Springs Valley Community High School

For five seasons, nobody in the PLAC had been able to take down Springs Valley’s boys’ track and field team. The Blackhawks took the team championship every year from 2017 to 2022 save for 2020, the season that was canceled because of COVID-19. The ‘Hawks expected to keep the streak alive at the 2023 edition of the PLAC Championships on Friday and they did just that, crushing their competition. Perry Central, the host, finished second with 98 points. Orleans was third with 86 points and Paoli was fourth with 51.5 points. All respectable performances, but none close to dethroning the Blackhawks. Springs Valley racked up 161 points, putting together a dominant performance that included three new school records, a pair of new meet records, seven individual All-PLAC honors earned and a pair of All-PLAC relay teams as well. “They just keep getting better and better and better. 161 points, three school records, two conference records, and only one senior boy who scored individual points tonight. They’re unbelievable,” Springs Valley coach Derek Freeman said. “I used to joke about reloading instead of rebuilding, but we really do keep reloading and it’s because these kids built an expectation and the lower levels are doing their part and we just continue to bring in kids who grow and mature and work hard to keep getting better.” Alan Marshall was exceptional for the Blackhawks at the event, helping his 4x800-meter relay teammates Carson Brown, Max Pendley, and Grant Brown win before taking the 800-meter and 1600-meter himself. His performance in the 1600-meter was historically good as his time of 4:26.22 was the best in school history and just under a second shorter than the PLAC Championships record time of 4:25.60 that Perry Central’s Aaron Pierrard set in 2014. He’d close his night by teaming up with Pendley, Isaiah Ervin, and Grant Brown to win the 4x400-meter relay as well. His teammates would give him the slightest of leads for the anchor leg and it was all he needed as he flew around the track to give the Blackhawks a four-plus-second margin of victory with a time of 3:37.82. Larron Childers also had a historic performance, breaking the PLAC Championships record in the discus throw with a distance of 154-1. Christian Hamilton had a similar evening, breaking the school record and the PLAC Championships record in the long jump. The sophomore’s leap of 22-2.5 was just longer than Conner Grimes’ previous Springs Valley record of 22-1 and the PLAC record, 21-9.5, set by Paoli’s Scott Kameda in 1984. Hamilton might have also won the 200-meter dash had he not pulled up with an injury during the finals. His prelim time of 23.91 was better than the time that the eventual champion put down in the finals. Grant Brown also earned solo All-PLAC honors, beating his brother by just under a second in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:19.89 to get it done. With all of that in mind, the star of the night for Springs Valley’s boys was actually Jaheim Hamilton. The junior finished second in the long jump, then kept racking up the points as the evening progressed. He won the 110-meter high hurdles, edging out teammate James Walls by one tenth of a second in the finals to do so. He won the 300-meter hurdles as well, beating Perry Central’s Cole Yeager by one hundredth of a second in the most exhilarating race of the event, and broke a school record in doing so. His time of 42.02 seconds was nearly a half-second quicker than the old record, 42.51 seconds, that was set by Landon Price in 2012. He rounded out his performance with another second-place finish, this time in the 4x100-meter relay alongside teammates James Walls, Tristen Edwards, and Christian Hamilton. That all led to the junior earning co-MVP honors, tying Orleans’ Xavier Alston with 30 points. He’s the second Blackhawk in a row to win the award — following his brother: 2022 MVP Conner Grimes — and this is the seventh time that a Blackhawk has won it. “I think it’s huge for his confidence because Jaheim knew he was pretty good, but for him to come into this meet and go out and win two events, get second in a third, and then be on a relay team that wins and tie for MVP is huge. To be the MVP of this meet shows him what he’s capable of. I don’t think he really knew. I don’t think he really gave himself the credit,” Freeman said. “I think it’ll be a stepping stone to bigger and greater things for him.” If the performance put forth by Springs Valley’s boys was expected, the performance put forth by its girls was the exact opposite. The Blackhawk girls have been riddled with injuries for much of the season, not even counting their various bumps and bruises that