Riehle heading to state finals

PHOTO COURTESY OF MILAN ATHLETICS

Milan’s Gabe Riehle is out front early in the 800 run at the IHSAA Boys Track and Field Regional last Thursday night. Riehle is heading to the state finals for a second-straight year.

A family tradition continues and the IHSAA Boys Track and Field State Finals will again feature a Riehle as Milan senior Gabe Riehle is heading back for his second-straight appearance after earning his spot at the IHSAA Boys Track and Field Regional on Thursday at Bloomington South.

Riehle was the lone coverage area representative at Bloomington South while other regional qualifiers from Batesville and Oldenburg Academy competed at Greenfield-Central.

A very tough 800 run field at Bloomington saw the top three finishers automatically qualify for the state finals and Riehle’s time despite a sixth place finish earned him an at-large bid to the biggest meet of the season. His time of 1:54.23 was less than three seconds off of winner Caleb Winders of Bloomington North and he was just a smidge over a second off of second place finisher Jace Works out of Columbus North.

Riehle competes in the state finals on Saturday night at the North Central High School Track and Field Complex in Indianapolis. He is scheduled to run the 800 at 7:45 p.m.

Elsewhere in Greenfield, Batesville’s 3200 relay team finished sixth as the quartet of Cannon Clark, Cash Myers, James Rowland and Griffin Koester ran a time of 8:08.55. Clark provided an individual Top 10 finish as he was ninth in the 800 run at 1:59.42.

Koester, Myers, Clark and Rowland were 11th in the 1600 relay at 3:29.91 and Rowland branched off to go 14th in the 400 dash at 51.48 seconds. In field events, Camden Kaiser threw 46 feet and 10.75 inches to place 11th in the shot put and Winston Garrett finished 12th in the pole vault after a distance of 11 feet and six inches.

Oldenburg’s Adam Dennis ran the 1600 and finished 13th in a time of 4:39.95.