For The Tribune
BEDFORD
Daniel Hauersperger won two individual events and anchored the 3,200-meter relay team to a first-place finish to help the Seymour boys track and field team place second in the Bedford North Lawrence Sectional on Thursday night.
Jennings County placed first with 129 points, and the Owls scored 103. Of the other Jackson County teams, Brownstown Central was fifth with 74 points, Trinity Lutheran placed ninth with 15 points, Medora scored two points, and Crothersville did not score.
The Owls got off to a great start when Hauersperger, Cam Deppen, Evan Frische and Keegan Bowman teamed up to win the 3,200 relay in 8:36.3. That was Seymour’s best time of the season.
Hauersperger trailed Mitchell’s anchor by 18 yards when both runners received their batons. The Seymour senior passed the Mitchell runner on the backstretch on the second lap. Mitchell’s time was 8:38.35.
Hauersperger said he was consistent with his splits, running 1:02 on each lap.
“The last 200 is when I caught him,” Hauersperger said of his finish in the relay. “My finish was about right.”
Hauersperger won the mile with a time of 4:38.2.
“It went about how I wanted,” he said. “I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going to make my move. Then at the 500, I felt like I had a little more left than (runner-up Kyle Lewis of Jennings County) did, and I took off and built a little bit of a gap.”
In the 3,200, Hauersperger was second after two laps before taking the lead a fourth of the way through the third lap.
“I was going to stay behind for another lap, but he (Lewis) is going to be my teammate next year, and he wanted to try to PR, so I helped share the work with him, and I took the lead,” Hauersperger said. “I felt pretty good.”
Seymour coach Randy Fife said he thought Hauersperger had an outstanding meet.
“He improved his 800 split to a season-best 2:04 and came back and won both the 1,600 and 3,200,” Fife said. “He gave us a lot of points. He’s going to the regional in three events. We’re probably going to scratch him out of the 1,600 so he can concentrate in the 3,200. He’s done a good job all year long. Nobody deserves it more than him. Ha has a lot of confidence, and it shows in his running.”
Fife said the team started out strong by winning the opening relay, and several Owls posted personal records.
“That’s a nice way to finish,” Fife said. “We are getting better and better. We advanced quite a few people out to the regional. We scored two people in several events, just not high enough.”
Brownstown’s sole win was by Ian Anderson in the shot put, throwing 43-7¼
“Anderson had a good meet, and we got (Jacob) Bollinger out in the pole vault,” Braves coach Sam Terrell said.
“We had some really good, solid individual performances,” he said. “(Matt) Conrad ran a great 800 despite his bad ankle. We had some great performances from Conrad, Bollinger, Jake McCullough, John McKinney and the relay team. Our (3,200) relay team with Harlan Deaton, Jake McCullough, Cameron Lee and Colton Ritz did a fabulous job starting this meet off for us. We were seeded third, and we knew we could get third, and they really came to run tonight.”
Trinity coach Chris Crenshaw said he also had a lot of PRs on his team. The Cougars’ highest placing was fourth in the 1,600 relay, while Luke Onken and Nikolai Haak were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 1,600.