By Dee Grenert Sports Editor
PLYMOUTH — Plymouth’s boys track and field team finished second at last week’s highly-competitive Northern Lakes Conference meet, without winning an event.
The Pilgrims more than made up for that first-place drought Thursday.
Led by triple winners Austin Hodges and Mark Danielson, Plymouth piled up 10 first-place finishes en route to its third straight sectional crown at The Rockpile. Plymouth accumulated 183 points in the process, 90 better than second-place Culver Military. Altogether, the Pilgrims qualified 13 athletes for next Thursday’s Kokomo Regional.

“To win 10 events is a big deal,” Plymouth head coach John Barron said. “It doesn’t get old, winning the sectional. Our conference is tremendously competitive, and we were aware of that. If you look at the seed times for the sectional, they indicated that we should be in contention in a lot of races.
“It’s nice for our kids to compete and finally win the blue ribbon,” he added. “Tonight was our night. To be a sectional champion is a big deal.”
Hodges, a junior sprinter, raced to victories in the 100 and 200, and anchored Plymouth’s victorious 4 x 100 relay team. Hodges scratched the 100 for next week’s regional, leaving him to concentrate on the 200 and relay.
“Three wins, that was probably a little more than I expected,” Hodges said. “I was really happy with my 200 time; my 100 time, not so much. I didn’t really have anyone to push me in the 100. My plan for next week is just try to compete. There’s going to be some real big schools at the regional, and I just want to compete.”
Danielson won the 800 by nearly a full second, and also helped the Pilgrims dominate the 4 x 800 and 4 x 400 relays. Plymouth, which swept all three relays, set a sectional record in the 4 x 800 with a time of 8:11.20. Danielson, Derek Hill, Curtis Ivy and Peter Johnson shattered the old mark of 8:14.17, set in 2000.
“Mark Danielson ran really well,” Barron said. “He won the 800 and ran two really good relay legs.”
Danielson, Hill, Ivy and Mitch Glassburn — who nipped Hill at the line to win the 400 — finished off the night by winning the 4 x 400 relay. Houston Hodges, Austin’s younger brother, Spencer Schalliol and Trent Keyser rounded out Plymouth’s victorious 4 x 100 relay quartet.
The Pilgrims also put up a strong showing in the field events where Leneil Himes claimed wins in the shot put and discus, and Kent Corsbie won the long jump by a full 12 inches over teammate Brock Smith. Corsbie also finished second in the 300 hurdles and fourth place in the high hurdles.
“Leneil Himes had a good day, winning the shot and discus,” Barron said. “Kent Corsbie won the long jump, and he moved up in his seed in the hurdles. He’s going to the regional in all three of his events. I’m happy for him because he works really hard.
“We tried to focus on our times for Kokomo because all of those tough NLC teams will be there next week,” he added. “We wanted to push our kids against the clock. We’re very deep and scored in every event. I’m really happy for the kids.”
Runner up CMA received top performances from a pair of competitors. Sophomore Alejandro Arroyo, who qualified for the cross country state finals last fall, won the 1600 and 3200 meters.
Meanwhile, Daniel Ching swept the hurdles, edging fellow Eagle Thomas Anderson in the high hurdles, and setting a sectional record in the 300 hurdles. His time of 40.20 eclipsed the previous fast time of 40.24, set last year by Plymouth’s David Burroughs.
“I do a lot of counting,” Ching said of the low hurdles. “In hurdles, timing is very important. There’s 23 steps to the first hurdle. I drive real fast, counting 23 steps, and then it’s 15 or so between hurdles. The first three are pretty easy because they’re shorter than the 110. After that it becomes a struggle because you have to get over those little plastic things that are in your way.  If you’re exhausted at the end, that’s good because it means you’ve done your best.”
And what about beating his teammate in the high hurdles?
“Thomas and I are really good friends, but there’s this dichotomy because you’re friends, but in track, all’s fair,” Ching said. “Thomas was a little mad at me after the race.”
In the high jump, Triton’s Troy McIntyre successfully defended his sectional crown, easily clearing 6-4. He topped out at 6-3 in a second-place finish to Bremen’s Kyle Hudson at last week’s Northern State Conference meet.
“I’ve felt pretty good the last couple times out,” McIntyre said. “I changed my approach a little bit this week. I think I’ll be able to jump even higher next week.”
McIntyre, who quarterbacked Triton to its first football sectional crown in the fall and played an integral role in the Trojans’ Class A basketball state title, also plays baseball for the blue and gold.
“It’s pretty busy,” he said of his schedule. “It seems like every night I’ve got either a meet or a game. I have to put in extra time for whatever practice I missed. It makes it pretty tough.”
Chris Willis and Justin Master led Culver Community with third-place marks in the pole vault and long jump, respectively.
• PLYMOUTH BOYS TRACK SECTIONAL
At Plymouth (Top 4 advance to Kokomo Regional)
Team scores: Plymouth 183, CMA 93, Triton 80, Rochester 73, North Miami 55, Northfield 41, Tippecanoe Valley 34, Culver Community 30, Manchester 28, Caston 5.
100: 1. Austin Hodges (P) 11.37, 2. David Thrush (NF) 11.63, 3. Adam Creighbaum (Tri) 11.57, 4. Miles Reichard (Tri) 11.64, 5. Tabari Byrd-Williams (CMA) 11.67, 6. Austin Yeargean (Cas) 11.81, 7. Houston Hodges (P) 11.84, 8. Aaron Benedict (Cas) 18.18. (Hodges scratch, Byrd-Williams moves up).
