Milan boys claim ORVC title
Milan broke three records from the 1980’s and in doing so the Indian boys captured the Ohio River Valley Conference Track and Field Championship on Thursday night at Switzerland County.
The meet had originally been scheduled for last Tuesday but was pushed back two days due to rain and thunderstorms in the area.
A championship did not come easy for Milan who had to fend off host Switzerland County to pick up the championship. The Indians narrowly escaped the Pacers by a 142-138 margin and Southwestern (Hanover) sat in third place with 91 points. Jac-Cen-Del’s 41 points and South Ripley’s 26 points rounded out the top five while Rising Sun placed sixth at 21 points and Shawe Memorial was seventh with three points.
Nine event wins were owned by Milan, three of which included impressive record-setting times. In the 800 run, Gabe Riehle won in a time of two minutes flat, surpassing the ORVC record set by Jac-Cen-Del’s Cecil Franke in 1986. Franke had won that same event in a time of 2:00.05. Riehle then joined up with Ben Riehle, Ayden Potts and Ethan Dehamer to set two new conference records. That quartet surpassed a 40-year record in the 1600 relay in a time of 3:30.93 and shattered a 2006 record set by South Ripley in the 3200 relay in a time of 8:27.10.
Ben Riehle broke off for two conference titles, winning the 200 dash in 23.24 seconds and the 400 dash in 49.87 seconds. Potts sat first in the 1600 run at 4:39.11, Lucas Cooney then followed with a victory in the 3200 run at 10:28.89 and Ethan Pierce’s toss of 43 feet and 7.5 inches won the shot put. Mason Green took a first place ribbon in the 300 hurdles at 43.60 seconds.
Joaquin Allen threw 40 feet and three inches to place second in the shot put and was third in the discus event at 119 feet and eight inches. Potts was runner-up in the 800 run at 2:04.90, Cooney ran third in the 1600 at 4:50.35 and the team of Dylan Offill, Mason Green, Kayden McClellan and Dylan Pindell took third in the 400 relay at 48.50 seconds.
Jac-Cen-Del had two runner-up spots on the boys side as Jacob Ricke ran 54.26 seconds in the 400 dash and Johnathan Norman threw 123 feet and three inches in the discus. Freshman Noah Leinberger placed third in the 110 hurdles at 18.43 seconds. South Ripley’s lone top three finish was the team of Luke Bradley, Landon Saylor, Jordan Davis and Carson Fisk in third place as part of the 3200 relay in 9:46.57.
Switzerland County easily won the ORVC championship on the girls side, scoring 159 points while Rising Sun was a distant second at 81 points. South Ripley placed third with 74 points, Southwestern was right behind in fourth at 72 points and Milan took fifth with 36 points. Shawe and Jac-Cen-Del rounded out the standings with 21 points and 15 points respectively.
Alexa Yeomans was the lone individual conference champion for South Ripley, winning the 100 hurdles in a time of 15.37 seconds. She also had a trio of third place finishes in the 100 dash (13.56 seconds), 300 hurdles (54.19 seconds) and high jump (4’8). Adysen Armand was ORVC runner-up in the 200 dash at 29.70 seconds, Jennifer McIntosh was third in the 400 dash in 1:09.35 and two Lady Raider relay squads left with third place ribbons.
Armand, Hailey Ortiz, Angel Tunny and Avery Andrews ran 57.67 seconds in the 400 relay and McIntosh, Ortiz, Margot Deslandes and Allie Hooten put up a time of 4:56.94 in the 1600 relay.
Jac-Cen-Del’s Emma Wagner was second in the high jump at four feet and eight inches and teammate Kinsey Rohls threw 27 feet and 2.75 inches to place third in the shot put. Milan did not have a top three finisher in Thursday’s event.
Milan, Jac-Cen-Del and South Ripley all now look forward to this week’s IHSAA Track and Field Sectionals. All three teams will compete at East Central for the girls portion of the sectional tonight and the boys follow in St. Leon on Thursday.
