Sectional streak ends

MUNCIE — Tears were shed as the Patriots gathered their belongings at the conclusion of the meet.
The winning streak had come to an end.
Jay County High School finished as the runner-up to Yorktown in Tuesday’s track and field sectional meet at Delta.
The Yorktown Tigers claimed the team title with 138.33 points, defeating a Patriot squad that had won five consecutive sectional championships. Jay County, which lost to Yorktown three times this season, totaled 106 points, and Muncie Central was three points behind in third place.
“Our girls gave a really good effort,” said JCHS coach Brian McEvoy, whose team earned sectional titles in three events. “We knew it was going to be a pretty tall order from our experience earlier in the year. That’s kind of on paper what was supposed to happen.
“We were able to swing a few points, but they didn’t really have a weakness someone could exploit. That was a big difference in years past; we had a lot of events we could sway points out of.”
One of those races was the 800 run.
Sisters Ava and Erika Kunkler finished one-two in the event, ahead of Yorktown’s Suzanne Scanameo and KeKayla Cooper.
Ava sprinted out to the front following the second turn and never let up, with her sophomore sister trailing her the entire way. Ava finished with a time of 2 minutes, 33 seconds, and Erika was 0.99 seconds behind her.
Both advance to Tuesday’s regional meet at Ben Davis. The top three finishers in each event qualify to move on.
“The 800 was really one of our key parts we thought we could pick apart Yorktown,” McEvoy said. “I don’t usually like to run sisters against each other — kind of get them spread out in the events — but they agreed to do it for the team ...”
The Kunkler sisters also played their part in the Patriots’ first win of the day, the 4x800-meter relay.
Ava ran the first leg, giving the Patriots a narrow lead when she passed the baton. Her sister Erika kept the lead before Yorktown’s Scanameo passed Briana Muhlenkamp during the third leg.
Sarah Hazen of Yorktown sprinted to begin the final leg, creating about 30 meters of separation between herself and Jay County’s anchor, Megan Wellman.
With 600 meters to go, Wellman started to close the gap on Hazen, trailing her by a second after one lap.
Wellman passed her coming out of the second turn as the quartet finished with a time of 10:11.18. It beat the Yorktown team by more than three seconds.
“Starting off I knew I had to go get that girl, she was dead sprinting,” said Wellman, who earned the Patriots’ other individual title in the 1,600. She had a time of 5:36.5, and also finished second in the 3,200. “I new I had to get there and that’s what really motivated me. It was a tough race but I was ready for it.”
But Wellman admitted she didn’t think she could catch up to Hazen given how fast she started.
“It took so much mental effort (and) physical effort,” Wellman said. “But when I got (close), I’m like ‘I’m not losing this’ and that’s what powered me that last lap.”
Thanks to Wellman’s effort, the Patriots were about two seconds off the school record, and McEvoy said he hopes they can set a new mark at the regional meet.
Britlyn Dues advanced to regional in two events. She finished third in the 100 hurdles with a time of 17.37 seconds, and was part of the runner-up 4x400 relay team with Lexi Myers and the Kunklers. They finished with a time of 4:22.99, behind Yorktown’s 4:10.53.
“She came back from an injury she had midseason,” McEvoy said of Dues. “She’s not 100 percent right now by any stretch. She was able to move on to regional, which is a good accomplishment for her.”
Senior Malarie Houck, who was the top scoring Patriot in each of the last three seasons, was fighting an ankle injury she suffered in early April.
She finished second in her heat of the 100 hurdles to qualify for the finals, where she struggled midway through the race and had a difficult time finishing. She was eighth.
“Having girls like Malarie Houck that can do that — she’s a great athlete — but you can see how tough that she is and how committed she is to her team,” McEvoy said.
After being tended to by the trainer, she again battled the pain in the 300 hurdles hoping to help her team score points. She was ninth.
“That’s going to be a real tough thing to replace when she graduates,” McEvoy said. “Just the tenacity, the ability to do whatever she can for her team.”
Also scoring points for Jay County were Emma Laux (fourth – 200 dash, sixth – 100 dash), Lucy Laux (fifth – long jump, seventh – 200 dash, eighth – 100 dash), Kelsey Burden (sixth – 100 dash), Taylor Homan (fourth – high jump), Bekah Corwin (seventh – shot put) Muhlenkamp (fifth – 400 dash) and Dues (fourth – 300 hurdles).
Homan, Myers and the Laux sisters teamed to place fourth in the 4x100 relay.