Duo misses top eight

INDIANAPOLIS — Even if state berths weren’t in the cards, the Patriots at least hoped to perform at their best on the regional stage.
It just wasn’t quite there for them Thursday night.
Jay County High School’s Andrew Trewyn and Aaron Neal finished just outside the points at the regional track meet at North Central, each turning in a ninth-place finish.
“I was kind of hoping for a little more,” said JCHS coach Kurt Hess. “They jumped what they normally jump. I was hoping for (personal records) from both of them. Especially, they were jumping pretty well, running hurdles pretty well this week.”
Trewyn entered the meet as the Patriots’ best seed, tied for seventh after winning the sectional championship in the high jump at 6 feet, 1 inch. But he also knew he would have to jump at least 6 feet, 2 inches, and probably 6 feet, 4 inches — the state standard — to earn himself another week of competition.
The junior needed two attempts to clear each of the first two heights — 5 feet, 10 inches, and 6 feet even — before he decided to forgo his jump at 6 feet, 1 inch. The strategy was to save his legs in an effort to get the few extra inches he needed.
However, Trewyn missed on all three attempts at 6 feet, 2 inches, leaving him in ninth place. Each of the top four athletes cleared the bar at 6 feet, 4 inches, with Pike’s Rahman Minor earning the regional title at 6 feet, 6 inches.
The top three athletes in each event, as well as anyone achieving the state standard, advance to the state finals, and the top eight score points.
“For next year, the big thing is practicing his technique,” said Hess. Trewyn shocked even himself by clearing 6 feet, 5 inches, at the indoor Patriot Invitational at Anderson University in March, but was never able to duplicate that effort. “We all know he can jump high. He’s got the ups, but if he works on his technique …”
That work will mostly be about finding consistency in his form, added Hess.
Neal had hoped to clear the 21-foot mark again after leaping a career-best 21 feet, 4 inches, at the sectional meet a week earlier.
After scratching on his first attempt, he came close to his goal mark on his second as he reached 20 feet, 9 inches. That ended up being good enough to put him in the field of 10 for three more jumps in the finals.
He was able to match that distance, leaping 20 feet, 9 inches, again on his first jump in the finals, but could not improve upon it and also finished ninth. He was 2 inches behind eighth-place finished Daryl Henderson of the host Panthers.
“He was pretty pumped last week when he got (21 feet),” said Hess. “He was definitely just trying to meet that goal again. But jumping what he did today is not upsetting.”
Neal also competed in the 110-meter hurdles, getting off to a slow start as he hit a couple of hurdles early in his race. That left him at the back of the pack, as he finished last in his heat and 15th out of 16 runners in 16.3 seconds.
Ben Davis won the team title with 99 points, and Pike followed with 75. The top team coming out of the Muncie Central sectional, which includes Jay County, was Winchester, which finished 17th out of 28 scoring teams with eight points. All of those came from senior Kiante Enis, who was second in the 100-meter dash in 10.99 seconds.