North claims 25th girls track sectional title; Higginbottom, Hamilton each take four events

By Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE May 13, 2008 11:47 pm

— Mental toughness is what competing on the track is all about, and high school runners Amy Hamilton and Shelby Higginbottom showed they have plenty of it Tuesday as each came away with four victories in the girls sectional at Terre Haute North.
Higginbottom stayed undefeated during her sophomore season by winning the long jump, 100-meter dash, 200 and 400 with little drama involved in any of the victories.
“The hard part is to keep going,” Higginbottom said after pumping through the home stretch of the 400 ahead of top-seeded West Vigo runner Haleigh Sanders. Higginbottom’s time of 58.40 was a personal best and held off Sanders by almost two seconds.
Hamilton can identify with Higginbottom on the ability to keep going. After running an always tough 800-meter race, Hamilton lined up for the 3,200 just a couple minutes later. Hamilton still capped the state-leading 25th sectional championship for Terre Haute North with a win in 11:53.78, which was short of her sectional-record time of 11:28.97 set last year.
She prepared for the sectional quadruple by doing the same in the North-South meet last week.
“It was like 20 minutes less recovery [after the 800],” Hamliton said. “So after two laps [in the two-mile], it was like ‘man, I didn’t expect this.’”
Hamilton, the veteran distance runner, was a member of Terre Haute North’s 3,200 relay team, while adding victories in the 1,600, 800 and 3,200.
Hamilton began the meet by anchoring the 3,200-meter relay team to an easy victory. Her victory in the 1,600 an hour or so later was also without suspense as her time of 5 minutes, 19.69 seconds was more than 31 seconds better than the time of West Vigo senior Melissa Porter.
It was a strong day for distance runners as Porter’s time of 5:51.15 was a personal best, and Northview’s Allie True took 22 seconds off her personal best in the 3,200 for third place behind North’s Lindy Jones, who also took second to Hamilton in the 800.
Higginbottom set the pace with West Vigo senior Haleigh Sanders in a highly-anticipated battle in the 400. Higginbottom came away with the victory in a personal-best time of 58.40 to hold off the top-seeded Sanders, who had been the only Wabash Valley female to break one minute this season.
But Higginbottom is undefeated this season in the 100, 200, 400 and long jump.
“I was scared Haleigh was going to beat me … I went hard and then kind of floated so whenever I got to the 200 [mark] I was sprinting,” Higginbottom said. “Running against greater competition was tough, I haven’t had much of that this season. I’m so excited. I trained for this for a while.”
“I went hard and then kind of floated so whenever I got to the 200 [mark] I was sprinting,” Higginbottom said. “That was amazing. I’ve never done that before.”
Higginbottom is likely to scratch out in the 400 at next week’s regional at Evansville, her coach Jessica Crowder said, because Higginbottom is the defending regional champion in the 200, which is probably her best event.
In the long jump, Higginbottom had to hold off North’s Brittany Dorsett, who advanced to the regional in long jump, 100-meter dash and the 400 relay team.
Terre Haute South had a solid night as well, with junior Brianne Steppe winning both sectional hurdles races for the first time. Steppe won the 300 hurdles last season, but lost to North’s Miracle Thompson in the 100s.
Steppe capped the night for the Braves with a strong 400 to anchor the 1,600 relay victory for South. West Vigo’s squad was coming off a victory in the event at the Big Four Classic, but Allison Vaeth gave Steppe some seperation heading into the final leg.
The Braves’ Ariane Bell won the shot put with a heave of 37 feet, 1 1/2 inches for South’s other victory. Bell’s sophomore classmate Larina Coutinho also moves onto the regional with her third-place finish in the long jump.
Patriot senior Beth Liebler won the high jump with a leap of 5-0, but she knows she needs to hit at least 5-2 at regional. Freshman teammate Devony Shaffer was right with Liebler at 5-0.
Sullivan had a strong day as three relay teams advanced to the regional, including the 400-relay team setting a school record with a 52.31 for second place.
“Fantastic. The girls did great,” Sullivan coach Pete Jones said.
Discus winner Samantha Soloman of Northview showed great improvement from her freshman season, coach Ryand Tucker said.
Clay City’s Andrea Ladd advanced to regional action in the 100 and 200, and senior Rachael Narlock cleared 4-10 in high jump to qualify for her fourth regional.
The Evansville Central regional is Tuesday.

