CORYDON
If Friday night’s meet is any indication of what’s to come, Caleb Bollinger can feel pretty confident going into the postseason.
The Brownstown Central senior aims to make a third-straight state finals appearance in the pole vault this spring, and started his tournament run by winning the event at the Mid-Southern Conference meet last night.
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Bollinger cleared 12 feet to earn his first conference crown.
The Braves finished seventh in the team standings, scoring 63 points. Corydon Central won the meet with 108 points, followed by Austin (91), Silver Creek (86), Scottsburg (82), Eastern (65), Charlestown (65) and the Braves. North Harrison (31), Salem (26) and Clarksville (6) rounded out the bottom three scores.
Luke Wood also had strong night in the pole vault for the Braves, finishing fourth with a clearance of 11-6.
Derek Thompson picked up a handful of points for the Braves by placing second in the 200 (23.84 seconds), third in the high jump (6-0) and fifth in the 100 (12.05).
Thompson teamed up with Bollinger, Brandon Wilson and Braeden Walker in the 4×100 relay, which saw BCHS finish runners-up in 46.14.
The Braves’ Robbie Branaman was fifth in the 110 hurdles (18.32) and third in the 300 hurdles (45.89).
Dustyn Kocsis threw 46-10 for sixth in the shot put and 115-7 for eighth in the discus. Luke Shelton was sixth in the discus (116-2) for the Braves.
“When we came in, we were really looking for some PRs,” Braves coach Derrick Koch said. “Overall, I was really pleased with how we did in pole vault. Thompson put in some really good work tonight. He scored a lot of points for us. We had some good throws, with Kocsis scoring in both the discus and shot. We had PRs in a lot of different areas tonight.”
The Braves will compete in the Bedford North Lawrence Sectional Thursday. The top three placers in each event at sectional advance to the Bloomington North Regional the following week.
“It’s the same philosophy,” Koch said. “We need to go in focusing on getting PRs.”