The North Crawford boys track team has won the Ridge and Valley Conference Championship for the second year in a row in a hard-fought battle against rival Kickapoo-LaFarge. The Trojans won the meet on Tuesday, May 19 at North Crawford with 176 points. Close behind was Kickapoo with 173, Desoto 97, Ithaca 77 and Wauzeka-Steuben 31.
A outstanding victory by North Crawford was highlighted by many key performances including the 100m dash where freshman Skylar Olson won the event in a time of 12.28 followed by senior Branden Baumeister in a close second place in 12.37. Senior Corey Spencer took fifth place in a time of 12.79.
In the 200m dash, Baumeister took first place in a time of 24.50 and junior Brady Allbau gh took fifth in 25.61.
The 400m dash was another key event for the Trojans as Olson placed a very close second place finish in a career best time of 53.83 and Allbaugh took fourth place with 57.90.
And in the 800m run, junior Jacob Bransky finished in second place in time of 2:13.32 while sophomore Dylan Ghormley finished in sixth place with a time of 2:26.75. Bransky went on to finish in second place in both the 1600m and 3200m runs in time of 4:53.62 and 11:19.75 respectively.
In the hurdle events, sophomore Jack Polensky finished in third place in the 110m hurdles in a time of 18.85 and third in the 300m hurdles in a time of 47.39. Teammate foreign exchange student Peder Kjesrud finished in fourth in the 110m hurdles in a time of 19.59 and first place in the 300m hurdles in a career best time of 45.37.
The jumps were also critical in the Trojan win. With freshman jumpers Skylar Olson and Kenny Spencer jumping well all year, it would be highlighted on this night as Spencer commanded the triple jump, easily winning with a leap of 42’8.75”, less than an inch away from setting a new conference record. Olson ended in third place with a very good jump of 38’6”. In the long jump, Spencer took second place with a jump of 19’3” and Olson finished in fourth with a jump of 19’00”.
The pole vault was another key event as Corey Spencer won the event with a season best jump of 11’00” while Allbaugh finished in third with a jump of 9’6”.
Other meet results were:
1600m run – Dylan Ghormley – fifth – 5:33.76
3200m run – Dylan Ghormley –third – 12:09.30
4x100m relay – fifth – 59.30 – Ethan Dull, Liam Dull, Cameron Steyer, Brayden Friar
4x200m relay – second – 1:43.22 – Baumeister, Spencer, Spencer, Julian Tan
4x400m relay – second – 3:51.89 – Polensky, Kjesrud, Spencer, Spencer
4x800m relay – fifth – 11:16.22 – Dull, Dull, Steyer, Friar
Shot Put – Baumeister – 5th – 38’7.5”
Discus – Tan – 6th – 85’10.75”
Long Jump – Kjesrud – 6th – 18’3”
“This was a battle from the beginning,” coach Mike Allbaugh said. “I knew that everyone would have to perform well to pull out the victory. We had a lot of key events that could have gone the other way, costing us the win, but the boys stepped up to the challenge and fought hard. I am very proud of them and give a lot of credit to Kickapoo for how well they have been performing all year.”
