BOYS TRACK: Balanced effort lifts Kokomo past Mac in sectional

May 17—Kokomo's boys track and field team walked into the Kokomo Sectional on Thursday already staring at a deficit, which grew deeper immediately. Without a pole vaulter, Kokomo was automatically shut out of the points in that competition. Then the Kats finished outside the points in the 4x800 relay.

No matter. Kokomo scored in every event after that, quickly taking the lead in the team standings and holding it the rest of the way to win the championship of the 13-team sectional. Kokomo won with 120 points. Kokomo held off defending champion Maconaquah, which took second with 110.2.

"I feel blessed," second-year Kokomo coach Zenova Williams said. "I feel blessed to be able to coach these boys to a sectional championship. It's been a long season, they've worked really hard, they've really put their best foot forward. My hope and prayer this season has been that all things click at the right time and I think it clicked at the right time [Thursday]."

It was Kokomo's 64th sectional title all-time and first since 2022.

The Kats quickly turned the meet their way. Tipton's Cooper Altherr started his standout meet by winning the 110 hurdles (:15.18) and Kokomo's Jamaree McClinton took third (:15.65) for six points. Then the Kats scored 18 points in the 100 dash with a 1-2 finish. Eric Thomas, who hadn't run a 100 this season, took first place in :11.09, followed by teammate Rondell Greene in :11.18. Western's Matthew McKitrick was third in :11.48. The top three finishers in each event advance to next Thursday's Goshen Regional.

"We don't have a pole vaulter so that was a big gap, and we tried to use our best strategy to see how we can counter those points that we won't get in pole vault," Williams said. "Eric Thomas in the 100, winning that, was a wildcard. We put him in and he's never run the 100 before, but he stepped up and won so we're very proud of him in that. Rondell Greene, second place in the 100, them going 1-2 was huge for us."

From there, the Kats kept grabbing points. Eastern's Obadiah Greene dominated the 1,600 to win in a school-record 4:29.92, and Kokomo's Cooper Cage was second in 4:33.33. Eight more points in the bank for the Kats. Kokomo's Greene, Malachi Harper, Lukas Degraffenreid and Tracy Dowling won the 4x100 in :43.46 with Maconaquah second and Northwestern third.

Maconaquah star A.J. Kelly put distance on the field to win the 400 in :49.53, and Kokomo's Thomas took fifth for four points. Altherr won the 300 hurdles (:40.01) with Kokomo's McClinton taking second (:42.11) and Omar Daniels scoring in seventh.

Another Maconaquah standout, Isaiah Wittenberg, won the 800 (2:02.51) and Kokomo'c Cooper Cage took second (2:03.73).

Kelly blazed to the 200 title in :22.72 and again, Kokomo grabbed points from Greene in second (:23.3) and Degraffenreid in fifth. Western's Camden Raab won the 3,200 in 10:01.22. Kokomo scored with Connor Frederick in sixth.

Pioneer won the last track event, the 4x400, Maconaquah was second and Tipton third. Kokomo finished fourth to help keep the Braves at arm's length.

Tipton's Caleb Farr had an impressive showing in winning pole vault, clearing 15 feet, 3 inches.

Kokomo's Jeremiah Young won the long jump with an effort of 21-3. Cass' Julian Levine won high jump, maxing out at 6-2. Kokomo got points from Eric Thomas in fourth and Derrick Ross in sixth.

The last event to wrap up was shot put. Eastern's Andrew Cavazos won with an effort of 49-6. Kokomo got points from Beard in fourth and Chance Duncan in seventh.

"Our 4x1 winning was huge. We had Jeremiah Young win the long jump, so that was pretty huge too," Williams said. "I'm just grateful. I had a couple boys running multiple events, checking in and out of field events, that's tough when a meet is just boys and it runs so fast, and they rose to the occasion on our home turf, so pretty proud.

"We had our distance runners step up. Connor Frederick in the 3,200, that was huge for us, and so we're proud of every event, every person on this team who stepped up to help us with this win."

In the team standings, Madison-Grant was third (69.2), Cass fourth (57.2), Tipton fifth (54), Pioneer sixth (53.2), Western seventh (40), Northwestern eighth (39.2), Eastern ninth (35), Peru 10th (18), Logansport 11th (15), Tri-Central 12th (10) and Taylor 13th (3).

"Very proud of the boys," NW coach Alex Pier said. "We came out with the goal of doing our best and over and over the boys did. We had a huge improvement this year. We look to have a great week at regionals."

Eastern's coach was also happy with the Comets' performances.

"The whole team ran great against some tough competition," Eastern coach Blake Donson said.