Thursday night at the Hoosier Hills Conference meet at Bedford North Lawrence, it was all about trying to do well in some individual events for Seymour’s boys track and field team.
The Owls finished fifth place overall with 48 points. The winner of the meet was New Albany with 174 points.
“It was a good night for us overall,” head coach Randy Fife said. “We really focused on some individual events. We didn’t run kids in as many events.”
That was specifically the case in the 3200 and 800, where Brandon Kleber and Carter Murphy ran personal bests. Brandon Kleber was fourth in the 3200 with a time of 9:49.78, and Murphy ran a 2:11 800.
“He hadn’t been under 10 all year, so that was a goal of his,” Fife said of Kleber.
The 4×800 team for the Owls also ran a personal best time, breaking the 9-minute barrier for the first time all season.
The highest place for the Owls on the day came from Josh Pennington and Chandler Drummond. Pennington was third in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.33, and Drummond was third in the pole vault with a 10’0”.
“I can’t say I excelled at it today,” Drummond said on his pole vault performance. “I’m still working on my form and everything. We’re still putting some things together because tonight is a taste for what’s to come for the rest of the season.”
Drummond and Fife both believe he can vault much higher than what he did Thursday. Fife thinks Drummond can get upward near 11’0”.
Some specifics that Drummond wants to work on are when he is going up in the air, he needs to basically do a hand-stand on the pole.
“I just have to get everything put together,” Drummond said. “Once I get that put together then it’s going to be hard to beat me because I’m just going to keep on going up.”
Drummond also qualified for the 110 hurdles finals with Pennington, and he placed eighth with a time of 16.59.
“He has his three-step down,” Drummond said of Pennington. “It’s always fun. He always gives me crap for being slower than him. We just have fun with it.”
As much as Drummond and Pennington push one another in practice, Fife is even more pleased with how good of teammates they are.
“They help the younger kids with the drills and lead the way and do a lot of coaching,” Fife said.
Other impressive performances from Seymour came from Reid Kruse, who qualified for the finals in the 100. Kruse finished seventh with a time of 11.66.
In the field events, Bryson Darlage was fifth in the high jump with a leap of 5’8”. Darlage was also seventh in the long jump with a 19’7.25”.
Seymour will be back at BNL next Thursday for the sectional, slated for a start time of 6 p.m.
For sectionals, Fife expects to involve his athletes in some more events to raise the team score.
“We’ll go back to doubling and tripling a little bit to try to get some points,” Fife said. “We still want to get some people through to the regional. We’re focused on the team score at the sectional.”