June 4, 2006
 
Boys track state meet
Warriors run away with crown
Bishop Chatard team ties for fourth place in state
andrea.cohen@indystar.com  
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- One first-place finish, five second-place finishes and five more top-seven finishes added up to more than enough for Warren Central High School's boys track state championship Saturday.
The Warriors, heavy favorites heading into the meet, lived up to their billing. They scored 74 team points, all on track events. Fort Wayne Northrop was second with 45 points and Ben Davis was third with 42.
With the boys victory, Warren Central completed a sweep of the state meets. The school's girls team ended Northrop's six-year reign Friday.
"I couldn't be happier," Warren Central boys coach Dennis McNulty said. "This is a fabulous group of young men and I'm so proud of all of them. I can't pick a highlight, they all performed so well."
The Warriors set school records in all three relays, winning the 400-meter relay, finishing second in the 3,200 relay and finishing seventh in the 1,600 relay.
Indianapolis-area teams dominated all the relays, with Bishop Chatard setting a state record in the 3,200 and Ben Davis winning the 1,600.
In the most dramatic race of the day, Warren Central's De'Sean Turner and Greencastle's Andy Weatherford leaned over the finish line 0.07 of a second apart, then collapsed on the track at the end of the 1,600.
Weatherford narrowly edged Turner, finishing in 4:08.71. It was more than four seconds faster than his winning time from last year's state meet, and it was a personal record for Turner by seven seconds.
Turner hung with the leaders early, then kicked and took the lead with about 300 meters to go. Weatherford kicked back on the back turn to take the lead from Turner. In the last 25 meters it looked as though Turner might catch him.
"I didn't want to see anybody in front of me," Turner said. "I wanted it to be that way the whole time."
Both athletes spent some time in the medical tent after the race, and Turner didn't cheer up until he saw Warren Central's 400-meter relay team win 10 minutes later.
"There it is!" he yelled, jumping up to check the time, which was a school-record 41.18 seconds. Ben Davis was second in that race at 41.72 seconds.
Scott Wims of Northrop was outstanding in the sprints, winning both the 100 and 200, in which he nearly broke the state record.
Devin Pipkin did get the satisfaction of beating Wims as the anchor leg of Warren Central's winning 400 relay.
"I came into the 100 seeded first, and that's my favorite event, but Wims got out fast and I kind of lost my form at the end," Pipkin said. "The '4 by 1' made up for it. Everything was crisp. It felt perfect."
Fort Wayne Wayne's Christopher Brautzsch stunned the field by winning the 110-meter hurdles in 13.82 seconds. The favorites, defending champion Bryce Brown (13.88) and Warren Central's Joey Hodges (13.96), finished second and third.
Brown came back to defend his state championship in the 300 hurdles in 36.56. Hodges was second at 36.76 seconds.
Bishop Chatard's 3,200-meter relay team set a state record in the day's first track event. The team of Seth Ball, Chris Dietrick, Andrew Poore and Todd Leone ran a 7:41.56, breaking a two-year-old Carmel record of 7:41.7.
It was their personal best as a team by more than four seconds, and when anchor Leone crossed the finish line, he wasn't sure he broke the record.
"Right when I came across, I saw 7:40 (on the clock next to the finish line) and I was like, 'Uh-oh,' " Leone said. "Then I asked and everyone said we got it."
Ben Davis' 1,600-meter relay team won in 3:15.72.
Southport's Clayton Wilson won the 400 in a time of 47.39 seconds. Eugene Ellis of Gary Westside, whom Wilson said he looked forward to racing this season, was second in 47.84.
Decatur Central's Josh Greenwald won the discus with a throw of 180 feet, 2 inches. Paul Haas of Noblesville was second.
Keenan Hall of Ben Davis had a stellar day, winning the long jump with a leap of 24 feet, 61/2 inches. The Giant's jump was 11/4 inches shy of the state record; he won by nearly two feet. Hall also finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles and ran a leg of the winning 1,600 relay.
In the 3,200, defending state cross country champion Brock Hagerman of Pendleton Heights looked to have a commanding lead for much of the race until Northrop's Robert Moldovan started a spectacular kick with about 150 meters to go. Moldovan came from behind to win by more than four seconds.