Record-breaking start: Bloomington area track athletes looking strong out of the blocks

The Edgewood Invitational, which included the first of several meetings between Bloomington North and South marks the halfway point of the outdoor track season, with the girls and boys Bloomington North sectionals coming up soon on May 14-16.

This week starts the run to the postseason with the Conference Indiana Meet at North on Friday with the Western Indiana Conference and SWIAC meets not far behind.

Here is what we've learned so far:

Another bevy of records has fallen

Bloomington North senior Jaidyn Johnson announced his arrival indoors, capping it off with a second-place finish in the Hoosier State Relays in the 60 dash, by .01, in 6.75. Both top finishers were under the previous state record.

Outdoors, he took advantage of a couple of warm Saturdays, starting with a 10.78 at the Columbus North Invitational then a jaw-dropping 10.38 at the Ben Davis Relays. Coach Justin Helmer told him to put the pedal to the metal five times at the Edgewood Invite and he did in his first meet this season with prelims and finals.

First came the 10.34 to win the 100, then after anchoring the 400 relay to a win, his fifth race of the day was perhaps his most impressive, running the 200 in 21.15, taking down state champion Thomas Brashear's school record 21.44 set in 1997. Johnson seldom had a chance to run the 200 last year, but in all five efforts, looked relaxed and fluid tearing down the front straightaway, leaving the competition well behind him.

"It feels good," Johnson said. "It feels good to be healthy and ready to just roll. Coming off of the state (indoor) championship, I just wanted to come in and make a statement and make sure I execute my races better and listen to what my coaches have to say."

At this point, the fact Johnson is still chopping time, not just shaving it, is a statement in itself.

"Finishing better and keeping my form in the last 10 meters," Johnson said. "Trying to stay relaxed. Last year, I was being really aggressive and putting a lot of power into it and wasting energy.

"Now, I'm less tense. I know what I'm capable of."

Several other school records have fallen this year around the area.

The state's best girls' thrower is starting to warm up, hitting 52-0 in shot put in a duel against Columbus East and then busting out a 170-0 in discus at Saturday's Edgewood Invitational.

Eastern Greene's James Lewis took down the school record in the 100 (11.1) with a 10.97. He, along with Jade Dawes and Roman Valentine, have been key factors in the T-Birds' team wins at the North Knox and Linton invites.

South's Ellie Barada, who had the school's 800 record for a short time last year, had it back in her hands after the Columbus North Invite, running a 2:12.43 to knock out Lily Myers' 2:13.48.

And Edgewood's Ashley Abram opened the season with a 10-6 in girls' pole vault to up her school record and she's met that mark twice since.

Double duty distance

It's been a test the past two weekends for a few distance runners from North and South in particular with several of them running in the Franklin Central Showcase mile races on a Friday and then the Columbus North Invitational on Saturday two weeks ago and then the Carmel Distance Showcase (3,200) the night before Edgewood's meet.

Joe Zinkan, in a rare 3,200 for him, ran a 9:30.50 after clocking a 4:33.61 mile at Franklin Central. Three of the five Panther freshmen, Luke Reinhart, James Rice and Garrett Pitkin, finished in under 10:30.

"We didn't really show a lot at Franklin Central," Williams said. "Not what we really wanted to do there. So I was really pleased to see that same group primarily, came back the following Friday and ran so well.

"PR's for so many of them. The freshmen had never ran a 3,200 so to have them run as well as they did was special."

South standout senior two-miler Ryan Rheam finally got back on the track last Friday, recovering from a bout of mono before Spring Break. He continued to fight bad luck and returned with an outstanding race, going 9:18.45 for third in the next-to-last heat of the 3,200 at the Carmel Showcase.

"It's been a long haul," Williams said. "He had to take three weeks off from any kind of training and started coming back from that and had two weeks of fairly solid running and then all of a sudden, at an Easter egg hunt, he sprains his foot and he's off of that for four or five days."

North also sent several runners to Carmel, with Jack Holden (9:16.53) and Caelan D'Onofrio (9:17.53) in the top 20 of the fast heat to lead the pack with their career bests.

