Norwell’s Jase Harmon beat out 26 other competitors at the state meet to finish on the seventh-place spot on the state podium at Friday’s state Track & Field meet at North Central.
The meet started out with a bang as four juniors from Bloomington North took the very first title handed out on the night with a state record, winning the 4×800 in 7:37.01.
No one in the crowd, however, was surprised. The Cougars were returning two runners from last year’s state title-winning team. Bloomington North won last year’s race by five whole seconds and those two returning runners were Caleb Winders and Caelan D’Onofrio, both freshmen on the 2023 Bloomington North 4×800 team that won the state title with the previous state record.
Winders later won the title in the 800, with D’Onofrio behind him in sixth, as the Cougars finished the night as state runner-up in the team race.
One of the highlights of the meet came in the prelims of the 200 M dash. Attacking the record set by Jeffrey Patrick way back in 1982, Lawrence North’s Monshun Sales set a new state mark by .01 to outpace two other Marion County runners, including his teammate, Jerome Smith, who was third.
Ironically, much later in the evening, Sales finished second in the finals, however, with Antonio Smith of host North Central winning in a much slower time. The two LN runners had to settle for second and third, but they teamed up minutes later and won the state title in the 4×100, then celebrated at the end of the night as Team State champions thanks to their efforts.
Once the opening ceremonies were finished, the first state champion to be crowned on the track was Franklin Central’s Rylan Hainje. He cut half of a second from his prelim time and not only won the title, but also broke a record which had been considered unbreakable, crushing Jerry Hill’s record from 1976 when he won for Arsenal Tech. Hainje didn’t just break the mark, but put .36 seconds of distance between himself and Hill.
North Central also had a state champion in the 400, with senior Dehnm Holt equaling the state mark set two years ago with a winning time of 46.80. Holt also ran the anchor of the 4×400 for the Panthers, teaming up with Antonio Smith, as they cruised to a state title and finished just .32 seconds away from the state record, set all the way back in 1980.
The record-breaking night continued and it was Hainje who was once again in the spotlight, crushing the mark for the 300 hurdles by a whopping .44 seconds to take Franklin Central back to the top of the podium.
Hainje could have been a three-time state champion Friday, but his 4×100 relay team was disqualified between his two hurdles finals. The team’s time at regional would have placed them third at the state meet, just behind the aforementioned Lawrence North team and Brownsburg, who took second.
Another state record was set in the 1600, with Noah Bontrager’s winning time of 4:02.60 vindicating the distance runner from Westview after he finished runner-up in the state cross country meet in the fall. The previous record of 4:03 had stood since 2011.
Bontrager’s true vindication came in the 3200, however, at the end of the night. He beat Sam Quagliaroli of Fishers, the reigning state champion in cross country, to the line and very nearly set a second state record, missing out on the all-time Indiana mark by a mere .07 seconds.
The area’s best chance for a state champion was early in the evening with thrower Weston Ott of Churubusco. The junior had an outstanding night and made the finals of both events, but had to settle for second place in both, catapulting tiny Churubusco High School to 13th place in the final team standings.
Final Results (With State champions listed along with local athletes)
100 M
1. Will Riley-Greenwood 10.40
9. Coleson Kugler-Wabash 10.87
200 M
1. Antonio Smith-North Central 21.42
7. Coleson Kugler-Wabash 21.93
400 M
1. Dehnm Holt-North Central 46.80
12. Nolan Miller-Leo 48.90
25. Jude Baumgartner-Bluffton 50.93
27. Devonti Carter-FW Northrop 51.13
800 M
1. Caleb Winders-Bloom. North 1:52.21
3. Jace Trevino-Homestead 1:53.02
15. Marvin Sanchez-Garcia-FW Snider 1:55.92
1600 M
1. Noah Bontrager-Westview 4:02.60
14. Bryan Garcia-New Haven 4:18.23
20. Sam Sweet-Carroll (FW) 4:23.36
3200 M
1. Noah Bontrager-Westview 8:51.22
14. Bryan Garcia-New Haven 9:20.11
23. Cooper Knoblauch-Homestead 9:34.89
24. Hunter Panning-Concordia Lutheran 9:36.05
110 M Hurdles
1. Rylan Hainje-Franklin Central 13.28
Prelim Times
Aaron Vance- FW Snider 14.48
Kevion Mitchell-New Haven 14.59
300 M Hurdles
1. Rylan Hainje-Franklin Central 35.82
5. Carter Campbell-Winchester 38.27
9. Braylin Tisdale-Homestead 38.72
10. Aaron Hoffer-New Haven 39.09
15. August Adams-Carroll (FW) 39.50
4×100 M Relay
1. Lawrence North 40.85
23. Carroll (FW) 43.09
26. Leo 43.38
4×400 M Relay
1. North Central 3:14.34
14. New Haven 3:22.97
26. Carroll (FW) 3:28.78
27. Leo 3:33.69
4×800 M Relay
1. Bloomington North 7:37.01
19. Wabash 8:00.72
24. Columbia City 8:06.47
High Jump
1. Jordan Randall-Warsaw 7-00
5. Danny Kelly-Bishop Luers 6-06
Pole Vault
1. Demarco Easter-Merrillville 16-03
6. Taran Davis-Leo 14-09
12. Hunter Miller-Churubusco 14-03
Long Jump
1. Jaylen Ramsey-Merrillville 23-08.5
7. Jase Harmon-Norwell 23-02.5
22. Michael White-Homestead 21-05.25
Shot Put
1. Benjamin Brown-Southport 63-02
2. Weston Ott-Churubusco 62-09.5
14. John Bussard-New Haven 55-02.75
26. Wes Carmean-Norwell 46-04
Discus Throw
1. Kaleb Rasheed-Avon 191-10
2. Weston Ott-Churubusco 188-02
18. John Bussard-New Haven 159-09
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