A Star emerges in SA dynasty

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BLUFFTON — All it took was one word to describe the night.

Dynasty.

The South Adams High School girls track team continued its reign over the Allen County Athletic Conference and Starfire freshman Ali Smith emerged as a threat for years to come as the Starfires handily won the team title Tuesday at Bluffton.

“We put so many kids through a grind in a meet like this,” said SAHS coach Clint Anderson, whose team has won three straight conference championships and four of the last five. “It’s out of necessity, it’s not out of want.

“It’s not like we want to come in here and just beat the tar out of ’em, but we have to. We put 11 kids in our lineup tonight.”

Carried by six victories, including three from Smith, South Adams scored 149 points to earn the trophy. Jay County, which had wins in a pair of relays, was second with 123.5 points.

The Heritage boys won their third consecutive ACAC title with 119 points, edging Woodlan by five. South Adams squeaked into third with 93.5 points, and Jay County was fourth out of seven teams with 90.5 on the heels of two race wins.

Smith, a freshman, excelled in all four of her events, becoming a three-time champion and adding a runner-up finish. The youngster backed up her top seed from the prelims to win the 100-meter dash in 12.78 seconds, less than a quarter second faster than Jay County’s Kinsey Shannon, who was second.

Smith also posted the top time in the 200-meter dash prelims of 27.29 seconds. She parlayed that performance into another win by crossing the finish line first in 26.6 seconds during the final.

Her third title came in the 400 dash with her time of 1 minute 1.9 seconds.

“I thought it was fun,” Smith, who was also second in long jump, said of her night. “A lot of good competitions. I felt like I was going to do pretty good, but I feel like they were a lot better than I thought they were going to be.”

Anderson said it was Smith’s mental makeup that stood out to him the most.

“Just her tenacity, just her ferociousness,” he said. “You could tell she had this look about her, this feeling about her. She was all but determined to get as many plaques as she could tonight.”

Kallee Patch, McKenzie Sturwold, Taylor Dague and Eliza Harruff combined to win the meet-opening 4x800 relay in 10:23.9. Patch, a junior, dominated the 800 run, winning by more than six seconds in 2:26.79. Sturwold, also a freshman, lapped five other runners in her pursuit of her title in the 3,200 run in 12:10.17. She won by almost 40 seconds.

Jay County’s only victories on the night came by way of its sprint relays. Shea Bailey, Calli Stigleman, Karlie Bullard and Renee Omstead won the 4x100 relay by almost a second in 53.35 seconds.

Sara Hemmelgarn, Halle Hill, Ashlyn Dow and Omstead combined for a time of 4:22.26 seconds to dominate the 4x400 relay by more than five seconds.

First-year track athlete Caleb Webster of Jay County made a splash in his only ACAC meet. The senior posted the top preliminary time in the 100 dash in 11.48 seconds. In the final he wasn’t able to lower that time, but he still won in 11.5 seconds, 24 hundredths faster than Coleman Beeks of Southern Wells.

Webster also anchored the 4x100 relay team that included Trey Castillo, Nathanael Day and Gavin Randall that won in 44.86 seconds.

“It’s insane, man,” Webster said of his ACAC debut. “I never pictured myself doing track, ever. Everybody was talking to me telling me I should do track. It was one of those things, I had to try it. It was one of those things I excel at.”

South Adams senior Dario Banuelos had a distance of 48 feet, 11 inches, to win shot put as the lone victory for the Starfire boys.