 Culver Girls Academy’s Waverly Neer runs in the 1600-meter race at the Rochester Girls Track and Field Sectional Tuesday. Neer recorded wins in all three of her events, and the Eagles won the team sectional championship. Pilot photo/ Alan Hall By Alan Hall Correspondent
ROCHESTER — The outcome of a back and forth contest was known, but Culver Girls Academy coach Michael Chastain wouldn’t have anything to do with it until the final event was run.
Then and only then was Chastain happy to see his Lady Eagles take the Rochester Girls Track and Field Sectional championship trophy home.
The Lady Eagles used a strong performance in the sprints and distance races to edge out Plymouth 158-132 Tuesday for their first title since 2005. Culver Comm-unity finished sixth on the night with 51 points, while Triton tallied 29 points for an eighth-place finish.
“It was a pretty good night for us, we placed in almost all events we thought we would,” remarked Chas-tain. “The key thing was we tried to move as many on as we could. All three relays ran well, I was pleased with them. The distance runners were just not quite as fast as we thought they might. Both sprinters did well, they won the 100 and 200 pretty convincingly.”
All total, CGA earned 14 regional berths, including championships in all three relays, the mile, two-mile and half-mile races, and both the 100 and 200-meter dash.
Junior sprinter Erica Sims swept the 100 and 200 sprints with times of 13.17 and 27.43 while teammate Ashley Taylor grabbed a second in the 100. Sophomore Waverly Neer paced the distance events with times of 5:09.69 and 11:03.80 in the one and two miles, respectively, while Jenna Iwaniec ran a first-place time of 2:27.48 in the 800 run. All three also added points by pushing the Eagles’ relay teams to first-place finishes.
“Erica Sims did a real nice job in the 100 and 200, then anchored the 400 relay,” Chastain said. “Waverly did well and I was pleased with Jenna Iwaniec. She anchored the 3200 relay with her best time by 5 seconds, won the 400 and came by and led off our 1600 relay.”
“I knew the Academies had a great team, and we were gonna have to do well to stay with them,” acknowledged Plymouth head coach Paul Patrick. “There were certain events they were seeded high in that weren’t gonna change. There was no one in the field who was going to knock them out. The areas where we seeded high in, we did okay.”
For the Lady Pilgrims, Nicole Maclain took dual wins in the 100 and 300 hurdles with times of 16.55 and 48.90, respectively, and senior Kelsey Houin and sophomore Haley Smart supplied respective first-place finishes in the pole vault and 400-meter dash.
The Pilgrims claimed a total of 15 regional appointments in 12 events — including a one-two finish in the 100-meter hurdles and runners-up finishes in each of the three relay races — but it wasn’t enough for Plymouth to pull off the win while battling the injury bug.
“I knew we needed to score well in the hurdles and the vault, but I just didn’t know where else we could make up those points. You just don’t come up with a two-mile runner,” said Patrick. “You can put a 200 girl in the 400 and get some points, but not in the two mile.
“We are not 100 percent. Brandi Witmer scored sixth in the 100, but not having her cost us in the 400 and 1600 relays. If she’s healthy, she’s probably second in the 100. In the 1600 and 3200, we just don’t have the horses to run with them. I thought we’d be close, but I’m not surprised.”
Along with the sectional champions at the Rochester, several other area athletes earned one of the top four spots to advance to next week’s Bremen Regional. CGA’s Moira Kelly moves on in the 400 in second place behind Smart, while Kaye Sitterly moves on in the 1600 and 800-meter runs. Willow Smith finished second behind teammate Neer to advance in the 3200, C.J. Spaulding earned a berth in the discus, and Kim Danforth and Andrea Lin earned spots in the high and long jumps, respectively.
Plymouth freshman Blaire Davis had a steady showing with quadruple berths in the 100 and 200, as well as on the Pilgrims’ 400 and 1600 relay squads. Senior Alex Starr earned advancement in three races as a member of Plymouth’s 3200 and 1600-meter relay squads to complement a second-place standing behind Iwaniec in the 800, as did MacLain with her team-best two championships and as a member of Plymouth’s 400-meter relay team. Allison Bayley ad-vances with MacLain in second place in the 100 hurdles. Emily Walden moves on in with fourth-place finishes in both the mile and two-mile races, Erin McNeil will advance with a runner-up finish in the discus, and Krista Vanlue will be moving on with teammate Houin in the vault.
Several individuals from Culver and Triton also secured berths Tuesday.
