Lady Trojans defend sectional crown
BROOKVILLE — Several area girls punched their tickets to next week’s regional at Tuesday’s sectional meet at Franklin County, while two girls came away with two individual sectional championships.
North Decatur sophomore Kendra Fasbinder swept the hurdle events, claiming the sectional crown in the 100
at :15.30 and the 300 at :49.89. Fasbinder beat out Greensburg sophomore Taryn Owens, who claimed second in both events and will move on to regional with Fasbinder.
Meanwhile, Greensburg sophomore Erica Schwering swept the throwing events, winning the shot put with a toss of 34-11.5 and the discus at 106-00. Advancing to regional along with Schwering is her teammate Mollye Leas, who finished fourth in the shot put and second in the discus. North’s Elizabeth Frye also advanced to the regional after a fourth-place finish in the discus.
Elsewhere, North’s 400-relay team proved its No. 1 meet ranking was no fluke by coming away with the sectional title with a time of :51.76. That tandem of Fasbinder, April Fruchtnicht, Hayley Hayden and Hillary Wenning will now attempt to carry that momentum over to the regional.
Overall, East Central successfully defended its crown as sectional champions by claiming the team championship with a score of 147.5. Batesville finished second at 79, while Greensburg took third at 73 and North took fourth at 66.
South Decatur finished in 11th place out of the 14-team field with a score of 18.
For North, Hayden and Wenning will be moving on to regional in individual events as well. Hayden finished second in both the 100 and 200 with times of :13.21 and :27.34 respectively. Wenning placed second in the 800 and along with defending state champion Katherine Klump of South Dearborn, both beat the old sectional record. Wenning’s time of 2:19.13 was a personal best for her this season.Greensburg’s Shelbi Reed is also moving on to regional, along with the Lady Pirates 1600- and 3200-relay teams. Reed took third in the 400 with a time of 1:04.11, while both relay teams finished in third as well. The 1600 team of Reed, Owens, Brianna Parsons and Ann Weigel finished with a time of 4:30.91, while the 3200 team of Owens, Weigel, Parsons and Veronica Tuley finished at 10:53.67.
After the meet, North coach Betsy Davis said she was proud of the way her team of just nine girls has responded to being short-handed. "Those were nine girls who wanted to be there," Davis said. "I am very lucky to have such out-standing athletes. We have a very close bond, and the individual success brings the team success." The regional will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Shelbyville.