BCC track held at North Knox, NED

May 9—BICKNELL — The Blue Chip Conference held its boys and girls track and field conference meet Tuesday at North Knox and Monday for the field events on Monday at Dubois.

The Barr-Reeve girls won the two-day BCC meet with 157.83 points, beating South Knox (147) and Northeast Dubois with 87. Washington Catholic finished seventh (14), Shoals (9) was eighth and Loogootee (3) was ninth.

Senior and Indiana University recruit Elle Knepp led the Vikings and was the meet MVP. She was first in four events in the 200, 400, long jump and 100 hurdles to take the overall championship.

"We were where we needed to be and we stole a few points in discus and shot put {from Monday). I knew it was going to be a battle with South Knox, but these ladies were up for the challenge. On Tuesday night North Knox hosted the running events. Elle had an outstanding night in her running events. She made all-conference placing first in all of her events and getting a perfect score of 40 points," said coach Jodi Knepp.

Other Blue Chip Champions included the 4x400 relay team of Madison Senne, Katie Raber, Emily Wagler and Madisyn Wagler.

B-R was strong in distance events too, as second place winners include Emma Salmon in the 3200, Emily Wagler in the 1600 and Madisyn Wagler in the 800. The 4x800 relay of Senne, Emily Wagler, Madisyn Wagler, Salmon also took second in the 4x800.

Vikes finishing in third were the 4x100 relay team of Claire Raber, Katie Raber, Mya Raber, Emma Richardet, while Katie and Claire Raber were third and fourth in the 300 hurdles. Allie Knepp was third in the 3200, and Senne was third in the 800 and 400. Hailey Knepp was fourth in the pole vault and Katelyn Stevens was fourth in the shot.

Fifth place participants included Cassy Churchwell in the 100 and 200, and Oliva Nonte in discus.

"This group of seniors have been working hard for there first conference title. The last one we won was back in 2019. It takes a team effort to win and these ladies kept fighting until the end," said Knepp.

Washington Catholic had a top five finish with Addie Talbert third in shot and fourth in discus. WC's best other finish was the 4x100 relay team of Mariana Becerra, Macey McCracken, Anai Mora and Julisa Villagran that finished seventh.

Loogootee had three participants, with Hanna Venters finishing best for LHS with a seventh in the 3200.

On the boys' side, B-R had the top overall area score with a third place, as South Knox won with 222 points, NED had 125 and B-R had 106. LHS was seventh with 18 and WC was ninth with eight points.

Top Viking finishes included seconds from Pierce Yoder in the 3200, Paxton Traylor in the 1600 and 800 and the 4x800 relay team of Tyler Frady, Paxton Traylor, Yoder and Alton Klopfenstein.

Third place finishes came from Yadier Victoriano in shot put, Yoder in the 1600 and Klopfenstein in the 800. Kaden Buse was third in the 100 for the Vikes as well.

Dawson Fitch-Edwards was fourth in discus and fifth in shot, Cody Kitts was fourth in discus, while Buse was forth in long jump and part of the fourth place 4x400 relay with Paxton Traylor, Isaac Briggeman, Tye Thompson.

The 4x100 was fifth overall with Briggeman, Pacey Allbright, Fitch-Edwards and Tyler Frady.

"On Monday night the guys did really well we had a couple of PR's set. Yadier Victoriono placed third in discus throwing a new PR with a throw of 125"11" Kaden Buse also had a great night of jumping and jumped to a new PR in long jump with a jump of 19'3" placing fourth. Cody Kitts also PR'd in shot placing fourth with a throw of 42'3.5" and Dawson Fitch also PR'd in shot put placing fifth with a new throw of 40'8.5" It's great to have all these PR's toward the end of your season. We always tell our kids we want to be our best in May and they are all coming on at the right time," added Knepp. "The boys knew we could not beat South Knox but they were looking to get second place which would be the highest place in program history and its still a very tall order to come in second. Kaden Buse ran the 100m and placed third but after he ran that his hamstring was really tight and as coaches we did not want to risk Kaden hurting himself more going into post season so we decided to pull Kaden from the 200 and 400m races. We knew doing that would risk our team from coming in second place. These guys still all ran extremely well and we have a fairly young team so the future is looking very bright for track and field."

Loogootee's top scorer was Dax Lee with third in the 400 and fourth in the 100. He was also sixth in the 200. WC had no individual top 5 finishers, but the relay team of Chris Bassler, Justin Sipes, Isaac Halter and Bronson Bryant was third in the 4x400. Bassler was eighth in the 100 and Ethan Armstrong was eighth in the 3200.

Sectional at Princeton for boys and girls begins next week.