Trinity Garcia won the high jump with a height of 5 feet and placed fourth in the 400 to earn a berth in both events for the second straight year, while fellow Cavalier Liz West finished second in the high jump to earn her fourth consecutive berth in the event in her final season with the team. Teammate Sarah Bailey won the shot put with a toss of 35’ 10”, while Triton’s Megan Howdeshell led the Lady Trojans with two top-four placements in the throwing events, including a second-place toss of 35’ 9” in the shot and a third-place throw of 108’6” behind McNeil in the discus. Triton sophomore Emily Duff finished fourth in the 300 low hurdles to earn a spot at Bremen as well.
• ROCHESTER GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD SECTIONAL
At Rochester
TEAM RESULTS: 1. Culver Girls Academy 158, 2. Plymouth 132, 3. Rochester 65, 4. Manchester 60, 5. Tippecanoe Valley 57, 6. Culver Community 51, 7. Northfield 41, 8. Triton 29, 9. North Miami 18, 10. Caston 13
100-meter dash: 1. Erica Sims (CGA) 13.17, 2. Ashley Taylor 13.19, 3. Holly Reed (NF) 13.4, 4. Blaire Davis (P) 13.56; 200-meter dash: 1. Sims 27.43, 2. Reed 28.27, 3. Ashley Minix (R) 28.5, 4. Davis 28.57; 400-meter dash: 1. Haley Smart (P) 1:02.41, 2. Moira Kelley (CGA) 1:03.28, 3. Mack Coulter-Kern (M) 1:03.91, 4. Trinity Garcia (CC) 1:05.82; 800-meter run: 1. Jenna Iwaniec (CGA) 2:27.48, 2. Alex Starr (P) 2:32.39, 3. Adrienne Johnson (R) 2:33.52, 4. Kaye Sitterly (CGA) 2:34.32; 1600-meter run: 1. Waverly Neer (CGA) 5:09.69, 2. Sitterley 5:37.01, 3. Kelsi Denney (R) 5:44.65, 4. Emily Walden (P) 5:47.93; 3200-meter run: 1. Neer 11:03.8, 2. Willow Smith (CGA) 11:39.57, 3. Molly Wright (TV) 12:46.7, 4. Andrea Sharfman (M) 12:50.94; 100-meter hurdles: 1. Nicole MacLain (P) 16.55, 2. Allison Bayley (P) 17.25, 3. Stacie Hoffman (T) 17.69, 4. Mallory Wyatt (R) 17.99; 300-meter hurdles: 1. MacLain 48.9, 2. Kathleen Newsome (TV) 49.99, 3. Kelsey Houin (P) 51.96, 4. Emily Duff (T) 53.53; 100-meter relay: 1. CGA (Taylor, Emily Rich, Andrea Lin, Sims) 52.46, 2. Plymouth (MacLain, Danica Cureton, Davis, Smart) 53.73, 3. Tippy Valley 54.06, 4. Northfield 55.18; 1600-meter relay: 1. CGA (Iwaniec, Hanna Klondaris, Neer, Kelley) 4:18.00, 2. Plymouth (Starr, Davis, Smart, Cureton) 4:27.68, 3. Manchester 4:28.01, 4. Tippy Valley 4:38.42; 3200-meter relay: 1. CGA (Sitterly, Smith, Burian, Iwaniec) 9:59.01, 2. Plymouth (Starr, Brianna Garland, Allasyn Slater, Maggie Morrow) 10:37.29, 3. Manchester 10:46.56, 4. Rochester 10:49.9; High jump: 1. Garcia 5’0”, 2. TIE Liz West (CC), Karena Newman (R), Kim Danforth (CGA) 4’10”; Pole vault: 1. Houin 9’10”, 2. TIE Minix, Krista Vanlue (P), Hanna Okray (R) 8’06”; Long jump: 1. Stacie Hoffman (TV) 15’06”, 2. Holly Reed (NF) 15’05”, 3. Ariana Gunter (TV) 15’04”, 4. Lin 14’09.5”; Shot put: 1. Sarah Bailey (CC) 35’10”, 2. Megan Howdeshell (T) 35’09”, 3. Tina Huffman (NM) 34’00.5”, 4. CJ Spaulding (CGA) 32’10”; Discus: 1. Brit Sievers (M) 125’03”, 2. Erin McNeil (P) 113’02”, 3. Howdeshell 108’06”, 4. Bailey 106’0”.
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