By Dee Grenert Sports Editor
WALKERTON — LaVille girls track and field head coach Bill Gallippo preached perfection prior to the Northern State Conference meet Wednesday.
The Lancers responded with something pretty darn close to perfection.
Buoyed by junior speedster Abby Davis’ four-win showing, LaVille raced to the NSC title at John Glenn High School. The Lancers accumulated 140 points, a full 13 markers ahead of second-place New Prairie.

LaVille recorded double places in six events, which offset its weakness in the pole vault.
“When you can double-place in that many events, that’s huge,” Gallippo said. “Our depth came through. It helped us overcome the pole vault, which we knew was the thorn in our side. We talked a lot about what we needed was perfection; they were perfect.”
Particularly Davis. The diminutive sprinter easily won the 100 and 200, anchored LaVille’s winning 4 x 100 relay team and added a surprise win in the long jump.
“It was a phenomenal performance by Abby Davis,” Gallippo said. “When you can run that many races, it’s huge. She came in seeded fifth or sixth in the long jump, and won it with her second jump. Her 100 and 200 were phenomenal times. That’s a 40-point performance.”
Davis finished just ahead of Culver Community senior Alicia Allen in all three individual wins, and pulled away from Bremen’s Libby Chang in the relay win.
“I’ve never even had a conference win before tonight,” Davis said. “I hadn’t done the long jump all year — I think this was maybe my second time this year. I don’t practice it at all. I just got my steps down and ran.”
According to both Gallippo and Davis, the Lancers, who finished 11 points out of first place last year, entered the meet with something to prove. New Prairie beat LaVille by 27 points earlier this season
“After New Prairie beat us by 27 points — they hammered us — we had to get the girls to believe,” Gallippo said. “For the girls, this is absolutely huge. New Prairie beat us by 11 points last year, and beat us earlier this year. That left a nasty taste in their mouths. Tonight they got their revenge.”
Davis agreed.
“We wanted revenge,” she said. “There was talk going around that we were going to lose. That only motivated us. We were walking down the hallways at school today, giving each other high fives. We were pumped up. We lost at New Prairie, but I think it’s better to lose to them in the regular season than the conference.”
Davis had plenty of company in the hero department. Emily Langford — who went 5-0 to win the high jump — Alysha Fisher and Emily Fuller all went ahead of Davis in the 4 x 100 relay. Hannah Christy threw 36-2 to win the shot put for LaVille.
The Lancers sewed up the win with strong performances in the 200 and 3200 meters. Fuller backed up Davis’ 200 win with a fourth-place time, while a pair of freshmen — Elaine Schmeltz and Katy Bettcher — went third and seventh respectively in the 2-mile race.
“(The 200) was huge, and so was the 2-mile finish,” Gallippo said. “I told them we needed to finish somewhere around third, and then either sixth or seventh in the 2-mile. Those are freshmen that came through.”
Bremen finished in third place, just a half-point behind New Prairie. Tiffany Vogeler nipped Fisher at the line in both hurdles events for the Lions. Distance runner Hope Jordan collected Bremen victories in the 800 and 1600 meters.
Senior Stephanie Stichter led Triton with a first-place finish in the discus.
In addition to Allen’s three runner-up marks, thrower Sarah Bailey finished second in the discus.
Amy Shirk topped John Glenn with the second-place time in the 800.
• NORTHERN STATE CONFERENCE
TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Walkerton
GIRLS
Team scores: LaVille 140, New Prairie 127, Bremen 126 1/2, Culver Community 75 1/2, Triton 51, John Glenn 45, Jimtown 43, Knox 10.
4 x 800 relay: 1, New Prairie (Sarah Thompson, Casey Monroe, Robyn VanHeste, Kristin Wagner) 10:16.48. 2, LaVille 10:23.02. 3, John Glenn 10:45.17. 4, Bremen 10:55.78. 5, Culver Community 11:19.73. 6, Jimtown 11:47.84. 7, Knox 11:53.73. 8, Triton 12:36.28.
100 hurdles: 1, Tiffany Vogeler (Bre) 16.56. 2, Alysha Fisher (LV) 16.83. 3, Kayley Layman (NP) 17.32. 4, Libby Chang (Bre) 17.50. 5, Rachel Bucher (Jim) 17.89. 6, Kathy Thayer (Jim) 17.93. 7, Candice Stoner (NP) 18.46. 8, MaryEllen Schmalzried (JG) 19.10.
100: 1, Abby Davis (LV) 13.19. 2, Alicia Allen (CC) 13.69. 3, Sam Studt (Bre) 13.79. 4, Whitney Sanders (CC) 13.93. 5, Julie Jeszensky (NP) 14.06. 6, Bethany Lemler (Tri) 14.16. 7, Sarah Feeney (JG) 14.36. 8, Betsey Brown (Bre) 14.86.
1600: 1, Hope Jordan (Bre) 5:17.92. 2, Emily Dean (Jim) 5:26.56. 3, Elaine Schmeltz (LV) 5:33.60. 4, Kristin Wagner (NP) 5:40.77. 5, Lauren Shaffer (CC) 5:45.21. 6, Kelsey Bettcher (LV) 5:45.91. 7, Sarah Thompson (NP) 5:46.04. 8, Kim Podell (JG) 5:56.55.
