Another Laux heads to Butler

Almost two years ago, Brian McEvoy hoped “the next Emma Laux is coming along.”

That was when the 2016 graduate signed her national letter of intent to run track for Butler University.

McEvoy found his next Emma Laux — in the form of her younger sister, Lucy.

Lucy Laux, a Jay County High School senior, signed her own NLI on Friday to run at Butler, following a path her sister Emma blazed a couple years earlier.

“It was my idea first. She’s just older so she went there first,” Lucy said with a smile.

All joking aside, the younger Laux is happy to continue her athletic career.

“It’s really exciting,” she said. “I’m just glad I get to continue doing sports so I’m not all done yet. I’m really looking forward to that.”

A two-sport athlete for the Patriots, Laux played a crucial role in the girls soccer team winning three consecutive Allen County Athletic Conference championships, and was a freshman on the 2014 team that won a sectional title.

Each spring she turned her attention to the track, and early on in her career she was known primarily as a long jumper. But with Emma helping her along, Lucy became a championship-level sprinter.

“Last year was really her breakout season,” said McEvoy, Jay County’s girls track coach. “That’s when she really started getting attention from colleges and things of that nature.”

During the 2017 indoor season she broke Emma’s record in the 60-meter dash at 8.44 seconds. Three months later she was a sectional champion in the 100 dash, while also helping the 4x100 relay reach regional and qualifying in the long jump.

At regional, she was 12th in the 100 dash in 13.5 seconds — eventual state champion Lynna Irby of Pike won in 12.09 — and finished ninth in long jump with a distance of 16 feet, 3.5 inches. She missed scoring in long jump by just 2 inches.

As she teamed with senior Taylor Homan, sophomore Karlie Bullard and freshman Calli Stigleman, the 4x100 relay was also 12th.

“She won sectional in the 100 and had a really nice regional, (which) I really think opened the door for her,” McEvoy said. “It was really nice to see her take that step.

“The junior season was huge. We can see a couple more progressions throughout her career especially as she works with the Butler coaches.”

The recruitment process for Laux was smooth, since she already had her mind set on Butler, a private institution with an enrollment of about 4,000 students on the north side of Indianapolis. But having Emma already on the team eased communication with coaches.

“It helped with Emma being on the track team already,” said Lucy, who plans to major in strategic communications with a minor in graphic design. “I had talked to (coach Matt Roe) a lot, actually, and he called me on the phone quite a bit.

“We finally made the decision that I could be on the team. I was really excited about that.”

Laux has scored 100 team points in each of the last two seasons for the Patriots and was the most valuable freshman in 2015. McEvoy said her continued progression has been extremely valuable to the team.

“She’s been huge for the program because she’s done what we asked her to do,” he said. “She was the first set of sisters we asked to compete against their sister. We have never done that in the program. She willingly did it because it was what was best for our team.

“She handled that with great grace and class.”

Laux becomes the sixth Division I girls track athlete in program history, the first since her sister and 2014 graduate Abbi Dunlavy (Fort Wayne — formerly IPFW). She joins a host of other JCHS girls who are competing at the next level.

“I’m always really proud to see what they’re able to accomplish in college,” McEvoy said. “I think it’s always a great experience when you can see girls run at that level.

“I always tell them, go get paid to run around in circles for four years. Have fun with it.”