Jay track splits with Heritage

The Patriots aren’t performing their best just yet.

With less than three weeks to go until the conference meet, Brian McEvoy still has time to get his girls on the same page.

Kurt Hess hopes the same for his boys.

Jay County High School’s track teams split a meet with Allen County Athletic Conference foe Heritage Patriots on Tuesday.

“Our biggest thing is internally with us,” said McEvoy, the JCHS girls coach whose team picked up nine victories in a 76-47 win. “We have to get firing on all cylinders in all events.

“We just haven’t had that meet yet where we’ve stepped up and been firing on all cylinders across the board. We fired in parts tonight, but not all the way across the board.”

Hess, whose boys team fell 74-49 and got two of his team’s five wins from Andrew Trewyn, noted technique in field events as well as relay transitions are what his Patriots needs to focus on the most.

“All the relays need to work on handoffs,” he said.

As for the girls firing on all cylinders, sophomore Kendra Muhlenkamp has been running at her best. She won the 1,600-meter run in 6 minutes, 1 second, and followed with a victory in the 800 run in 2:35.

“You can’t say enough about Kendra Muhlenkamp,” McEvoy said. Muhlenkamp was running slightly behind senior teammate Erika Kunkler in the 800, but with about 150 meters to go passed Kunkler and won by more than 10 meters.

“You can throw her in any event out there and she’s going to be awfully competitive at it,” McEvoy added. “Her 800 was awesome tonight. It was her best one of the year. She was solid in the (1,600) as usual.”

Mulhenkamp also joined Kunkler, Breea Liette and Kelsey Burden to win the 4x400 relay in 4:32.

“As a sophomore (Muhlenkamp) she is one of the backbones of our team, we really rely on her,” McEvoy said.

Lucy Laux, a junior, also had two individual wins in the 200 dash and long jump, helping the Patriots earn three out of four victories in field events.

“Our field events were outstanding,” McEvoy said.

Laux won the long jump with a distance of 14 feet, 5 inches. Rebekah Corwin was first in discus at 86 feet, 6 inches, and Kendal Garringer set a career best by clearing 5 feet, 1 inch, in high jump.

“That was probably our biggest advantage in the meet overall,” the coach added. “Any time I feel like we can win the field point battle I think it is going to bode very well for us.

“I tell our girls ‘We’re stealing points. No one sees it. You may not be the hero on the track but when the points go in there they are just as good as anywhere else.’”

Laux won the 200 dash in 28.24 seconds, with Briana Muhlenkamp (400 dash – 1:06) and Liette (100 hurdles – 17.29) also earning victories.

Trewyn, a senior, has been the top point-getter for the JCHS boys all season, and Tuesday he added to his total. He was first in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.4 seconds, edging teammate Noah Harris by more than a second. He also won high jump at 6 feet, 2 inches, beating Gavin Randall by four inches.

“Trewyn had a big day again,” Hess said.

Logan Duran and Isaac Robbins also picked up an individual victory for Jay County. Duran fell behind by about three meters with 100 to go, but finished strong to win in 56.38 seconds.

“Thought it was going to be close, but it wasn’t,” Hess said. Duran also helped the 4x400 relay team of Tyler Leonhard, Tyler Leonhard and Randall win in 3:52.

“Expect good times out of them,” he said. “They’ve been improving for the most part most meets.”

Robbins won 300 hurdles in 45.8 seconds, finishing ahead of teammate and runner up Noah Harris (46.14).

Bluffton hosts the ACAC meet May 12, and McEvoy’s Patriots are defending champions. Tuesday’s meet was a good indication for him to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of his squad, and give him an idea of what it needs to improve on leading up to that meet.

“We don’t have a ton of state medalist individuals probably on this team, so we’re going to have to work together to make sure we accomplish things together,” he said. “We can’t have a weak area and right now we have some areas we need to click on.

“We have the potential to do it, we just have to put it together at the same time and do that for the rest of the year.”