200: 1. A. Hodges (P) 22.91, 2. Byrd-Williams (CMA) 23.21, 3. Troy McIntyre (Tri) 23.25, 4. Gavin McNeeley (M) 23.68, 5. David Rich (R) 23.72, 6. Reichard (Tri) 23.82, 7. Collin Bowling (P) 24.15. (McIntyre scratch, Rich moves up)
400: 1. Mitch Glassburn (P) 50.39, 2. Derek Hill (P) 50.76, 3. Rich (R) 51.76, 4. Dustin John (NM) 52.03, 5. Thrush (NF) 53.86, 6. Drake Downs (R) 54.23, 7. Creighbaum (Tri) 54.33, 8. Steven Foust (NM) 55.21.
800: 1. Mark Danielson (P) 2:02.27, 2. Casey Good (R) 2:03.20, 3. Cody Kaiser (TV) 2:03.57, 4. Stephan Vantwoud (CC) 2:04.01, 5. Aaron Medley (M) 2:04.51, 6. Andrew Kurtz (P) 2:07.08, 7. Coleman Zimmerman (CMA) 2:08.24, 8. James Dean (Tri) 2:09.73. (Danielson scratch, Medley moves up).
1600: 1. Alejandro Arroyo (CMA) 4:31.80, 2. Peter Johnson (P) 4:35.64, 3. Kaiser (TV) 4:36.00, 4. Eric Linn (NM) 4:39.51, 5. Calvin Cook (P) 4:43.28, 6. Seth Murphy (R) 4:48.22, 7. Chris Trennepohl (CMA) 4:49.25, 8. Alex Shafer (R) 4:51.59. (Arroyo scratch, Cook moves up; Cook scratch, Murphy moves up).
3200: 1. Arroyo (CMA) 9:54.47, 2. Cook (P) 10:01.44, 3. Johnson (P) 10:05.91, 4. Murphy (R) 10:09.08, 5. Trace Ostergren (CMA) 10:14.99, 6. Alex Weaver (TV) 10:26.67, 7. Linn (NM) 10:42.08, 8. Curtis Nordmann (Tri) 11:01.00. (Johnson scratch, Ostergren moves up)
110 hurdles: 1. Daniel Ching (CMA) 15.57, 2. Thomas Anderson (CMA) 15.77, 3. Jacob Harrell (NF) 15.84, 4. Kent Corsbie (P) 15.87, 5. Bryce Westfall (P) 16.27, 6. Joel Meister (Tri) 16.30, 7. Jeremiah Conley (M) 17.37, 8. Cody Mongosa (NM) 17.44.
300 hurdles: 1. Ching (CMA) 40.20 (sectional record), 2. Corsbie (P) 41.90, 3. Westfall (P) 42.67, 4. Harrell (NF) 42.80, 5. Darrick Ameigh (Tri) 42.97, 6. Justin Master (CC) 44.70, 7. Conley (M) 44.99, 8. Mongosa (NM) 17.44.
4 x 100 relay: 1. Plymouth 44.99 (H. Hodges, Trent Keyser, Spencer Schalliol, A. Hodges), 2. Triton 45.85, 3. CMA 46.52, 4. North Miami 46.59, 5. Northfield 46.85, 6. Rochester 46.99, 7. Culver Community 48.33 .
4 x 400 relay: 1. Plymouth 3:26.75 (Glassburn, Danielson, Hill, Curtis Ivy), 2. Rochester 3:36.44, 3. Manchester 3:39.23, 4. CMA 3:39.27, 5. Northfield 3:41.72, 6. North Miami 3:44.08, 7. Triton 3:52.37, 8. Culver Community 4:26.67.
4 x 800 relay: 1. Plymouth 8:11.20 (Danielson, Hill, Peter Johnson, Ivy) (sectional record), 2. Manchester 8:29.68, 3. Rochester 8:35.89, 4. CMA 8:43.50, 5. North Miami 9:08.19, 6. Triton 9:21.07, 7. Northfield 9:25.89, 8. Caston 10:02.57.
High jump: 1. McIntyre (T) 6-4, 2. Adam Miller (NM) 6-1, 3. Cody Ply (R) 5-10, 4. (tie) Austin Brown (NF), Dion Burney (NM), Milliser (P) 5-8, 7. Lamaster (Tri) 5-8, 8. Dakota Risner (R) 5-8.
Pole vault: 1. Braxton Dubois (R) 14-6, 2. Meister (Tri) 12-6, 3. Chris Willis (CC) 12-0, 4. Blake Hoffer (Tri) 12-0, 5. Derrick Lee (Ply) 11-6, 6. Eric Stearley (NF) 11-6, 7. Geoel Simpson (R) 10-0, 8. Devin Carr (NF) 10-0.
Long jump: 1. Corsbie (P) 20-1, 2. Brock Smith (P) 19-1, 3. Master (CC) 18-11.25, 4. Byrd-Williams (CMA) 18-9.5, 5. Christopher Shafer (TV) 18-7, 6. Mongosa (NM) 18-2.25, 7. Randy Schoch (CM) 18-1.25, 8. Kevin Haggard (R) 17-11.75.
Shot put: 1. Leneil Himes (P) 48-9, 2. Gregory Miller (NM) 47-10.25, 3. Michael Kays (R) 45-5, 4. Kyle Grossman (TV) 43-8, 5. Samuel Kimmel (TV) 42-8, 6. Jeremy Dawson (T) 42-5.75, 7. Trevor Padgett (P) 41-11.50, 8. Justin O’Brien (M) 40-4.
Discus: 1. Himes (P) 139-4, 2. Dawson (T) 136-2, 3. Kimmel (TV) 135-9, 4. G. Miller (NM) 135-2, 5. Lovely (CC) 134-8, 6. Matt Kornblith (CC) 132-9, 7. Klondaris (CMA) 130-5, 8. Ian Samuelson (P) 125-1.