Terre Haute North girls track and field sectional
Team scores — Terre Haute North 174, Terre Haute South 101, Northview 69, Sullivan 67, West Vigo 63, Linton 50 1/2, North Central 45, Clay City 27 1/2, Shakamak 18, South Vermillion 6.
3,200 relay — Terre Haute North (Jones, Cresgy, Whitaker, Hamilton) 10:22.54, Sullivan (Thompson, James, Schroeder, Finley) 10:53.08, Northview (Sands, Barnett, Thacker, True) 10:55.44, West Vigo (Porter, Sanders, Sparks, Klotz) 11:03.49; 100 — Shelby Higginbottom (NC) 13.11, Ashley Burkins (THN) 13.52, Andrea Ladd (CC) 13.53, Brittany Dorsett (THN) 13.58; 100 H — Briane Steppe (THS) 16.85, Jocelyn Bradford (Sullivan) 17.20, Kelsey Andis (L) 17.34, Brittany Solomon (WV0 17.49; 200 — Higginbottom (NC) 26.39, Burkins (THN) 27.54, Andrea Ladd (CC) 27.63, Allison Vaeth (THS) 28.12; 1,600 — Amy Hamilton (THN) 5:19.69, Melissa Porter (WV0 5:51.15, Jennifer Samson (THS) 5:52.86, Casandra Barnett (Nv) 5:55.44; 400 relay — Terre Haute North (Wilkey, McFadden, Dorsett, Burkins) 51.72, Sullivan (Ashburn, Gadberry, Thompson, Exline) 52.31, Northview (Bell, Kleiber, Niehaus, Smiley) 52.70, Terre Haute South (Scheid, Liffick, Nicholson, Coutinho) 53.17; 400 — Higginbottom (NC) 58.40, Haleigh Sanders (WV) 1:00.38, Allison Vaeth (THS) 1:01.78, Micajah Green (Shakamak) 1:03.78; 300 H — Brianne Steppe (THS) 48.32, Jocelyn Bradford (Sullivan) 50.08, Megan Wilkey (THN) 50.26, Brittany Solomon (WV) 50.99; 800 — Amy Hamilton (THN) 2:23.93, Lindy Jones (THN) 2:29.35, Samantha Thompson (Sullivan) 2:34.27, Samson (THS) 2:38.39; 3,200 — Hamilton (THN) 11:53.78, Lindy Jones (THN) 12:21.38, Allie True (Nv) 12:45.93, Samson (THS) 12:53.81; 1,600 relay — Terre Haute South (Scheid, Coutinho, Vaeth, Steppe) 4:12.86, West Vigo (Sanders, Hunt, Clark, Klotz) 4:16.52, Terre Haute North (Nelson, Reed, Wilkey, Burkins) 4:20.14, Sullivan (Trimble, Thompson, Bradford, Finley) 4:24.83; LJ — Higginbottom (NC) 17-0 3/4, Dorsett (THN) 16-7 1/2, Coutinho (THS) 15-6 1/2, Sanders (WV) 15-2; HJ — Beth Liebler (THN) 5-0, Devony Shaffer (THN) 5-0, Shandi Travis (Nv) 4-10, Ashlea Beard (L) 4-10; D — Samantha Soloman (Nv) 111-4 1/2, Natalie Bond (S) 99-5 1/2, Ariane Bell (THS) 88-10 1/2, Meghann Reardon (SV) 88-6 1/2; SP — Bell (THS) 37-1 1/2, Paige Rosselli (THN) 35-0 1/2, Aubrey Sears (L) 34-4, Emily Adams (THN) 33-2; PV — Amber Wilcox (THN) 8-0, Annie Smiley (Nv) 8-0, Chelsea Hunt (WV) 8-0, Christie Hasbrouck (THN) 7-6.

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