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The cool summer night didn’t stop the stellar competition during the boys regional track meet at Wayne on Thursday night.
Records were threatened in the running events and the pole vault as Harding freshman sprinter Quinton Jones wowed fans by winning the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.72 seconds, just 0.02 second off the meet record.
“The race was good,” Jones said. “To tell you the truth I didn’t even think I was going to run it. I thought I was going to get at least second or third. I’m happy with how it played out.”
Jones also anchored Harding’s 400 relay in what was one of the most exciting races of the meet.
Northrop led most of the race and handed the baton off to their anchor nearly tied with Harding.
From there, it was all Jones.
He took the baton and sprinted to the finish line, opening a 0.4 second lead on the Bruins. Both teams achieved the state’s standard time. South Side finished third in the race.
“I was confident,” Jones said. “I was like, he wasn’t going to catch me today and I’m glad he didn’t. I crossed that finish line, I was happy. I almost cried to tell you the truth.”
The confidence Jones had in the 400 relay was not lost on the Hawks’ coaching staff, as they have shown confidence in him all year. Especially in the last few meets.
“They’ve come along all year,” head coach Sherwood Haydock said. “We’ve kind of mixed it up a few times. Earlier in the year, we had Quinton going first. We switched him to fourth because we thought he could catch somebody if (we needed him to).”
Northrop senior Corey Shank again excelled in the pole vault.
The two-time defending state champion tried to break the meet record set last year by Bishop Dwenger’s Kevin Schipper at 17 feet. He fell short of his goal, but he still came out on top with a vault of 16-7.
“It feels good,” Shank said. “It was a great day to come out and vault. I put the pieces together that I’ve been looking to put together, and I had a good jump.”
In the team standings, Carroll edged Northrop 64-62 to win the regional championship. Rounding out the top five were East Noble in third with 57 points, Harding scored 51 and Homestead scored 50.5.
“It’s very gratifying,” Carroll coach Nate Powelson said. “We knew we had an outside shot at maybe pulling it off today. But there’s a lot of good teams here today. We just told the guys all week to just keep doing what you’ve been doing all year.
“We’re just blessed to have a good day today and have some guys run some good times, have some gutty performances, and I’m just blessed with what we had.”
The top-three finishers in each event and athletes who hit standard qualifying marks advanced to compete in the state meet in Bloomington on June 5.
