Murphy makes state

INDIANAPOLIS - As Maria Murphy walked to retrieve her discus after her final throw, the look on her face said it all.

Her eyes were wide open - shocked - while the smile on her face grew bigger and bigger.

She was going to state.

Murphy, a Jay County High School sophomore, finished as the runner-up in the discus in Tuesday's regional meet at Ben Davis and will compete in the IHSAA State Finals Friday, June 4, at Indiana University.

"I don't know what to say," said Murphy immediately after her final throw. "It's like all my work has paid off. ...

"I knew I could do it, but ... for it to actually happen, I was like 'Oh ... my ... God,' because I was seeded seventh.

"I'm a sophomore and going to state. That's just not real. I've always dreamed of it, and now it's actually happening."

Murphy scored 11 of Jay County's 15 points at the meet, where the top three finishers in each event advance to the state finals, as the Patriots finished tied for 10th with Park Tudor out of 27 scoring teams. Lawrence Central won the regional title with 102 points, and Lawrence North was second at 83.

Entering as the seventh seed a week after finishing third in the sectional, Murphy couldn't have gotten off to a better start. On her first throw of the preliminary round of competition, she sent the discus flying for the best throw of her career.

And by the end of the preliminaries - three throws for each competitor - that throw of 113 feet, 1 inch had her in second place.

"That's a pretty good throw, but I knew there were a lot of really good girls who could get past me," said Murphy, who had five other throwers within striking distance. "I didn't want to get my hopes up ... but then as it started winding down ... I didn't know what to do.

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"I was so nervous. ... I was like, 'Is this really happening to me right now.'"

But as the finals progressed, Murphy's first throw remained unsurpassed by anyone except leader Taja Moore of Lawrence Central. And by the time she tossed the discus for the final time at Ben Davis, her runner-up position and berth in the state finals was secure.

Her toss was six-and-a-half inches better than third-place finisher Merced Montgomery of North Central, and more than 12 feet better than when she finished fourth last season. Moore easily won the event, outdistancing the field by more than 20 feet at 134 feet, 6 inches.

"Maria gave a phenomenal effort in disc," said JCHS coach Brian McEvoy. "She had a pretty good experience down here last year, so I don't think she was really intimidated by the competition or pressure.

"That's a really big deal for a sophomore in that event, because it's so technical. ... Hopefully this will be a really good taste for her to set her up for the future."

Murphy continued to be on top of her game in the shot put as her first throw in that event - 35 feet, 4 ½ inches - was also a career-best. She extended that personal record to 35 feet, 5 ½ inches on her final throw to match Union's Marie Lumpkin, who won the sectional title in front of her a week earlier.

Lumpkin still took fifth place by way of the tiebreaker (the second-best throw from each competitor), and Murphy was sixth less than an inch ahead of Cierra Jones from Crispus Attucks.

The third-place finisher was Decatur Central's Ariel Capps at 38 feet, 6 inches.

"I am more than happy," said Murphy after the meet. "I was seeded seventh in discus, and I got second, which is unbelievable. And then even in shot I got sixth and I was seeded seventh, so I was happy with that. And I got two personal bests.

"At sectional, I was kind of disappointed, because I was really wanting to get those two firsts. But I think me not getting them made me want to do something more (today)."

Two other Patriots finished in the top eight and scored points in the regional meet - junior Jordan McMillan in the 100-meter dash and sophomore Katie Simmons in the 3,200 run.

McMillan qualified for the finals in the 100 dash with a fourth-place effort in the first preliminary heat. In the finals she finished seventh, just one hundredth of a second behind sixth-place finisher Briana Jones of the host Giants and less than a tenth of a second ahead of eighth-place finisher Eboni Collins from Muncie Southside.

Each of the top three runners in the event matched or surpassed the state cut time of 12.49.

"This regional, sprinter-wise, is just absolutely loaded," said McEvoy. "I think last year ... five or six made it to state. ... That's a feat in itself (to make the finals). She gave herself a chance. ... She ran two solid race."

McMillan was also 14th in the 200 dash in 28.8.

Simmons got off to a solid start in the 3,200 run and sat seventh after the first two laps. She stayed between seventh and ninth throughout the rest of the race, and surged ahead of a pair of runners at the finish line to take seventh in 12 minutes, 25.4 seconds.

She was just two seconds ahead of Leah Steele of Lapel and four seconds in front of Perry Meridians' Briana Huckleberry.

Simmons also placed 11th in the 1,600 run in 5:45.06.

"I thought Katie Simmons bounced back really nicely in the two mile," said McEvoy. "In the mile she got really off in pace, and it just was a snowball effect. ... In the two mile I thought she really settled herself down and ran a much stronger race. ... That was nice to see her bounce back and do that."

Kari Hemmelgarn, Leah Wellman, Eme Miller and Liz Lennartz teamed for a 10th-place finish in the 4x800 relay in 10:29.59. Hemmelgarn was also 12th in the 800 run with a time of 2:33.97.

Also competing in individual events for JCHS were Wellman (13th - 5:58.4), Aly Miller (13th - 3,200 run), Macey Gerber (14th - 400 dash) and Kelsey Wood (14th - high jump). The team of Megan Taylor, Kim Braun, Hemmelgarn and Gerber was 15th in the 4x400 relay, and Katie Snyder, Sierra Weatherhead, Link and Wood placed 16th in the 4x100 relay.[[In-content Ad]]