At Franklin Central, the Cougars put three in the top nine: Jack Holden was fourth (4:15.59), Caleb Winders was sixth (4:16.54) and D'Onofrio ninth (4:19.39). Also under 4:30 were Dominic D'Onofrio and Jacob Mitchell.

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"They've had a big workload," North coach Justin Helmer said. "The part of that is, those guys were running so great early. They're so talented and so good, yeah, we need to get stuff out of them right now, but we've also got to make sure they're in a good place in a month. So we've got to be smart with that."

Martinsville's Martin Barco won the main race at both events, and he'll be a force to deal with at sectional and regional again.

South's Lexi Kollbaum, who splashed a 5:08.85 in the mile at FC, led the girls' contingent as the No. 3 freshman finisher at 11:07.46 for 18th. Julianna Hoover (11:43.68) and Kate Barada (11:46.41) also had good showings as did Edgewood's Hannah Crain 11:23.77, Ellie Vagedas (11:53.60) and Riley Haskett (11:54.22).

In all, nine boys runners from Monroe County were under 10:00 in the 3,200, 15 were under 10:30. There were seven area girls runners under 12:00.

"Four out of our six PR'd," said Edgewood coach Zach Evans, who also sent Jackson Klinger and Carson Sigman up as well. "Ellie, Ryleigh (Burnett), Jackson and Carson all PR'd. The scary thing is, you look at our sectional in the 3,200 in the boys, holy cow. And we've still got Zane (Meyer) coming up, too. It's just insane in terms of the depth."

North boys showing they're No. 1

The North boys have been ranked No. 1 since winning its indoor title and haven't been beaten outdoors either, taking the titles at the Ben Davis Relays, Columbus North Invite and now, Edgewood.

The Cougars' strengths in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 were obvious coming in and with Johnson staying healthy, the sprint corps has thrived, giving North the ability to fill out three superior relays again.

But Alan Hays and Ben Boland are surging as hurdlers. Evan Cheng just set a sophomore school record with a long jump of 22-5½ at Edgewood, the best by a Cougar in nine years.

North's top throwers keep getting better every week, too, as Max Wynalda is at 56-1½ in shot put and sophomore Adis Hamidovic is quickly climbing with a 156-10 in discus. Both of the Cougars' top pole vaulters reached 13-0 as well so points are coming from everywhere.

"Definitely improving in all areas," Helmer said. "That stuff that was pretty good early on in the season is making that jump forward and becoming really good. And as we look into the championship season, being that more complete team and find all the points we can find is important."

More Edgewood Invite leftovers

• South has a couple of speedsters of its own in sophomores Khaliq Akou and Gabe Taylor, who went 11.11 and 11.16 in the 100 finals at Edgewood with Taylor also turning a 22.59 for second in the 200. Those are some of the best times the Panthers have ever seen.

"Today, Gabe Taylor was great getting out of the blocks," Williams said. "That's so key for him. Khaliq wasn't quite on top of his game all the way, but the times showed to be very strong."

• Long jump is suddenly a strength for the Edgewood boys, something they'll need when WIC rolls around.

"Luke Waugh in the long jump, having him at 20-3 today and he's gone 20-7," Evans said. "That's not going to win our sectional but it is probably going to be first or second in our conference. That's points we didn't think we'd have. Nehemiah Strunk also almost 20 feet, being able to clean up that many points in that event will be huge for us in trying to get back to winning the conference title."

• South's Ivan Lynch was a somewhat improbable pick to have a career best discus toss at Edgewood, going 150-4.

"We weren't sure Ivan Lynch was going to get to throw today," Williams said. "(Friday), our shot area is right behind the baseball (rightfield) fence and we get word while we're up at Carmel a ball came across the fence, heading toward a girl's face and he reaches out and stops it from taking her out.

"So his thumb and joint is all swollen right now. Hero of the day for sure."

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Record-breaking start: Bloomington area track athletes looking strong out of the blocks