil, Kenzie Martz, Remi Beckham) 4:00.01. 4, Columbia City 4:06.76. 5, NorthWood 4:07.49. 6, Goshen 4:09.73. 7, Marian 4:11.44. 8, Northridge 4:12.82.
High jump: 1, Lexie Day (Warsaw) 5-6. 2, Faith White (North Miami) 5-5. 3, Chloe Bontrager (Fairfield) 5-5. 4, Lana Pham (Kokomo) 5-4 ¼. 5, Stephanie Hartpence (Concord) 5-3. 6, Brynne Elick (Riley) 5-2. 7, Jessica Tuttle (LaVille) 5-2. 8, Skylar Axsom (Elkhart Memorial) 5-1.
Long jump: 1, Addison Coy (Madison-Grant) 17-5. 2, Faith White (North Miami) 16-11 ½. 3, Carlee Lefebvre (North Miami) 16-10 ½. 4, Hannah-Marie Lamle (Wawasee) 16-6 ¾. 5, Raygan Plothow (Maconaquah) 16-5. 6, Joselyn Mwenifumbo (Adams) 16-1 ¾. 7, Rylin Bagarus (Mishawaka) 16-1 ¼. 8, Maddison Coffel (Bremen) 15-10 ½. NOTE: Addison Coy (Culver Academies) scratched from state meet competition in this event.
Shot put: 1, Jordan Ware (Elkhart Central) 39-5 ½. 2, Cece Robinson (Plymouth) 39-1 ¼. 3, Savannah Leas (Madison-Grant) 37-11 ½. 4, Nicole Horvath (Plymouth) 37-8 ½. 5, Madison Kauffman (Pioneer) 37-7 1/2. 6, Payton Freel (Madison-Grant) 35-11 ½. 7, Carmen Chambliss (Adams) 35-9 ½. 8, Suzette Rodriguez (Goshen) 35-8.
Discus: 1, Nicole Horvath (Plymouth) 126-6. 2, Jordan Ware (Elkhart Central) 117-6. 3, Alexis Manges (Wawasee) 117-4. 4, Cameron Schultheis (Mishawaka) 109-7. 5, Bailey Sewell (Manchester) 109-2. 6, Lyndsey Sapp (Whitko) 108-10. 7, Anna Coil (Northridge) 104-4. 8, Devyn Miller (Mishawaka) 103-10.
Pole vault: 1, Amanda George (Penn) 10-8. 2, Mary Costello (Marian) 10-8. 3, Kayla Hill (Pioneer) 10-4. 4, Jada Parzygnot (Wawasee) 10-4. 5, Taylor Pierce (Tipton) 10-0. 6, Natalie Tubb (Maconaquah) 10-0. 7, Caitlin Kehler (Warsaw) 9-6. 8, Rylee Dahlman (Northridge) 9-6.
NOTE: Top three finishers in each event advance to IHSAA state finals at Indiana University in Bloomington on Saturday, June 3.