SECTIONALS: Fort Wayne Northrop Regional feeder results (plus Colin!)

But the best part? A review of the evening�s festivities from none other
than our own Colin Altevogt!

By Colin
Altevogt
Staff
Writer

FORT WAYNE ââ?¬â?? What do you know about seven?

The Fort
Wayne Northrop Bruins, champions ofthe past six state finals,took
their first major step in extending the consecutive titles record. Northrop won
its own sectional with 146.5 points, finishing in front of runner-up Homestead
(104), Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran (90), Carroll (Fort Wayne) (86), and Fort
Wayne Snider (75.5).

The Bruins
got double wins from Faith Sherrill (shot put and discus) and Kelsey Stephens
(200 and 400 meters). Tamara Adams, a former high hurdles state champion, scored
three individual victories (the 100 hurdles, the open 100, and the 300 hurdles)
and also competed with Stephens on the Bruinsââ?¬â?¢ winning 4×400 relay.

Adams was rumored to be battling a bad cold, and the workload
appeared to take its toll. The senior fell to the track after the latter two of
her individual victories and had trouble beating teammate Allyson Wims in the
open 100. Still, she came back to run a leg on the mile relay, her sixth race
of the night.

In the 200
and 400, Stephens easily outdistanced the field, winning by a monstrous three-second
margin in the quarter.

Northrop’s
4×4 proved itself All-State worthy in defeating runner-up Fort Wayne Dwenger by
nearly four seconds. The final legby Dwenger’s Brittany Ade (runner-up in
the 800 meters at last year’s state championship) brought the Saints from a
distant fourth to second over the final homestretch.

Snider’s
4×100 kept Northrop from completing a clean sweep in all sprinting events. The
Panthers’ Kristin Johnson anchored the victorious relay in :49.37, passing the
rival Bruins just before the line.

In perhaps
the best relay of the night, Concordia defeated Carroll in the 4×800, 9:39.84
to 9:44.52.Concordia ran two alternates as Kristen Fletcher and Kara
Doerffler, perhaps the two fastest 800 runners on the team, elected to run the
1600 fresh.

Carroll
led the 4×8 through the first two exchanges before Sarah Neubacher’s huge third
leg brought the Cadets into the lead. Carroll made a bid for the lead over the
last two laps, but Concordia’s Megan Moor, a 400 meters specialist, kicked her
opponent down in the final 200 meters.

Carroll
got distance victories in the 1600 and 3200 from Mychaela Bailey (5:13.92) and
Chelsea Blanchard (11:03.86). Both sophomores led wire-to-wire.

The 800,
meanwhile, was a replay of the Summit Athletic Conference meet two weeks ago,
with Snider’s Ashlee Lengacher outkicking Ade down the final stretch. Unlike
the conference championship, where the tactical race, dawdling pace, and sub-par
conditions hurt times, this race was on from the get-go. Lengacher’s 2:16.4 was
a new personal record and one of the state’s top times.

Also in
the star watch, Homestead’s
Katie Veith cleared 12’8″ in the pole vault, an inch and a half short of
her own meet record. Snider’s April Long, a favorite to advance to the state
meet in the open 100, surprisingly was not entered into her primary event.