Kenedi Bradley’s speed and team depth lead Trojans to second place at girls track and field Chesterton sectional

Tom Keegan
onwardtrojans.com

Valparaiso won its third consecutive girls track and field sectional Tuesday night, but Chesterton came a lot closer than in the previous two years as the meet runner-up.
The Trojans scored at least eight points in each of the 16 events, won three individual events and one relay, and had both of its athletes score points in 10 of the 12 individual events.
The team standings: 1. Valparaiso 205, 2. Chesterton 176, 3. Portage 100, 4. LaPorte 54, 5. New Prairie 23, 6. Michigan City 20, 7. Marquette 19, 8. Washington Township 15.5, 9. South Central 6, 10. Westville 4.5.
As usual, elite junior sprinter Kenedi Bradley led the way by winning the 100 meters (12.27) and 200 meters (25.30), neither of which was her most impressive race of the night. That came in the 4x100 relay that the Trojans won with a time of 48.55. The titles in the 100 and the 4x100 were successful repeats of her sectional titles won a year ago.
When Bradley received the baton, she was well behind Valparaiso’s Mia Smith, the runner-up in the 200 meters. A crowd that was smaller than it would have been had it not been raining on and off throughout the day made itself heard as Bradley went to work.
Never straining or looking like she is feeling any stress, Bradley runs with long, powerful strides with footsteps that sound loudest to the runners who receive batons ahead of her. Bradley steadily gained on Smith and ultimately finished .12 seconds ahead of her.
“The wind was brutal today,” Bradley said affterward.
Yet, it was no match for the school record holder in the 200 meters and the fifth-place finisher in the 100 meters at state last season.
Bradley didn’t run the 200 meters at the sectional last season, dropping the event after the DAC meet.
“I had no endurance, so it was a lot on my body then, so I just dropped it,” Bradley said. “The 100 was my best last year, so I went for the bigger possibility of winning.”
She has the endurance now to run heats in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay in advance of the finals in the races. She also does a much better job of not burning too much fuel in the prelims.
The Trojans other sectional title also was a successful defense from an athlete who won it a year ago. Senior Autumn Spencer destroyed the field with a discus throw of 117 feet, 5 inches.
The top three finishers in each event advanced to next week’s regional, and several others will be added when the at-large berths fill out the field.
An event by event look at how the Trojans performed, listed in order of the points scored in the event:
1. 100 meters (15 points): Kontos placed fourth, clocked in 12.97 to go with Bradley’s 10 points.
2 tie. 200 meters (14 points): Bradley did just enough to win this race with a 25.30 and senior Kaylee Dade ran a 26.75 to finish fifth.
2 tie. 400 meters (14 points): For the second week in a row, junior Gretta McCrovitz took a lap around the track in less than a minute, running a 59.53 and getting edged by a half-second by Valpo senior Lucy Moye. Junior Aubrey (1:01.42) finished third to become an automatic regional qualifier.
2 tie. 100 hurdles (14 points): Senior Aubriana Pulsoni ran a 17.43 and took second place, one place ahead of sophomore Harper Russell (17.46).
“All three hurdlers are going to regionals!” Russell beamed, referencing junior Lux Mountford’s impressive night in the 300 hurdles. “Coach T (Colton Tuzinski), he’s really helped us a lot. He went to state when he was in high school and he really knows what he’s doing when’s coaching us, like the drills that he gives us.”
More than the drills are effective, Russell said.
“And he does like to bribe us sometimes,” she said. “If we do certain stuff, we get like Dilly Bars or ice cream cake and stuff. That might be one of the things that helps us most. He always knows how to encourage us, knows what to say when we don’t feel we’re doing our best, and he knows how to fix us.”
5 tie. Long jump (13 points): Hailey Geiser, a two-time DAC high jump champion and a one-time state participant in the long jump, is trying to get to state in both events this season, and she placed second in both events Tuesday. Her 16-11.5 long jump earned the team eight points and Aubrey Bamber added fourth-place points with a 15-4.5 jump.
5 tie. Shot put (13 points): Senior Liz St. Marie’s heave of 32-7.25 placed her second teammate and junior Anna Miles (30-9.5) took fourth.
7. High jump (12 points): Geiser has jumped as high as 5-4 multiple times in her career, but not this season. Her 5-1 was good for second and Zoe Komp finished fourth with a 4-10.
8 tie. Pole vault (11 points): Freshman Claire Thomas and senior Luciana Raffin continued their productive ways by vaulting 8-6. Thomas took third and Raffin fourth.
8 tie. 300 hurdles (11 points): With a cold wind blowing and at times rain falling, this was no night to set a personal record, yet looking smoother than ever scaling the hurdles, Mountford accomplished that by running a 47.38 and finishing second to Braelyn Nelson (46.90). Mountford had the lead coming out of the final turn before Nelson closed with an impressive sprint to record her best time. Russell picked up three points for the Trojans with her sixth-place finish.
10 tie. Discus (10 points): Spencer gave herself the best possible chance to win by not fouling once for what she said was the first time this season.
10 tie. 4x100 (10 points): Bradley shares the relay title with seniors Ava Kontos and Kaylee Dade and freshman Addison Pack, the quartet that set the school record in the event on May 6.
12 tie. 800 meters (nine points): Senior Veronic Wilgocki (2:28.08) was first, freshman Taylor Kisic (2:37.24) sixth.
12 tie. 3200 meters (nine points): As she showed with a strong kick to the finish line in the DAC meet, junior Lauren Kroft has improved her speed, doing so by doing extra sprints in advance of practices.
“I’ve been trying to be a better sprinter because I was seen on the team as the worst sprinter, so that motivated me and I wanted to come out from that,” Kroft said.
She was timed in 11:49.41 f to finish fourth.
“My third time running (about) that time, so hopefully I can break that,” Kroft said.
She didn’t earn one of the automatic qualifying spots but shouldn’t have a problem getting into the regional field.
“Last year I was sixth and got in and I’m 20 seconds faster, and the year before I was seventh and got in,” she said.
Sophomore Jessica Martin ran an 11:58.07 and finished fifth.
14 tie. 4x400 (eight points): McCrovitz, Mountford, Dade and Bamber finished six seconds behind Valparaiso and nine seconds ahead of Portage.
14 tie. 4x800 (eight points): Freshmen Hannah Haring, Kisic and Paige Clancy and Wilgocki, the senior anchor, finished behind Portage at the DAC meet by four seconds and finished six seconds ahead of the Indians at the sectional.
16. 1600 meters: Clancy (5:37.79) and Haring (5:38239) both have run far better times but still earned sixth-and-seventh-place points for the Trojans.
Based on awarding one-fourth of the points scored by a relay to each participant, here’s how many points were scored by each of the 21 athletes who scored for the Trojans in the sectional meet: Bradley 22.5, Geiser 16, Bamber 13, McCrovitz 10, Mountford 10, Spencer 10, Russell 9, Dade 8.5, Pulsoni 8, St. Marie 8, Wilgocki 8, Kontos 7.5, Thomas 6, Clancy 5, Kisic 5, Kroft 5, Miles 5, Haring 4, Komp 4, Martin 4, Pack 2.5.