The 2024 track and field season in Indiana saw some exceptional performances between Showcase meets in April as well as Conference and County Championships later in the year. As sectionals approached this week for the boys many had high hopes to nab a top three automatic qualifying position or hope for one of the call backs.
Here we look at some of the top boys performances in each event from across the state for each event at sectionals.
Sprints Events
Jaidyn Johnson would drop a 10.57 at the Bloomington North sectional which was the top time out of all 32 meets from Thursday and Friday. Johnson was a top sprinter indoors finishing 2nd to Dominic Calhoun at the HSR Finals during the indoor season. Calhoun unfortunately has appeared to suffer a season ending injury but is still set to have a promising future as an Ohio State commit. Johnson has run 10.34 this season in the finals at the Mustang Invite which leads the state. Marcus Townsend of Avon would take the second fastest 100m time of the week as he would earn a 100m PR of 10.60.
In the 200m dash roles would be revered as Marcus would earn the state's top position with a new personal best mark of 21.62 at the Plainfield sectional. Johnson would be not far off at 21.66 in Bloomington.
Hurdles
Tyler Tarter would make history in the 300m Hurdles this week as he would become run Indiana's second fastest mark in the event with a time of 36.74 which currently ranks him fifth nationally. His time also was 1.04 seconds faster than the closest competitor in the state across all sectional competitions.
Earlier in the evening Tarter would be just as impressive in the 110 Hurdle Finals as he would run to a time of 14.03 which is another sectional state leading performance by .28 seconds. His PR in this event came from the Charlie Riley Invitational earlier this year where he would run to a 13.69 for the win.
Mid-Distance Events
For the 400m dash Kalen Sargent would earn a new PR of 48.17 from the Lawrence Central sectional which featured the top 2 marks across all the sectionals. Sargent also ranks 6th across all sectionals in the 200m event and was also a member of the Bishop Chatard 4x400m squad that has the third fastest time so far this year a 3:17.02.
Martin Barco would hold off Caleb Winders at the Bloomington North sectional for the fastest 800m time of the year going 1:52.05. Winders would end up being the fourth fastest time forms sectionals going 1:53.13. This year is looks to have a great field of 800m runners as Matthew Kim and Mason Schmitz also had a great battle at Westfield to go 1:52 and 1:53. Zionsville's Evan Mayo also looks to be a force to be reckoned with as he had a massive PR to win the Plainfield sectional by nearly 3 full seconds at 1:52.75.
Distance Events
Some of the fastest times in the 1600m would also come out of the Bloomington North sectional as Barco would run a 4:15.37 with Caelan D'Onofrio close behind at 4:16.75. 5 other boys would also get under the 4:20 mark this week during sectionals.
In the 3200m Tony Provenzano and his Carmel teammate Kyle Grove would set a hot pace early where they would exchange laps with each other before Tony Provenzo would pull away for a 8:59.99, just a couple of seconds off a PR. Grove held on for a 9:08.39 coming even closer to a new personal best where he would be just four hundredth of a second off of his Carmel 3200m Showcase time from earlier this year.
Relays
In the 4x100m Relay Brownsburg would run to a 41.79 to take the top time from this week of sectional competitions. Penn and Brebuef would be the only other teams to dip under the 42 second mark with each team going 41.87 and 41.99 respectively.
For the 4x400m relay Hamilton Southeastern was just off the state lead going 3:16.99. At the Marion County Championships earlier this year North Central would go 3:16.94 which still sits on top of the leaderboard.
NINETEEN teams would go sub 8 in the 4x800m relay with Columbus North going sub 7:48 for the fastest time of the week and the state lead. The Westfield sectional appeared to have the most competition with five teams dipping under 7:54 for the event.
Field Events
Luke Himes would continue his dominance in the shot put as he would throw 67-3 for top throw of the week. His throw of 68-10 form the Guerin Catholic/Hamilton Christain dual meet currently still is tied for US #5 according to our database.
In the discus Brock Conrad appeared to have had a massive PR with a throw of 188-1.5 which is just a few feet outside of the top 25 in the United States.
In the long jump Jon Anthony Hall would have best long jump of the week at the Westfield sectional where he would PR with a jump of 23-3 for IN #2 this season. Elijah Coker from Penn sits atop the leaderboards with a jump of 23-10 from the Mishawaka Boys Invitational.
The top high jumpers in the state all cleared a height of 6-8 at sectionals this week. Elliot Ryba, Jordan Randall, and Chazz Corley would all clear the same height with Ryba and Corely already meeting up at the sectional competition. Ryba and Randall both have cleared the 7 foot mark indoors this year with Ryba also doing it outdoors at the 100th Annual Kokomo Relays. This duo also decided to share their HSR title earlier this year which should set up an exciting battle between the two in a couple of weeks.
Peyton McQuinn has the top vault from the week at the Westfield sectional where he would clear 15-6. The HSR Small Champ from indoor would clear 15 feet indoors to claim the title before vaulting to a height of 16 feet this season at the Guerin Catholic Invitational. The Hamilton Heights senior appears to have had a very consistent season where he has cleared 15 feet in every meet this season so far according to our database.