By Brady Extin | The Times-Post

At the highly competitive Mt. Vernon Boys Track and Field Sectional, and the Pendleton Heights Girls Sectional, both the Arabians and Lapel sent athletes through to the regional.

With the top three spots in each event earning automatic qualifying spots in the Pike Regional, both schools placed people in those spots in a variety of events, and each had individual sectional champions.

For Pendleton Heights, junior distance runner Ava Jarrell continued her dominant season with a pair of first-place finishes in the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races, as well as a second-place finish in the 4×400 relay.

In the 1,600-meter, Jarrell’s winning time of 4:54.90 was a new sectional record. She bested the record time she set last year in the event by seven seconds.

She followed up that performance with a win in the 3,200-meter. Her time of 10:58.63 was nearly a minute faster than the rest of the field. The Arabians took first and second in the race with Jaycee Thurman crossing the finish line second with a time of 11:57.21.

Jarrell capped off the big day with a strong leg of the 4×400 relay to help the Arabians take second place in the event.

Along with her, the team of Addison Stanley, Hadley Walker, and Ava Reed ran a time of 4:14.66.

The last two automatic qualifying spots for the Arabians in the girls meet came from freshman Maddy Pfister in the 100-meter dash and junior Hadley Walker in the 800-meter run.

Both were third place in their respective events. Pfister crossed the finish line in 12.77 seconds, while Walker ran a time of 2:27.35.

Just missing another automatic spot in the regional were Thurman with a fourth-place finish in the 1,600-meter and Pfister with a fourth place in the long jump.

At the same meet, Lapel got a pair of regional qualifiers.

In the 200-meter, Regan Stookey’s time of 26.73 earned her third place, and in the high jump, AnnaLee Stow placed third with a height of 4-feet, 10-inches.

At the boys meet, the Bulldogs had the area’s lone sectional champion. In the shot put, JJ Baxter took the top spot with a throw of 50-feet, 2.5 inches.

Simon Nickelson was the other Lapel competitor to punch his ticket to the Pike Regional. In the 3,200-meter he placed third with a time of 9:41.51.

Pendleton Heights got a pair of automatic qualifiers in the boys meet as well.

Benson Davis was runner-up in the 3,200-meter with a time of 9:39.47, and Gabe Martin was third in the shot put with a throw of 44-feet, 6-inches.

Will Coggins was fourth in the 1,600-meter for the Arabians, and Martin was fourth in the discus.

Mt. Vernon took home the boys team title with nine individual champions and a score of 188. They beat out Lawrence North who had six individual winners and a score of 175. Eastern Hancock was third with 59 points, and Pendleton Heights was fourth with 47 points. They were followed by Blue River Valley (39), Lapel (35), Anderson (27), Anderson Prep (23), Shenandoah (13), New Castle (10) and Daleville (6).

In the girls meet Mt. Vernon and Lawrence North flipped spots at the top. Lawrence North took the team title with 178 points, Mt. Vernon was runner-up with 118.5 points, and Pendleton Heights was third with 71 points. Following them were New Castle (62), Daleville (52), Eastern Hancock (42), Shenandoah (26), Lapel (21), Anderson (18.5), Anderson Prep (17), Blue River Valley (8) and Knightstown (6).

The girls regional took place on Tuesday after press time, while the boys regional takes place today beginning at 6 p.m. at Pike High School. The top three spots in each event will advance to the state finals.