Published: May 12, 2008 04:00 pm            

Avon takes third at HCC meet

LAFAYETTE — A third-place finish in one of the state’s best conferences would make many track and field coaches happy, but not first-year Avon boys’ coach Cedrick Lloyd.

“We can’t become satisfied,” said Lloyd, whose Orioles recently broke into the Top 10 of the state rankings. “Tonight for me, I saw satisfaction. I didn’t see kids trying to get to the end and finish races.”

Noblesville won Friday’s Hoosier Crossroads Conference (HCC) championship at Lafayette with 128 points, followed closely by Lafayette Jefferson with 123.5 points. Avon was a distant third with 80.5 points and Brownsburg finished 10th with 35 points.

“With sectionals coming up, we can’t sit and harp on this for too long,” Lloyd said. “The idea is we have through Wednesday to get better (for sectional). I think we will.”

Avon

Despite the disappointing outcome, the Orioles had two first-place finishes. The 4x100 meter relay team of Baba Fahnbulleh, Taje High, Keeven High, and Steve Wilson (43.76) won an HCC championship and Marvis Herring (49.87 seconds) came within a second of breaking the HCC record en route to winning the 400.

“He is the best 400 high school runner I’ve seen — he’s awesome,” Lloyd said. “I think he’s going to continue to get better.”

Herring also ran an impressive anchor leg for the 4x400 relay team, nearly catching Noblesville’s anchor for first place. Herring and teammates Shayne Cureton, Demarlo Cheetham, and David McKinney placed second in the event in 3:28.55.

The Orioles’ standout pole vaulter, Colin Yoder, suffered a hard fall off the mat and couldn’t continue, but not before registering a jump of 12 feet, good enough for fourth place.

Other top-five finishers for Avon were James Hinton who finished second in the high jump (6-02 feet); the fourth-place 4x800 relay team of Bradley Griesenauer, Chris Surfus, Herring, and McKinney (8:06.79); Cureton, who placed fourth in the long jump (20-07.25 feet), and Eric Burton, who finished fifth in the 110 hurdles (16.39).

The Orioles’ struggles stemmed from not cracking the top 10 in distance events (1600 and 3200) and finishing no better than eighth in sprints (100 and 200).

“There were spots where usually we score well and today we didn’t and we’ll talk about why,” Lloyd said. “Ups and downs come and go, but if you can learn something along the way I think that’s going to make us a better team later on.”

Brownsburg

As a team, the Bulldogs placed last in Friday’s meet, but had some standout performances individually.

According to seed times, Brownsburg’s 3200 runner Scott Vicenzi wasn’t on the radar, but he delivered an impressive run and finished fourth (9:33.81). Chris Jones took fourth in the shot put for the Bulldogs (51-03 feet).

Brownsburg also had a trio of fifth-place finishers — Todd Nibbs in the high jump (6-02 feet); Joel Christ in the 400 (52.22); and the 4x400 relay team of Alan Paddock, Shawn Shupperd, Eric Woods, and Christ (3:30.86).

        

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