Oak Hill High School

The OHTF Lady Eagles entered Tuesday's IHSAA Sectional at Marion the two time defending champion but also an underdog on paper to a very talented Bluffton team while also dealing with late season barrage of injuries. Despite all that, the Lady Eagles fought hard pushing Bluffton throughout the night ultimately taking 2nd with 110 points to Bluffton's 124.5. Eastbrook was 3rd with 66 points while Marion was 4th with 65 and Mississinewa 5th with 61.5. The Lady Eagles led for a good portion of the night but with Bluffton's depth and limitations with injuries the Lady Eagles could not keep up. In all the Lady Eagles managed to have athletes qualify for the IHSAA Fort Wayne Carroll Regional next Tuesday May 27th in 8 of the 16 events. With their 2nd place finish the Lady Eagles have now been 1st or 2nd in the Sectional for 5 straight seasons. The Lady Eagles had won the event in 2025, 2024, and 2022 after having only won 1 Sectional previous in program history in 2015. Lady Eagle Junior Kora Pond had herself a night, after missing last year's Sectional due to injury Pond responded this year winning 3 events. She was the individual Champion in the 400 Meter Dash in a New personal best 1:00 - the 4th fastest time in OHTF Program History. Pond was also part of 2 Lady Eagle relays that dropped huge season best efforts to move up the seeding and win. Pond a long with classmate Quinn Brunner, Senior Biruk Travis, and Sophomore Lilly Hunt started the night off winning the 4x800 Meter Relay in 9:54. The Lady Eagles entered the event as the 3 seed and their time was 24 seconds faster than their season best. It marked just the 2nd time in Grant Country history a girls 4x8 team broke 10 minutes. It ranks the 2nd fastest time in OHTF Program History trailing only the 9:52 posted by Shallen Lenhart, Savannah Hart, Camille Taylor, and Margo Hornocker in 2015. Pond then also anchored the winning 4x400 Meter Relay which also moved up the seeds and rankings posting a season best 4:14. It was nearly a 10 second season best for the ladies and ranks near the Top 5 in OHTF Program History. Joining Pond on the 4x4 were Senior Lexi Nuber, Pond's classmate Lilly Edwards, and Sophomore Emi Babinski. Nuber, Brunner, and Travis were also individual Regional Qualifiers in other events on the night. Nuber took 2nd in the 300 Meter Hurdles in a season best while Brunner and Travis each took 3rd in the 1600 Meter Run and 800 Meter Run. Brunner also added a 4th in the 3200 Meter Run waiting on a possible Regional callback. Nuber also awaits a possible callback as she matched her career best in the 100 Meter Hurdles finishing in 5th overall. Other individual Regional Qualifiers on the night were Sophomore Bri Dailey who took 2nd in the High Jump after sustaining an injury warming up. The injury restricted her in her other events as she took 4th in the 400 Meter Dash behind Pond and 7th in the Long Jump. She had to be scratched from the 4x4 where Babinski stepped in. Sophomore Callie Nuber might have been the biggest surprise on the night taking 3rd in the Pole Vault to earn a trip to the Regional in the event. Hunt added a 4th in the 800 Meter Run and Senior Sarah Beth Tripp took 5th in Shot Put as both ladies await possible Regional callbacks. Senior Ava Keith battled an injury all night to take 5th in the Pole Vault. Other point scorers were - Eva Tripp 6th in the High Jump Addison Carey 6th in the 1600 Meter Run (breaking 6 for the 1st time in her career) Erika Newhouse 6th in the Long Jump & 300 Meter Hurdles Taylor Campbell 8th in the 100 Meter Dash Edwards, Campbell, Annie Hale, Audrey Rex 7th in the 4x100 Meter Relay Madelyn Cheek 7th in the Discus (threw over a 3 foot lifetime personal best) The Lady Eagles now await possible Regional Callbacks as the qualifiers prepare to compete next Tuesday in the Regional at Fort Wayne Carroll.