Richmond High School

In their first pre-spring break meet in over a decade, the Richmond Red Devils made the trip to Connersville Tuesday night to face off against their Sectional opponent in an early-season preview meet. With high winds chilling the competition field, it was the Richmond boys that came away with the win, while the girls fell in a tightly-contested meet. The meet opened up with a half-hour of field events, with jumps and throws getting the first crack at competition. In the jumps, the boys soared, sweeping the field of competition. Javon Vecera scissor-kicked over 5-8 for the win, with Lucas Durbin eking second place over Ben Holliday based on previous misses at 5-2. Things flipped around at the long jump, with Holliday taking first (18-5.25), Havi Lapsley placing second (18-0.50), and Vecera placing third (17-11). In the girls long jump, KK Farris-Craig placed second with a jump of 13-3.75 and Rena Olinger made her jumping debut at 11-7 for third. The team also saw success in the throwing events. Masson Heiny and Jacob Lindahl went 1-2 in the shot put, throwing 46-9 and 43-5 respectively. Jenna Johnston took home the blue ribbon in the girls shot with her throw of 30-8. In the discus, the boys took first and third. Heiny won again with his throw of 119-10, while Nathan Ferrell scored a point in third place with a throw of 89-4. A recording discrepancy meant many girls had to throw up to two extra times. Avery VanDervort was the only Red Devil to make the podium with a throw of 66-2. With the field events wrapped up, the Devils were off to the races. The boys 4x800 meter relay team of Owen Griffin, Brady Newton, Ethan Newton, and Austin Retter won the first race of the night with a time of 9:57.57. In the 110 high hurdles, Josh Gilbert placed first with a time of 19.31 seconds. Addi Jones scored for the girls in the 100 meter hurdles, placing second with a time of 20.56 seconds. In the 100 meter dash, Antione West came away with the win with his 11.65 second finish. Javon Vecera placed second with a time of 11.88 seconds. For the girls, it was second and third place in the 100 meter dash, with KK Hogg (13.63 seconds) just beating KK Farris-Craig (13.94 seconds). The distance team returned to the track in the 1600 meter run. The youngest members of the team swept the boys race, with Julian Bowden breaking the five-minute barrier for the first time for first place and a time of 4:56.57. Cale Newton finished second with a time of 5:03.50, and Bryce Cordova finished third with a time of 5:05.02. In the girls 1600, Keena Barker took home the blue ribbon with her finish of 5:56.69. The next groups on the track were the 4x100 meter relay teams. The boys team of Antione West, Javon Vecera, Havi Lapsley, and Ben Holliday took first place with a time of 46.24 seconds. The girls didn’t leave room for error, putting the Connersville team away in the first 300 meters. KK Farris-Craig, KK Hogg, Katie Mathena, and Shay Sexton took the win with a time of 52.88 seconds. In the 400 meter run, Trevin Crosby won by five seconds, placing first with a time of 53.28. Anabella Triana locked in second place for Richmond’s girls team with a time of 1:16.40. Next, the hurdle crew loaded up the track for the 300 meter hurdles. Ben Holliday took away the win with a 45.44 second finish. Josh Gilbert took second place by a lean with a time of 49.51 seconds. It was Addi Jones for the girls who finished first, taking it away in 1:03.15. After that, the distance team was back for the 800 meter run. Loading up the race with the fastest on the team, it was Alex Orihuela in first with a time of 2:05.33, Greyson Farmer in second with a time of 2:07.32, and Xavier Oglee in third with a time of 2:10.46. For the girls, it was Lizzy Graham in first place in the 800 with a time of 2:31.57. In the boys 200 meter dash, it was another sweep for the Devils. Antione West finished first with a time of 24.01, with Trevin Crosby on his heels a tenth of a second away in second place. Havi Lapsley wrapped up the sweep in third with a time of 24.76. For the girls, it was KK Hogg in second place with a time of 29.05 seconds and KK Farris-Craig in third with a time of 29.89 seconds. In the final solo race of the night, Ethan Miller won the 3200 meter run with a time of 11:05.51. Then it was a photo finish among three Richmond runners for third place. Brady Newton gutted out third with a time of 12:19.49, just beating out his teammates Owen Griffin and Austin Retter. For the girls, Allison Stout finished with a time of 13:49.17 and took home a blue ribbon and five points for her efforts. In the final event of the night, it was an exciting Richmond vs. Richmond 4x400 meter relay with the young guns taking on the seasoned veterans and outracing them through legs one and two. In the end, the upperclassman team of Grey Farmer, Ethan Newton, Xavier Ogle, and Alex Orihuela finished first with a time of 3:47.61. With all said and done, the boys took home a resounding team victory with a score of 106-26. The girls fell to Connersville with a score of 49-74. Times and distances for non-scoring athletes can be accessed in the PDF that accompanies this article. Richmond’s track team next returns to action in Anderson at the first of two Anderson/Muncie tri meets on Wednesday, April 3rd at 5:30 PM.