Regional ribbon

INDIANAPOLIS — Aaron Funkhouser absorbed an elbow to the side shortly after exploding out of the blocks.

It took him a bit off his stride, but he was able to keep his position after 200 meters.

Making the turn onto the front stretch, Funkhouser appeared as if he would finish somewhere in the middle of his heat.

But his final kick put him near the front.

Funkhouser, a Jay County High School junior, placed eighth overall in the 400-meter dash for the Patriot boys track team in the IHSAA regional championships Thursday at Lawrence Central.

“It’s just not really what I wanted to run,” said Funkhouser, who at sectional a week earlier set a career-best time of 51.05 seconds, but crossed the line in 51.63 seconds Thursday. “It wasn’t too far off my (personal best), so it’s not a bad run. But I feel like I could have did better.”

Jean Pieterse, a first-time regional qualifier in high jump, had his junior season. The top three places in each event advance to the state finals.

Although Funkhouser had a more critical evaluation of his performance, his coach, Joe Imel, sang a different tune.

“Anytime you can walk away with a ribbon at this track meet you’re doing something special,” Imel said. “Obviously the only thing more special is to get to the state track meet, but who’s kidding who? This is like the mini state track meet.

“I can’t say enough about Aaron. He is an extremely competitive guy. He’s walking right now not happy with his performance, but again he’s coming home with a ribbon … I’m extremely pleased with his results.”

Seeded eighth out of 15 runners, Funkhouser kept his staggered position over Speedway’s Cale Bennett, Mt. Vernon’s Andrew Jones and Union City’s Blayne Daniels through the first 250 meters. But as the runners started to come out of the final turn onto the front straightaway, the three inside lanes had overtaken him.

Speedway’s Eli Givens, running in lane No. 5, started to break away from the field. But at that point, as well, Funkhouser kicked it in gear and started to pick off those running inside of him.

With a number sticker fixed to the bottom of his left shoe he picked up along the way, Funkhouser pushed the final 40 meters and was the runner-up to Givens in their heat.

In the next heat, six runners posted faster times — Pike junior Troy Golden won the championship with a state-standard time of 49.17 seconds — putting Funkhouser in eighth place.

“It’s definitely a big improvement,” said Funkhouser, who was was two seconds slower and 15th at regional as a freshman in 2019.

“He’s just a really talented sprinter that also just so happens to love the 400-meter dash, probably the toughest race in track and field,” Imel said. “He’s not built like a 400-meter dash runner with his length (but) what he lacks in length he makes up for in heart.

“He’s a competitor.”

Funkhouser’s one team point put Jay County in a three-way tie with Eastern Hancock and International School of Indiana for 29th place out of 32 scoring teams. 

Pike, the 2019 state runner-up, scored 65 points to win its third straight regional championship. Host Lawrence Central was second with 60 points, and Mt. Vernon had 54.33 points for third.

Defending state champion North Central scored 49 points for fourth.

Pieterse, who was third at sectional with a career-best jump of 6 feet, was unable to successfully clear the opening height of 5 feet, 10 inches. Each time, he clipped the bar with his thigh.

But he wasn’t alone. Eight others out of 19 jumpers failed the opening height.

“When you get to this level it’s extremely tough,” Imel said. “Just to make it here he had to PR at 6 foot. At sectional he made 5-10 on his third jump. We were hopeful he would make that first height but it just didn’t happen today.”

Lawrence Central senior Kamyren Garrett, who was fourth in the state as a sophomore, won the regional championship with a height of 6 feet, 10 inches. He attempted to set a new regional record of 7 feet, 1.5 inch, but wasn’t able to do so.

Garrett, who will attend Kansas State in the fall, earlier this season cleared 7 feet, 3 inches, for the highest jump in the country by a high school athlete.

The state record in the event is 7 feet, 4 inches.