Three for JC

MUNCIE — With the meet complete, the Patriots gathered in a circle on the far side of the track. As a group, they shared their favorite moments from the evening and then prayed together.
On a night when everything wasn’t quite perfect, it was that team unity that carried them through to complete a perfect season.
Maria Murphy and Ciera Barcus combined to sweep the field events and undefeated Jay County added a pair of relay victories as it won its third straight sectional championship Tuesday at Muncie Southside.
“I feel pretty awesome,” said Morgan Link, one of the team’s five seniors. “I’m so proud of all the girls.
“We have amazing relationships with each other. We’re such good friends ... and we back each other up.”
The Patriots overcame a false start from their top scorer and an injury that limited their top distance runner to score 168.5 points, just one-half point less than last season.
 Delta was a distant second in the 12-team field with 112.5 points, and Muncie Central (88) finished third. No other squad scored more than 45.
“I didn’t know if it was really possible,” said JCHS coach Brian McEvoy, whose team also won the Muncie Southside and Blackford invitationals on the way to its undefeated season. “We’ve had a three-loss season and two-loss and one-loss. Everything has to go right. … The adaptability of the girls really made that happen …
“It’s such a huge accomplishment. I’m so happy for these girls. They’ve been so unselfish this entire year. We’ve moved girls so much this season … out of their favorite events and tried to put them in things that helped us as a team, and they’ve all graciously done that …
“This is a very, very tight-knit team. That’s why I think we were able to be successful this year. This maybe wasn’t the most talented team top to bottom, but they were a great team together. That made it so special. … It was an amazing thing to be around.”
All of Jay County’s individual wins came in the field events, with Murphy repeating as the sectional champion in both the discus and the shot put.
Murphy, who is also the defending regional champion in the discus, won the event with a toss of 116 feet, 8½ inches. Mackenzie Herron of Wapahani placed second at 107 feet, 10 inches, and Sara Lennartz of the Patriots joined Murphy in earning a regional berth with a third-place toss of 103 feet, 9 inches.
The top four athletes in each event advance to the regional round of competition, which will held be Tuesday at Ben Davis.
Murphy also dominated the shot put, winning by nearly four feet over Herron at 39 feet, 2 inches. The double victory marked the second straight season in which she has carried a perfect record in both events into the regional meet.
“I’m pretty happy,” Murphy said. “I didn’t throw the marks that I wanted to, but all in all I’m really happy that I got two more wins and stayed undefeated for the season. I can’t wait until regionals …”
Barcus made the jump from middle of the pack to top of the heap in her events after finishing fourth in the long jump and fifth in the high jump last season.
She was the only athlete in the field to clear the 16-foot mark in the long jump, taking the event by 2¾ inches over Delta’s Breana Anderson with a leap of 16 feet, ¾ inches.
Barcus also set the standard in the high jump, clearing the bar at 4 feet, 10 inches. Runner-up Megen Yates (4 feet, 8 inches) of Monroe Central was the only other athlete to go higher than 4 feet, 6 inches.
“It’s exciting, really exciting,” said Barcus. “Winning high and long, I was hoping I would get it, but it was really stressful all day. I had my (doubts) about it, but I pulled it together.”
The four field-event victories gave the Patriots nearly a quarter of their total points.
Jay County’s only two wins on the track came in the first and last events of the evening.
Abbi Dunlavy was in on both of those victories, teaming with Eme Miller, Abigail Johnson and Liz Lennartz for a winning time of 10 minutes, 14.84 seconds, in the 4x800-meter relay. They were just over 2 seconds off of the school record.
“Relays are just depth and girls working together,” said McEvoy. “They all ran their best. Our 4x800 was within a few seconds of the school record. … Especially in the 4x800, with that being the first race, we talked about needing to set the tone.”
In the meet-ending 4x400 relay, Malarie Houck ran Jay County to a 10-meter lead on the opening leg. Dunlavy and Katie Snyder maintained the advantage, and Amber Huelskamp pulled away on the final lap as JCHS won by more than four seconds in 4:15.14.
Katie Snyder had runner-up finishes behind Anderson in both the 100 dash and 200 dash with times of 13.07 and 26.76 respectively. She lost the events by a combined total of just 0.17 seconds.
Houck was disqualified because of a false start in the 100 hurdles, in which she was one of the favorites, but bounced back to finish second in the 300 hurdles in 50.02 and then led off the victory in the 4x400 relay.
Katie Simmons, who won the 1,600 run and 3,200 run a year ago, was limited to one race this season because she is suffering from plantar fasciitis. She finished second in the 3,200 run in 12:42.39.
Miller was the runner-up in the 1,600 run in 5:38.83, and Johnson placed second in the 800 run in 2:29.9.
“We faced a lot of adversity,” said McEvoy. “You don’t want very much adversity in a sectional in any sport … but we faced a lot of it. Our girls just shook it off and then they stepped up and helped each other out. … Malarie, for example, did a really good job in the (300 hurdles) and got us a nice, big lead in the 4x400.”
Jay County placed two athletes in the top four of six different events with fourth-place finishes from Tasya Smith in the 100 dash, Kaitlin Hemmelgarn in the 3,200 run, Miller in the 800 run, Huelskamp in the high jump and Houck in the long jump.
Link was third in the 100 hurdles in 17.02, and Huelskmap added another fourth-place effort in the 400 dash in 1:03.41.
Alexis Myers, Snyder, Link and Smith teamed for second in the 4x100 relay in 52.84. Also scoring for the Patriots were Dunlavy (fifth – 400 dash), Johnson (fifth – 1,600 run) and Myers (sixth – 200 dash).
The effort marked the seventh sectional title in JCHS history.
“It’s so hard to win one, let alone three (in a row),” said McEvoy. “And that’s something that never goes away. You’ll always be a sectional championship team.”



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