(Posted Feb. 24, 2020)
The Madison-Plains High School boys’ indoor track team had its most successful end to a season ever, finishing as runner-up in Division 2/3 at the Central District Indoor Championships, held Feb. 23 at Capital University in Bexley.
The Golden Eagles finished with 55 points, just behind champion Bishop Hartley (61) and ahead of third-place Jonathan Alder (53).
Since the program’s inception in 1995, the team had never finished higher than sixth place at the district meet, which traditionally marks the culmination of the regular season.
Junior Paul Bryant was the meet’s high scorer, personally accounting for 27 points. Bryant won both the high jump–with a new school record of 6 feet 3 inches–and the triple jump (38 feet 5.25 inches). He also finished third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.80 seconds, another school record, and his 7.12 seconds in the 55-meter dash was good enough for eighth place.
Jon Martin, another junior, added a third-place finish in the triple jump (33 feet 11 inches) and finished fifth in the long jump with a season-best leap of 17 feet 2.25 inches.
The Golden Eagles also placed two athletes in the top three in the weight throw. Sophomore Tylor Hoover added over six feet to his career-best; his toss of 37 feet 3 inches earned him second place. Senior Titus Wilson finished third with his effort of 30 feet 5 inches.
Joey Grigsby completed the team’s scoring with his fifth-place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes 25.2 seconds. The senior’s race was significant because of the meet’s time schedule and the Golden Eagles’ small, eight-man lineup. Grigsby was the only top-5 finisher who had also run the 1600-meter just over 30 minutes before.
Junior Ken Shafer (1600 meters and 800 meters), junior Evan Fisher (pole vault) and sophomore Roger Doughman (long jump and pole vault) also competed for Madison-Plains, with Shafer and Doughman turning in career-best efforts in the 1600 meters and the long jump, respectively.
Freshman Amy Burchett scored the only points for the Eagle girls, finishing seventh in the 1600-meter run with a 6:22.30. Burchett also competed in the 800, her 2:49.29 placing her 10th. Junior Rachel Weis added a pair of ninth-place efforts in the long jump and 55-meter dash, and freshman Laura Sampson threw in the shot put.
The Golden Eagles now await the final individual event-by-event rankings, with the top 24 performances in each invited to attend the State Indoor Championships at the SPIRE Institute at Geneva-on-the-Lake on March 7.
