Oak Hill High School

Thursday's IHSAA Fort Wayne Carroll was a night of maintained streaks, the conclusion of some amazing careers, the arrivals of some talented underclassmen, and history being set by the OHTF Golden Eagles. For the 9th straight season the Golden Eagles had an athlete qualify for the IHSAA State Finals, for the 7th straight season they had multiple athletes qualify for the State Finals, and for the 4th straight year they managed a Top 10 team finish - currently matches a state best streak for small schools. The Golden Eagles scored 27 points to finish 8th for the 3rd straight year having taken 6th in 2022 to start the streak. New Haven won the team title with 74 points while Yorktown was 2nd with 47, Fort Wayne Carroll 3rd with 46, and Homestead 4th with 45. A pair of Golden Eagle Sophomores punched a ticket to the State Finals next week as both Jalen Scott and Kyle Brower finished in the Top 3 of their respective event to advance. Scott won the 100 Meter Dash Regional Title in impressive fashion. After running the State Standard in the trials at 10.9 matching his personal best, Scott came back to drop .2 more seconds posting an even more impressive 10.7 to win in the final. Scott became the 1st ever Golden Eagle Regional Champion in the 100 and his time ranks 2nd all time in program history trailing only Damon Pyle's 10.6 set in 1976. Scott became the the 6th Golden Eagle to qualify for the State Finals in the event and 1st since Delmar Terry in 1988. Terry went twice to State in the 100 in 1987 and 1988. Chip Compton went in 1984, Pyle as mentioned in 1976, and Rick Bragg back in 1965. Scott's Regional title marked the 3rd straight year a Golden Eagle athlete or relay had won a Regional Title. Prior to 2012 the OHTF program as a whole - men and women combined - had only won 3 Regional Titles collectively, Scott's title marked the 17th since 2012. Scott had entered the event as the 5th seed. Brower entered Thursday's Pole Vault competition as the 4 seed but battled for the lead most of the night ultimately taking Regional Runner Up honors in the event in a new personal best 14 feet. Brower's mark ranks #3 all time tied with his brother Nate and Brent Peterson, trailing only Caiden Lake and Gavin Holz. Brower became the 5th Golden Eagle Pole Vault State Qualifier and 1st since Holz managed it in 2019. Holz went in 2019 and 2018 while Peterson qualified in 1998 and Kevin Freer back in 1988. The toughest event of the night came in the 800 Meter Run as Golden Eagle Senior Lance Wyrick battled to a 4th place finish just missing qualifying for the State Finals by 1 spot and 1 second. Wyrick who had been to State the previous 2 years leading off the back to back Regional Champion and All State Podium 4x800 Meter Relay was attempting to qualify as an individual for the 1st time and set a new personal best 1:56.2 to finish just off the podium Thursday. Wyrick's time ranks him #4 all time in OHTF Program History. He passed Mike Truman and Ryan Devoe Thursday and will graduate trailing only Owen Jackson at 1:52 along Thorpe Miller and Alan Thomas both at 1:55. Other Golden Eagle Top 8 Point Scorers on the night were Sophomore Luke Elzinga in the Long Jump placing 6th with a jump of 20-11. Elzinga cracked the Top 15 in Program History this spring. Junior Corban Tippey ran a personal best 4:34 to take 8th and score a point in the 1600 Meter Run. His time cracked the Top 20 in Program History. Senior Drew Elzinga concluded his strong career with three very solid efforts including 2 personal best. In the 100 Meter Hurdles and 300 Meter Hurdles Elzinga had entered the event seeded 16th and 15th respectively. He ultimately took 11th and 9th behind a near personal best breaking 16 in the 100 Hurdles along with a new personal best 42.2 in the 300 Hurdles. Classmate Micah McKinney matched his personal best to go from 16th seed in the 300 Hurdles to take 13th overall. Both Elzinga and McKinney recorded Top 10 all Time Marks in the 300 Thursday. The Golden Eagles had all three relays compete Thursday but failed to score in a point in any of the three events. They started the night in the 4x800 Meter Relay with Junior Caden Myers running a sub 2 minute 800 and another season best from Tippey near the 2 minute barrier to get them into 4th-5th place but with the Top 3 out of realistic reach Wyrick jogged his leg to save himself for the open 800 and the relay finished 14th overall. The 4th member of the team was Senior Owen Middlesworth. Scott teamed up with Seniors Seth David, Morshown Cotton, and Reese Hernandez to run a respectable 44.1 good enough for 11th overall in the 4x100 Meter Relay. Wyrick, both Elzinga's, and Cotton wrapped up the night taking 15th in the 4x400 Meter Relay but did so in a season best time of 3:30, a time that was 8th fastest in program history. Scott and Brower will compete in the IHSAA State Championships on Friday June 6th at North Central High School in Indianapolis.