By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Runners are always in a hurry, and Bedford North Lawrence has doubled its hastening to make up for lost time. Sweeping two meets, with the seniors gone to collect scholarship rewards, were steps in the right direction.
Taking advantage of ideal weather conditions, rather than huddling and bundling against the cold and rain of recent races, the Stars rolled to dominant and stride-lengthening victories over Barr-Reeve and North Daviess on Thursday night.
In the boys meet, BNL won with 105 points, followed by North Daviess (34) and Barr-Reeve (25). The Stars were equally impressive in the girls meet, totaling 120.5 points to swamp the Vikings (31) and Cougars (13.5).
With three meets cancelled by bad weather, and with the postseason already on the near horizon, the Stars are in chase mode. They have ground to gain against the clock, and against their expected progress.
“We’re just now where we normally would be after two weeks of the season,” BNL boys coach Brett Deckard said. “So I was pleasantly surprised.”
BNL, as the team scores suggest, collected most of the blue ribbons. Double winners included Hiram Mullis (16.68 in the 110-meter high hurdles, 46.52 in the 300 hurdles), Christian Garciano-Curren (11.70 in the 100, 24.37 in the 200) and Jonah Bailey (4:46.42 in the 1600, 10:34.23 in the 3200).
“We’ve had a couple of meets where it was very cold,” Garciano-Curren said. “This was a great day to run, and I like how we turned out. As a team, we’re getting there and improving slowly.”
Other winners for the Stars included Driven Axsom (17-10 in the long jump), Ben Conner (5-10 in the high jump) and Frank Decker (12-0 in the pole vault). BNL also won the 400 relay (46.61) and 1600 relay (3:52.64).
“We needed that,” Deckard said. “I don’t care who we’re running, they need some success. It makes them want to work harder.”
In the girls meet, Tori Kiser set the tone as she won the 100 (14.30) and 200 (29.53) while joining the winning 400 relay (55.76). Other double winners included Paige Voigtschild (1600 in 5:49.86 and 800 in 2:37.31) and Macey Lambrecht (29-2 in the shot put and 91-5 in the discus).
“I was nervous, but I usually do well when I’m nervous,” Kiser said. “I don’t know why, I just get excited.”
Others winners for BNL included Gracie Simmerman (1:07.98 in the 400), Trinity Schmeichel (55.47 in the 300 hurdles), Evija Buike (13:24.34 in the 3200), Avery Brown (13-10 in the long jump), Francesca Orozco (4-6 in the high jump) and Ava Lipp (6-6 in the pole vault). The Stars also swept all three relays, sending shots of confidence through the roster.
“It’s not hard to prepare mentally,” Schmeichel said. “It gives me a lot of adrenaline, gets me going.”
“Looking at the times, we’re starting to see them go down,” BNL girls coach Jason Webb said. “We’re starting to see times we should see, and winning races.”
BNL will visit Mitchell to face the Bluejackets and Springs Valley on Monday.
