Seymour’s Jaylan Johnson runs his way to a first-place finish in the 400 meter dash on Thursday during the Hoosier Hills Conference meet at Floyd Central High School.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Jude Bane runs in the 1600 on Thursday during the Hoosier Hills Conference meet at Floyd Central High School.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Bryson Darlage does the long jump on Thursday during the Hoosier Hills Conference meet at Floyd Central High School.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Ty Tormoehlen (left) and Michael Brooks run in the 800 on Thursday during the Hoosier Hills Conference meet at Floyd Central High School.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Jesse Mellencamp passes Columbus East’s Ethan Duncan in the 200 on Thursday during the Hoosier Hills Conference meet at Floyd Central High School.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
FLOYDS KNOBS — Head coach Randy Fife asked his team to do a lot on Thursday night in the Hoosier Hills Conference boys track and field meet.
With Floyd Central winning the meet with 186 points, places 2-5 were separated by a mere 14 points. Fife asked his 4×400 relay team if anybody needed out at the end of the meet, and every runner stayed in.
He could tell his team was gassed when the meet ended, but the result was a second-place finish with 82.50 team points.
New Albany was third with 72.50, Jennings County fourth 69, Jeffersonville fifth 68, and Bedford North Lawrence and Columbus East tied for sixth at 32.
“We’re happy with that,” Fife said. “It was a really a dogfight. We could’ve slid down the fifth, but the kids competed well and placed second.”
The lone individual champion on the night came in the 400-meter dash when Jaylan Johnson took home first place with a time of 51.57.
“It was pretty nice,” Johnson said. “Didn’t do as good as I wanted, but next week (sectionals) is what counts. I knew I could win it, I just got to keep up with my conditioning. I’ll be more than ready next week.”
A perfect example of the extra effort Fife was talking about was just a couple minutes after Johnson won the 400, he was at the long jump pit competing in that.
He wound up fourth in that event with a jump of 20-5.
“If I didn’t place in long jump or if I didn’t do the 200, we wouldn’t have come in second tonight,” Johnson said. “Just have to do what’s best for the team.”
The Owls scored points in every single event except one on Thursday night.
Seymour’s 4×800 relay team of Ty Tormoehlen, Carter Murphy, Jude Bane and Michael Brooks placed third in 8:28.29.
Bane was fourth in the 1600 in 4:38.06 and Brooks was fifth in 4:43.27. Bane was third in the 3200 with a time of 10:10.43.
Mason Nugent was sixth in the 100 in 11.88. The 4×100 team of Logan Shelly, Nugent, Jesse Mellencamp and Devon Jackson was third in 44.28.
Josh Rennekamp was sixth in the 400 in 53.13, Nick Wheeler was seventh in the 300 hurdles in 43.60, and Tormoehlen was seventh in the 800 in 2:10.10.
Johnson was fourth in the 200 in 23.68 and Mellencamp was sixth in 23.84.
Owen Kruse was fourth in discus at 127-9, and Curtis Burke was sixth at 127-4. Kruse was then third in shot put at 43-1.
Bryson Darlage was third in long jump at 20-9.5. Darlage also scored in high jump, where he was tied for fifth at 5-10. Jadrix Zumhingst was fifth in pole vault at 11-0.
Seymour’s 4×400 of Jackson, Brooks, Rennekamp and Johnson took second overall with a time of 3:32.10.
Johnson anchored the 4×4, where he tried to play catchup with Jennings County’s team, who won in 3:30.53.
“We get them next week,” Johnson said.
“If they were fresher, they maybe could’ve been conference champs in the 4×4,” Fife said, “but they still ran a nice race.”
Seymour will now turn its attention to sectionals next week, which will take place at Bedford North Lawrence next Thursday.
Fife expects another tight scoring night next week.
“It was a good night,” Fife said. “Our sectional is going to be a dogfight. Brownstown has got some fast kids and a couple distance runners. You got Jennings County who was right on our tail tonight. So, it’s going to be tough.”