4 x 100 relay: 1, LaVille (Emily Langford, Alysha Fisher, Emily Fuller, Abby Davis) 52.88. 2, Bremen 53.34. 3, Culver Community 53.61. 4, New Prairie 55.34. 5, Triton 56.18. 6, Jimtown 56.38. 7, John Glenn 56.55. 8, Knox 57.72.
400: 1, Mary Gamble (NP) 1:01.33. 2, Amy Shirk (NP) 1:02.00. 3, Emily Langford (LV) 1:04.74. 4, Marci Gurtner (LV) 1:05.04. 5, Sarah DeShone (Jim) 1:05.24. 6, Trinity Garcia (CC) 1:05.67. 7, Alex Keller (Bre) 1:06.47. 8, Julie Jeszensky (NP) 1:06.70.
300 hurdles: 1, Tiffany Vogeler (Bre) 49.04. 2, Alysha Fisher (LV) 49.17. 3, Kayley Layman (NP) 50.84. 4, Kristin Lestinsky (NP) 52.21. 5, Libby Chang (Bre) 52.90. 6, Patrice McBee (CC) 53.41. 7, Maryellen Schmalzried (JG) 53.94. 8, Rachel Bucher (Jim) 54.31.
800: 1, Hope Jordan (Bre) 2:26.87. 2, Amy Shirk (JG) 2:28.87. 3, Kristin Wagner (NP) 2:29.31. 4, Marci Gurtner (LaVille) 2:33.08. 5, Sarah Thompson (NP) 2:33.11. 6, Anna Zeltwanger (Bre) 2:34.98. 7, Emily Dean 2:37.51. 8, Kelsey Bettcher (LV) 2:42.02.
200: 1, Abby Davis (LV) 27.39. 2, Alicia Allen (CC) 28.03. 3, Mary Gamble (NP) 28.36. 4, Emily Fuller (LV) 29.03. 5, Sam Studt (Bre) 29.26. 6, Julie Jeszensky (NP) 29.43. 7, Emily Johnston (Knox) 29.46. 8, Katie Goward (Jim) 30.23.
3200: 1, Emily Dean (Jim) 11:36.29 (MEET RECORD). 2, Hope Jordan (Bre) 11:40.83. 3, Elaine Schmeltz (LV) 11:51.04. 4, Casey Monroe (NP) 12:45.23. 5, Lauren Shaffer (CC) 12:57.54. 6, Robyn VanHeste (NP) 12:58.24. 7, Katlyn Bettcher (LV) 13:02.11. 8, Stephanie Weldy (Bre) 13:15.79.
4 x 400 relay: 1, New Prairie (Sarah Thompson, Kristin Wagner, Grace Lusk, Mary Gamble) 4:19.49. 2, LaVille 4:21.83. 3, Bremen 4:25.16. 4, John Glenn 4:36.84. 5, Jimtown 4:40.05. 6, Culver Community 4:47.09. 7, Knox 4:47.75. 8, Triton 4:50.32.
High jump: 1, Emily Langford (LV) 5-0. 2, Mary Gamble (NP) 4-10. 3, Sam Studt (Bre) 4-10. 4, Brooke Blackford (Tri) 4-10. 5, Liz West (CC) 4-10. 6, Mercedes Gumm (NP) 4-10. 7, Tie between Susannah Baker (CC) and Lindsay Berger (Bre) 4-6.
Long jump: 1, Abby Davis (LV) 15-2 1/2. 2, Alicia Allen (CC) 14-7 3/4. 3, Libby Chang (Bre) 14-6 1/2. 4, Bethany Lemler (Tri) 14-2 3/4. 5, Grace Lusk (NP) 14-1. 6, Tasha Johnson (JG) 13-11 1/4. 7, Emily Johnson (Knox) 13-10 3/4. 8, Lerin Studt (Bre) 13-8 1/2.
Shot put: 1, Hannah Christy (LV) 36-2. 2, Stephanie Stichter (Tri) 35-6. 3, Sarah Bailey (CC) 32-10. 4, Amber Farrer (Bre) 32-6. 5, Angela Lile (JG) 32-4. 6, Melissa Bromley (NP) 31-5. 7, Sarah Dudeck (LV) 30-1. 8, Courtney White (Knox) 28-11.
Discus: 1, Stephanie Stichter (Tri) 100-3. 2, Sarah Bailey (CC) 98-7. 3, Tamra Schmucker (Tri) 96-7. 4, Sarah Dudeck (LV) 94-11. 5, Amber Farrer (Bre) 96-1. 6, Angela Lile (JG) 86-3. 7, Hannah Christy (LV) 85-6. 8, Morgan Mrozinski (NP) 85-4.
Pole vault: 1, Kymra Keigley (NP) 8-0. 2, Bethany Lemler (Tri) 7-0. 3, Tie between Holly Prawat (Bre), Brittney Pittman (Bre), Morgan Mrozinski (NP) 7-0.
Officials: Mike Alspaugh, Ted Noffsinger