May 27, 2023 at 4:20 a.m.
Surprise finale
Solis fills in for Patriots at regional
Surprise finale
By Andrew Balko-
INDIANAPOLIS — Sebastian Solis arrived at Jay County Junior-Senior High School on Thursday just expecting nothing more than a long bus ride to cheer on his teammates.
The senior finished it by competing in an IHSAA regional track meet for the first time.
Solis ran the fourth leg for the Jay County High School boys track team’s 4x800-meter relay team during the IHSAA regional track meet Thursday at Lawrence Central
The Patriots competed in four events at the meet, including the relay that Solis filled in on.
“I feel like it went pretty good,” Solis said. “I don’t think it was my best time but I gave all that I possibly could have on this one. That’s all I wanted to do was do good for myself, do good for the other guys on the team … I kept us within the eight minute mark.
“I went out on a high note.”
Solis was filling in for Tony Wood who missed Thursday’s meet due to an injury he sustained Wednesday.
With the changed lineup, the goal for Brayden Collins, Dylan Marentes and Joseph Boggs was to improve their splits and for the team to stay under nine minutes and not finish last.
They were able to achieve all three. A couple of the splits were career bests and they finished with a time of 8 minutes, 53.31 seconds, which was good for 13th place out of 15 competing teams.
While Solis has competed in the 4x800 relay in the past, he didn’t have much experience executing the handoff with Boggs. Prior to the race, they put in some extra work to shore it up.
“We did a couple of practices and I told him to watch for when I got to the second set of hurdles to get going,” Boggs said. “That seemed to work pretty well. … He got going as I was coming up and I was able to reach out and give it to him without smashing into him.”
Senior Isaac Kunkler competed in both the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles. The goal for the 110 hurdles was to make it to the finals, while in the 300 hurdles, he wanted to run in the low 40s and place.
His time of 15.81 seconds in the 110 hurdles placed him 11th in the preliminary round, keeping him out of the finals.
In the final race of Kunkler’s career, he set a career best at 40.6 seconds. Unfortunately for Kunkler, a couple of other athletes also had a career day in the race including Carter Campbell of Winchester (40.25) and Leo Boyd of Muncie Central (39.46). Kunkler finished in front of both in the sectional May 18, but couldn’t repeat the result as he finished ninth in the race.
“It was a good day. I ran good times. Not quite as good as I wanted to,” Kunkler said. “I thought that would place me higher but a bunch of amazing athletes did just as good as I did today. Everyone beat their bests by quite a bit it seemed like. … It’s a little disappointing but I’m still proud that I got a good (career best) today.
“I’m just glad I got to have a good day on my last track meet. I’m going to miss it, but I think my leg is going to be happy that it isn’t going to whack any more hurdles.”
Adam Alig’s goal in the high jump was to break 6 feet and set a new career best for himself, but fell short only clearing 5 feet, 8 inches.
Nonetheless, Imel was proud of Alig’s growth throughout the season.
“It was a good experience for him to be here,” Imel said. “Last year he said his best was 5 foot 4. This year it was 5 foot 10. That’s a six-inch improvement. … We hope that we continue to improve.”
Alig and all four of the 4x800 relay team members who qualified for regionals are set to return to the Patriots next season. Imel said he hopes that they can use this season’s experience to grow.
“I’m really proud of everybody’s effort today,” Imel said. “This is why we do it. To see how far we can go. Not everybody can go to state but if you get to this point in the track season … you’re faster than 75% of the kids who didn’t make it on from sectionals.
“If you make it to this meet, it’s a big deal. If you can score, it's huge. If you move on it’s absolutely unbelievable. We aren’t moving on yet but hopefully some of these young guys can get this under their belt and move forward from here.”
The senior finished it by competing in an IHSAA regional track meet for the first time.
Solis ran the fourth leg for the Jay County High School boys track team’s 4x800-meter relay team during the IHSAA regional track meet Thursday at Lawrence Central
The Patriots competed in four events at the meet, including the relay that Solis filled in on.
“I feel like it went pretty good,” Solis said. “I don’t think it was my best time but I gave all that I possibly could have on this one. That’s all I wanted to do was do good for myself, do good for the other guys on the team … I kept us within the eight minute mark.
“I went out on a high note.”
Solis was filling in for Tony Wood who missed Thursday’s meet due to an injury he sustained Wednesday.
With the changed lineup, the goal for Brayden Collins, Dylan Marentes and Joseph Boggs was to improve their splits and for the team to stay under nine minutes and not finish last.
They were able to achieve all three. A couple of the splits were career bests and they finished with a time of 8 minutes, 53.31 seconds, which was good for 13th place out of 15 competing teams.
While Solis has competed in the 4x800 relay in the past, he didn’t have much experience executing the handoff with Boggs. Prior to the race, they put in some extra work to shore it up.
“We did a couple of practices and I told him to watch for when I got to the second set of hurdles to get going,” Boggs said. “That seemed to work pretty well. … He got going as I was coming up and I was able to reach out and give it to him without smashing into him.”
Senior Isaac Kunkler competed in both the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles. The goal for the 110 hurdles was to make it to the finals, while in the 300 hurdles, he wanted to run in the low 40s and place.
His time of 15.81 seconds in the 110 hurdles placed him 11th in the preliminary round, keeping him out of the finals.
In the final race of Kunkler’s career, he set a career best at 40.6 seconds. Unfortunately for Kunkler, a couple of other athletes also had a career day in the race including Carter Campbell of Winchester (40.25) and Leo Boyd of Muncie Central (39.46). Kunkler finished in front of both in the sectional May 18, but couldn’t repeat the result as he finished ninth in the race.
“It was a good day. I ran good times. Not quite as good as I wanted to,” Kunkler said. “I thought that would place me higher but a bunch of amazing athletes did just as good as I did today. Everyone beat their bests by quite a bit it seemed like. … It’s a little disappointing but I’m still proud that I got a good (career best) today.
“I’m just glad I got to have a good day on my last track meet. I’m going to miss it, but I think my leg is going to be happy that it isn’t going to whack any more hurdles.”
Adam Alig’s goal in the high jump was to break 6 feet and set a new career best for himself, but fell short only clearing 5 feet, 8 inches.
Nonetheless, Imel was proud of Alig’s growth throughout the season.
“It was a good experience for him to be here,” Imel said. “Last year he said his best was 5 foot 4. This year it was 5 foot 10. That’s a six-inch improvement. … We hope that we continue to improve.”
Alig and all four of the 4x800 relay team members who qualified for regionals are set to return to the Patriots next season. Imel said he hopes that they can use this season’s experience to grow.
“I’m really proud of everybody’s effort today,” Imel said. “This is why we do it. To see how far we can go. Not everybody can go to state but if you get to this point in the track season … you’re faster than 75% of the kids who didn’t make it on from sectionals.
“If you make it to this meet, it’s a big deal. If you can score, it's huge. If you move on it’s absolutely unbelievable. We aren’t moving on yet but hopefully some of these young guys can get this under their belt and move forward from here.”
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