Tribune Staff Writer
BLOOMINGTON
With a sigh of relief, Brownstown Central senior Jaelyn Reynolds was happy to say she finally got over the regional hump.
In Tuesday’s girls track and field regional at Bloomington North High School, Reynolds threw the discus a personal-record 120 feet, 8 inches on her third attempt in the trials.
Thanks to the second-seeded thrower scratching, that throw held up to put Reynolds in second place and send her to the state meet for the first time.
“I was tired of that regional hump,” Reynolds said. “It means a lot. I’m just happy that I did it. I would have been upset if I didn’t do it, but I couldn’t have been mad, either, if I had thrown that well and still didn’t get it.”
Going into the meet, Reynolds said there were some nerves.
“I was a little nervous being my last year, knowing that they only took top three, that I had to do a lot better and I wanted to get over that hump,” she said. “I just had to let the nerves go. I just stayed calm and kind of just went with it.”
In the trials, Reynolds’ throws were 101 feet, 106-10 and then 120-8. She said it was kind of hard to remember what she did well on that personal-record throw.
“It all just kind of runs together,” she said. “But I do remember my coach (Maria Weigel) telling me that my feet were terrible, and I just had a really good pull, and with the wind today, it helped a lot.”
When Bloomington North’s Elaina Walls scratched all three of her throws in the trials and Reynolds threw 120-8, she said that helped calm her nerves going into the finals.
In that round, she threw 104 feet, 112-1 and 103-7. Henryville’s Hannah White won with 130-9.
Reynolds’ previous best was 119-3 this year in the Seymour meet. Before that, she hadn’t had a PR since her freshman year.
At the state finals, June 6 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Reynolds said she is shooting for 125 to 130 feet. She is the first female thrower from Brownstown to make it to state since 2008.
Also representing Jackson County at the state meet will be Seymour junior Megan Winter, who claimed the third and final qualifying spot in the 1,600-meter run with a PR of 5:25.26.
Winter stayed near the front of the pack for most of the race. With 400 meters to go on the backstretch, she passed a Bloomington South runner and maintained her stride to the finish line.
“I knew that they’d go out really fast, so I knew I had to stay controlled the first lap, for sure,” she said. “But then the next three laps, I just picked them off.”
Typically, Winter said she goes the hardest on the third lap. But when it came to that point Tuesday, she said her mental focus was all over the place.
“I was so tired coming up the homestretch,” she said. “I didn’t even think my legs were moving very fast.”
When she crossed the finish line, she immediately smiled, put her hands on top of her head and tried to catch her breath.
“Most people don’t want third place, but I’ll take this third place,” she said with a smile. “It was very exciting because racing all season, we didn’t have any competition, so I was just out there by myself, and it was so hard. But racing out here with people actually on my level, it makes my training pay off a lot more.”
Winter said she doesn’t really have a goal time for state.
“Just go out there and run and just have fun with it and be there for the experience and put my training all in it because that’s what I’ve been working for,” she said. “I think it’s a lot slower this year than it has been in the past years, so I’ve just got to find people to run with.”
In the team standings, Bloomington South won with 97 points, which was 30 points better than the host team. Seymour placed 10th with 19 points, Brownstown tied for 14th with 12, Trinity Lutheran was 16th with 11 and Crothersville was tied for 30th with one point.
Seymour had two girls place fourth — Oriana Morales in the 800-meter run (2:24.39) and Brooklin Klopf in the shot put (35-8¾).
Seymour’s Madison Hays was seventh in the 1,600 in 5:46.82, and Mikaela Grout was eighth in the pole vault at 9-6.
Others scoring for Brownstown were Elisa Gallion in the 100-meter hurdles (eighth, 17.27), Olivia Goecker in the 300-meter hurdles (49.02) and the 1,600-meter relay team of Gallion, Morgan Harrison, Madison Klinge and Kristen Stuckwisch (seventh, 4:18.91).
For Trinity Lutheran, Hailley Peters finished sixth in the high jump at 5 feet and seventh in the long jump at 16-10¾, which extended her own school record.
She also helped the 400-meter relay team take eighth in 52.45. Joining her in the relay were Miranda Murphy, Lexi Schneider and Angi Bergstedt.
Bergstedt also made the finals in two sprints, placing sixth in the 200-meter dash in 27.26 and seventh in the 100-meter dash in 13.40.
Crothersville’s sole point came from Katrina Christian placing eighth in the 200-meter dash in 28.38.