By: Johnny Boatright
New Haven Track and Field opened their season at the New Haven Indoor Invitational last Saturday, March 7th at IPFW. The Lady Bulldogs started the season with a strong showing by placing 3rd out of 20 teams while the boys placed 14th out of 19. Top finishers for the Lady Bulldogs included 2nd place finishes in 60m Dash (Kaaniah Creech), and Long Jump (Ja’Nyia Grundy), 3rd place finishes in Pole Vault (Megan Kage), 3200m Run (Paige Boatright), and Distance Medley Relay (Paige Boatright, Brooke Feipel, Kaaniah Creech, and Hayley Newman), 5th place finish in 4x200m Relay (Nakita Turner, JaNyia Grundy, Jakyia Grundy, Kaaniah Creech), and a 6th place finish in 60m Hurdles (Nakita Turner). The men’s team top finishers were a 3rd place finish in 4x400m relay (Adam Hoffer, Jalin Nelson, Brayan Pizaon, and Cristian Salazar) and 5th place finish in 60m Dash (Lamar White). Full results can be seen on: www.directathletics.com/results/track/37060.html
Among those on track to qualify for the Hoosier State Relays (HSR) at Purdue University on March 24th are the Women’s DMR team with a time of 13:38.94, the boys 4×400 team with a time of 3:41.82, Kaaniah Creech with a time of 8.01 seconds, Nakita Turner with a time of 10.0 seconds, Megan Kage in pole vault at 9’, and Paige Boatright in the 3200m run with a time of 11:25.55. Paige Boatright’s time bests her own NHHS indoor 3200m record of 12:08 that she set in 2014. Also, New Haven High School indoor records were set by Kaaniah Creech and and Nakita Turner in the 60m dash and 60m hurdles respectively. The New Haven Track and Field team will compete at IPFW next weekend (3-14-2015) starting at 10:00 a.m. where they hope to add to the number of possible HSR qualifiers. Please come out and support our Bulldog Track and Field team as they kick off what is already shaping to be an exciting season.
Josh Hiatt of NHHS finished 18th of 43 runners in the men’s 3200m on Saturday. Hiatt matched his previous personal record of 10:53.37.
While the athletes have much to be excited about from this weekend they, the coaches, and the parents of New Haven High School Track and Field, as well the New Haven Cross Country team, would like to send their most heartfelt and sincere condolences to Coach Larry Stemmler and his family at the loss of Larry’s father, Lorenz Stemmler. Each of us that have had the privilege of knowing Coach Stemmler without knowing his father can marvel at what a wonderful man Lorenz must have been. We know that he will be sorely missed in his passing, but we remain grateful and blessed at what he has left behind for all of us to enjoy. Our prayers and thoughts are with Coach Stemmler and his family in this time of sorrow.
