Bilbrey breaks

MUNCIE — Gabi Bilbrey broke her school record.

She set the record on April 6 with a throw of 132 feet, 8 inches. She broke it with a throw of 136 feet, 8 inches.

She wasn’t done.

In her next attempt, she ripped off a throw of 140 feet, 6 inches, another new school record. More importantly, it was a new sectional record.

Bibrey’s record-setting throw in the discus marked the only first-place finish Tuesday for the Jay County High School girls track team and led the Patriots to a fourth-place finish during the sectional meet at Delta.

She also advanced to the regional — the top three finishers in each event earn automatic berths — as she finished second in the shot put. Joining her as regional qualifiers were Jenna Dues, Alexis Sibray and the 4x800-meter relay team.

The Patriots scored 78 points while the host Eagles won the meet with 147 points, 26 ahead of runner-up Yorktown. Muncie Central (88) was third, and Winchester (50) finished fifth in the 13-team field.

“All-in-all, I feel like we did well,” said JCHS coach Joe Imel, whose team was without sprinter Natalie Wehrly and hurdler Cash Hollowell who were injured in separate vehicle accidents recently. “I feel like we have some work to do and some room to grow. We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores … but the year’s not over. We’ve got two more meets to go.”

Following Bilbrey’s ultimate record throw, fans cheered for as the distance was measured. Once the meet official read out the distance, Bilbrey jumped for joy and squealed with delight for breaking her record a second time.

Julia Conley of Pendleton Heights set the previous sectional record of 139 feet, 9 inches, in 1984.

“It’s pretty crazy … 140 was my number to hit this year,” Bilbrey said. “I thought it was kind of an outrageous goal, but when I hit that 132, I thought it was pretty feasible. Then I slowed down consistently in the high 120s. I didn’t think I could pull it out. It just caught in the air and was crazy.”

Bilbrey’s distance Tuesday would have been good for second place at the 2022 state finals.

She also finished as the sectional runner-up in the shot put at 34 feet, 6 1/2 inches. She trailed only Yorktown’s Gretchen Moore (40 feet, 1/2 inch).

Dues earned the fourth position from the 200 dash preliminaries and then set a new career best of 27.57 seconds in the finals to finish third.

On April 26, Dues and Imel met to talk about her approach to the 200 dash. Imel’s message to Dues was simple.

“Sprint the whole thing,” Dues said. “Don’t stride out on the curve like I had been doing. Go out hard.”

She has steadily improved her times in the event since that meeting, culminating in the opportunity to compete at the regional meet.

Sibray started the 800 run relatively conservatively, sitting in the middle of the pack.

Delta’s star, Nicki Southerland, jumped out to a large lead, with a handful of runners trailing behind, but Sibray didn’t do much to set herself apart.

It wasn’t until the final turn of the second lap that Sibray really started kicking things into gear. She pulled off a third-place finish with a time of 2 minutes, 30 seconds to send herself to the regional tournament at Pike.

“Alexis does have a really good finish,” Imel said. “She’s pretty fast. … She pulled it out in the 800, gutted that out. First lap I think she was in eighth and coming around the curve she was out sprinting everybody and almost picked up second place.”

She was also a part of the 4x800 relay team that will be at Pike for next weeks’ regional. Molly Muhlenkamp led off for the Patriots, putting them in third place when she handed the baton. Willow Hardy and Paityn Wendel made up the second and third legs of the race, slipping the Patriots into fourth.

When Sibray was handed the baton, she erased the gap immediately. She was able to reclaim third place and overtake Delta for second before the final lap began. She was able to hold that spot to give Jay County the second-place finish (10:38.97), nine seconds behind first-place Monroe Central (10:29.84).

“At the very beginning I was thinking, ‘I’ve got her,’” Sibray said. “I took off fast. I got closer to her and thought, ‘You’ve got it. Just a couple more steps and you’re in front and then you’re going to regionals.’”

Imel is hopeful that they can get a couple more athletes to regional as well. Morgan DeHoff and Chelsea Frontz both had fourth-place finishes in the 100 hurdles and the discus, respectively, that can qualify if they are one of the four best results remaining that didn’t automatically qualify.

The 4x100 relay team also finished fourth.