COLUMBUS

The Seymour girls track team managed to earn five first-place finishes at Columbus North on Tuesday, but still fell 16 points shy of a team win during the boys and girls dual meet.

Ashton Chase led the distance and mid-distance runners with two first-place finishes, while the Bull Dogs took the 74-58 team win. The Seymour boys team lost 115-17.

Chase won the 1600 meters in 5 minutes, 21.9 seconds before winning the 800 in 2:29.28. She also led off the the 4×800 relay team that placed first with a 10:12 time.

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“I thought we competed very well today, especially with it being on a cold night,” Seymour girls coach Spencer Sunbury said. “There were a lot of improvements from our last meet. The girls are getting a little more confidence. … Ashton Chase is one we count on each meet out there.”

Other first-place finishes came from out of the 400, which Sunbury said was a really strong performance for Oriana Morales. She finished in 1:06.0 in front of teammate Jessica Blevins, who placed second with a 1:07.3. Brett Kleber earned the other individual first place for the Owls by winning the 300 hurdles in 53.81.

Jessica Blevins, Morales, Abby Voss and Chase won the 4×400 relay in 4:29.5.

Other second-place finishes came from Laura Scaggs in the 100 hurdles (17.10) and Abby Voss in the 800 (2:34.7).

“I like where we are right now,” Sunbury said. “I feel like we have a little more in early this year than what we have (in the past). Some of the girls weren’t expecting to come out as strong as they have this year, so it’s setting us up for a nice jump into the season when we finally start getting into some track weather.”

Five of the six top place finishes for the boys team came out of the field events. Lance Roark earned the lone first-place finish by jumping 20 feet, 7 inches in the long jump.

Dustin Metz placed third in the long jump at 19-9 1/2. Caleb Madden placed second in both the shot put (42-5) and discus (121-9). Max Otte’s 5-10 high jump earned him third place, and Metz earned earned the only points for Seymour in the running events with a second-place finish in the 100 in 11.4.

“We had some good performances, and we had some areas we need to show some improvement in if we want to be the kind of team we want to be later in the year,” boys coach Randy Fife said. “Overall, with the weather situation it being cold it was a pretty good effort. We worked hard and we just got a long way to go.”