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Likewise, Burlington speedster Katie Guevel won all four of her events in dominating fashion?three of those races involved Hillsboro competitors. But the Trojans still prevailed by a relatively comfortable margin of 59 to 441⁄2 points over second-place Beloit and 42 points for third-place Burlington.
?I knew weeks ago that Beloit had the best opportunity to score the most points,? coach Dennis Boldt said. ?They could have scored in the 70-80 range if everything had gone right. We came in, maximizing that we could get around the 60-point range.
?I think the difference is we virtually reached our potential. Beloit did not,? he added. ?They seemed to struggle both days. I credit my staff, who prepared the kids well coming in. It?s a 48-hour competition, not six. Our kids did well and held on.?
As has been the case each of the past four years, the Trojans were elevated by strong performances from three core athletes, now in their final year of competition.
JuliAnne Chisholm completed a four-year sweep of high-jump gold by clearing 5-feet, 8-inches and just missed tying the meet record at 5-9. She placed second to Guevel in both the 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles in 14.86 seconds and 45.44 seconds respectively.
?Julie?s never caught a break in that high jump,? Boldt said. ?Trying to get a record, she?d either had to run a 4×400 or the 300 hurdles. She just walked over from the high jump, got in the blocks and ran one of her best times. That?s just pure athleticism.?
Hannah Marsh won Hills?boro?s only other gold medal, and improved her own school record, by clearing 10-3 in the pole vault. She also placed fourth in the 200 meters (26.67), which Guevel won, and in the long jump (17-0).
Boldt said arriving at Cessna Stadium extra early for her 8 a.m. pole vault competition paid off.
?She was on that track and warming up at 6:30,? Boldt said. ?I was watching the other competitors, and a lot of them were just coming in even right before 7. I truly think that made the difference, that she took the initiative to get up early.?
Tina Frick, meanwhile, placed fourth in the 100-meter hurdles (15.71) and teamed with Chisholm, Marsh and Tiffany Rooker to place second in the final event of the weekend, the 4×400 (4:05.21).
?Tina and Tiffany needed to run faster in their 4×400 (finals),? Boldt said. ?They both came through with much faster splits than at regionals or their preliminary time.?
Also contributing points to the victory margin were fellow senior Chelsea Bebermeyer, with a sixth-place finish in the discus (121-6), and freshman Dakota Kaufman, who took fourth in the triple jump (35-13⁄4) despite battling mononucleosis the past month or so.
?She probably felt as good as she had for a month,? Boldt said. ?I thought her points in the triple jump would be the deal maker or breaker to win the state championship. Another thing that helped was Chelsea Bebermeyer scoring two points in the discus.
?That?s the most satisfying thing about this, is that it was a team victory,? Boldt said. ?Every point did count.?
Only two Trojans entries did not result in points: Frick just missed making the finals of the 300-meter hurdles by placing fifth in her qualifying heat on Friday, and Bebermeyer finished 10th in her first state try at shot put.
Hillsboro boys
The Trojan boys, meanwhile, finished in a three-way tie for ninth place in the team competition with 19 points. Holcomb captured the title with 68.
Hillsboro?s highest finish was fourth place. Junior Jacob Yoder accomplished that in the long jump with a leap of 21-31⁄4 and the 4×100 team of Yoder, Michael Suderman, Michael Tisdale and Ishmael Morris did the same by crossing the finish line in 44.59 seconds.
Yoder?s leap was his best of the season.
?This has been a breakout year for Jacob Yoder in all sports,? Boldt said. ?He?s physically more mature and more explosive?and needs to be in his events. We just hoped he?d qualify for state and here he brings home three medals.?
Cody McMillen placed fifth in the 3,200 meters in 10:04.8, but also broke the school record of 10:06.8 set by Mitch Goosen in 1994.
?He ran a great race and does a good job of keeping track of his split times,? Boldt said. ?He was in 16th place for quite a while early, but held his pace and finished strong toward the end.?
Tyler Kaufman placed sixth in the triple jump at 41-31⁄4, Sean Leihy was sixth in the 1,600 meters in 4:37.63, which was 10 seconds faster than his personal best, and Adam Dirks scored one point by finishing seventh in the javelin with a throw of 166-7. The spread between first and seventh places was just over 6 feet.
The 4×400 relay team of Yoder, Leihy, Morris and Suder?man placed sixth in 3:31.28.
The Trojans 4×800 team of Spencer Brown, Nathan Vogel, McMillen and Leihy finished just out of the money by placing eighth in 8:20.70, which was a 2-second improvement on its first-place performance at regionals a week earlier.
