Stith, Imel win titles at Patriots place third (05/21/04)

MUNCIE — It didn’t finish first, but the Jay County boys track team still had a very good evening Thursday.

The Patriots won four sectional titles, nearly doubled their point total from last season and helped Muncie Burris wrest the team title from the host Bearcats. They finished third at the 12-team Muncie Central sectional with 86 points.

Burris won five championships and the team title with 129 points, and Muncie Central also had five wins and placed second with 117.5. Jay County was third ahead of Delta (79), a team it lost to in dual-meet action this year.

Seniors David Stith and Paul Imel paced the effort, leading a group of eight athletes to qualify for the regional meet. Stith took first in both the discus and the shot put, and Imel added a win in the 400-meter dash.

The Patriots’ 4x100-relay team of Adam Grile, Steven Castillo, Lucas McBride and Justin Gilbert scored a stunning victory as well. Also earning regional berths were Kyle Carpenter and Joseph Vormohr.

They will compete at Indianapolis North Central Thursday along with regional qualifiers from sectionals at Mount Vernon (Fortville), Indianapolis Ben Davis and North Central.

“All of our seniors stepped it up tonight,” said Jay County coach Greg Garringer of the team which scored just 48.5 points for a fifth-place finish last year. “It’s a good way for them to leave Jay County.

“It was just a good night all the way around.”

Stith, who was shut out at last year’s sectional and last week’s Olympic Athletic Conference meet, had a career night.

He and teammate Joseph Vormohr set the standard in the discus.

First Vormohr broke the 150-foot barrier, launching the disc 150 feet, four inches on his second throw. With just one athlete competing between them, Stith then grabbed control of the event with a toss of 153 feet, three inches.

Stith’s distance would stand up, and Vormohr’s was good for fourth place. Ian Snodgrass of Delta was second at 152 feet, seven inches as Stith defeated him for the first time in his career.

Stith also won the shot put at 47 feet, 81/2 inches. Delta’s Trey Sacksteder was second at 46 feet, 71/2 inches.

The senior wasn’t thrilled with his effort in the shot put — it was about five feet short of his personal best — but the two titles made for an excellent night.

“I was pretty good in the discus,” said Stith. “I guess I’ll take the win in the shot even though it wasn’t too good.

“It feels good (to win two titles). It feels real good to have eight guys going to regional too.”

Imel didn’t look particularly good at the beginning of any of his three races, but he got the job done in all three.

In the 400-meter dash, the senior was well behind the leaders before pulling to third as they came off the final turn. Then he turned on the jets with about 80 meters to go, pulling away from the field all the way to the finish line.

He won the event in 51.66 seconds, nearly a full second ahead of Wapahani’s Steven Miller (52.59).

Imel was also far behind the leaders in the 200-meter dash, and was still sitting sixth as they headed down the home stretch. But, he surged past a Terry Witzke of Burris and Louis Johnson of Central to place fourth in 23.66.

He was also third in the 100-meter dash, just three hundredths behind Burris’ Daniel Sloan in 11.33.

“I’m tired, really tired,” said Imel, who had the busiest night of his career.

He ran preliminaries in the 100- and 200-meter dash, finals in the 100, 200 and 400, and the anchor leg of the 4x400-meter relay. He said he wasn’t very confident early in the 400-meter dash, but saw his chance at the third turn.

“I thought, ‘Hey, this is it,’ and I started going,” he said, “and with about 50 meters left I couldn’t see them anymore.”

Grile, Castillo, McBride and Gilbert scored what was probably the biggest upset of the evening.

Muncie Central was favored in the 4x100-meter relay, and looked to be headed for victory. The Bearcats had the lead, but Demetrius Hall slipped as he rounded the third turn.

Hall fell to the ground and dropped the baton, and all of a sudden Jay County’s McBride was in the lead. He made the final exchange to Gilbert, who held off the team from Burris for the victory in a season-best time of 44.88.

McBride said he didn’t see Hall fall as he was running, but Gilbert did as he was waiting for the baton.

“Good handoff and get first, that’s what was running through my mind,” he said. “When I heard Burris starting to yell [near the end of the race] I thought he was pretty close, and I was scared I was going to get passed. But I held him off.”

Muncie Central’s drop from a likely first-place finish to a disqualification cost it 10 points. It also gave two extra points to Burris.

If not for the crazy turn of events and Jay County’s win, the host Bearcats could have edged Burris for the team title by a 127.5-127 score.

“It’s the best time (this season), that’s so awesome,” said Castillo, who ran the second leg of the 4x100-relay. “We were hoping for a close second. We were hoping to break 45. That’s been our goal for the last three meets and we did it.”

McBride also placed second in the long jump at 20 feet, 11 inches. Grile was third in both the 110-meter hurdles in 15.8 and the 300-meter hurdles in 42.96, and Carpenter placed fourth in the high jump at five feet, 10 inches.[[In-content Ad]]