they’ve worked through, but on Friday they were still able to tie for second place with 93 points. They were led by two All-PLAC athletes. Sarah Drabing won the discus throw handily with a distance of 102-9 and Miya Campbell won the long jump in similar fashion with a leap of 16-7.75. Campbell’s jump was the longest Springs Valley has seen from a girl in nearly 30 years and set a new personal record. It was Drabing’s second time as an All-PLAC performer and Campbell’s first. Outside of that, the Blackhawks had a litany of top three finishes. Campbell was third in the 100-meter dash, Sophie Harris was third in the mile and second in the two-mile, Brynne Buchanan was third in the 100-meter hurdles, Ella Meehan was second in the shot put, and Tori McCormick was third in the high jump. Buchanan, Campbell, Hall, and Macie Mayhew finished second in the 4x100-meter relay. Keira Lynch, Jadyn Lynch, Shanacea Hankins, and Harris finished third in the 4x800-meter relay. McCormick, Harris, Myla Harrison, and Bella Nottger finished fourth in the 4x400-meter relay. Springs Valley also got individual points from Campbell (fifth, 200-meter), Kinsey Saliba (sixth, long jump), Hall (fourth, high jump), Drabing (fourth, shot put), and Aubrey Bledsoe (fourth, discus). That was all despite Saliba having to withdraw after the long jump due to injury and Hall being carried off the track with a leg injury at the end of the 4x100-meter relay among other ailments throughout the team. “Our girls’ team is hurting. I didn’t think that we would get as high as we did tonight because of the kinds of things we’re dealing with,” Freeman said. “We had girls who were tough as nails, gritted their teeth, fought through pain and got us tied for second place which was not expected at all. 93 points, that blows my mind.” Springs Valley is now in the heart of its season. The Blackhawks will try to keep things rolling on Tuesday when they take on the Orange County Meet, but their ultimate goal is just a week away after that. The girls will open the state tournament on Tuesday, May 16 at the Seymour Sectional, then the boys will open their postseason two days later at the Bedford North Lawrence Sectional. If all goes to plan, their experience on Friday as well as at big events like the Mustang Invitational and the North Harrison Invitational will help them excel against the big-school competition that they’ll face. “Not to discount the county meet, but our eyes are set on sectional,” Freeman said. “Teams like Perry Central and teams like we faced last week at the North Harrison Invite are the reason we go to these meets and the reason that conference is good for us. It prepares us to compete at a sectional level. “Those times in the boys’ 1600 tonight were times that would win the sectional and then the same thing with the 800. We’re seeing kids put up times and efforts that are going to help get us to the next level.” PATOKA LAKE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS - BOYS TEAM SCORES Springs Valley 161, Perry Central 98, Orleans 85, Paoli 51.5, Mitchell 43, Crawford County 23, West Washington 1.5 100: Goffinett, PC, 11.06; Guillaume, PC, 11.54; Robinson, M, 11.56. 200: Goffinett, PC, 24.14; Alston, O, 24.18; Baker, SV, 25.00. 400: Alston, O, 51.79; Oster, M, 53.37; Ervin, SV, 53.93. 800: Marshall, SV, 1:59.93; Jones, O, 2:03.04; Baker, PAO, 2:09.58. 1,600: Marshall, SV, 4:26.22; Jones, O, 4:28.52; G. Brown, SV, 4:30.25. 3,200: G. Brown, SV, 10:19.89; C. Brown, SV, 10:20.70; Jones, O, 10:27.15. 110H: J. Hamilton, SV, 16.19; Walls, SV, 16.29; Yeager, PC, 16.53. 300H: J. Hamilton, SV, 42.02; Yeager, PC, 42.03; Sanders, O, 43.08. SP: Graves, O, 46-3.5; Childers, SV, 45-5.25; Higgins, PAO, 42-8.75. DT: Childers, SV, 154-1; Robertson, M, 132-5; Higgins, PAO, 130-6. LJ: C. Hamilton, SV, 22-2.5; J. Hamilton, SV, 21-6.5; Guillaume, PC, 20-11.5. HJ: Alston, O, 6-0; Nickelson, CC, 5-8; Padgett, PAO, 5-6. 400R: PC, 44.66; SV, 44.92; PAO, 47.31. 1,600R: SV, 3:37.82; PC, 3:42.42; PAO, 3:45.64. 3,200R: SV, 8:53.65; PC, 9:02.64; PAO, 9:12.65. PATOKA LAKE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE - GIRLS TEAM SCORES Perry Central 128, Orleans 93, Springs Valley 93, Paoli 58, Mitchell 51, Crawford County 34, West Washington 7 100: Goffinet, PC, 13.29; Spires, O, 13.43; Campbell, SV, 13.62. 200: Fehribach, PAO, 27.18; Goffinet, PC, 27.20; Etienne, PC, 28.48. 400: Goffinet, PC, 1:03.48; Higgins, PAO, 1:05.94; Lamm, M, 1:06.77. 800: Hughett, O, 2:34.11; Smith, M, 2:41.49; Jarboe, PC, 2:45.84. 1,600: Hughett, O, 5:53.09; Schaad, PC, 5:55.09; Harris, SV, 5:57.11. 3,200: Schaad, PC, 12:53.79; Harris, SV, 13:03.25; Guillaume, PC, 13:30.06. 100H: Fehribach, PAO, 15.93; Etienne, PC, 17.45; Buchanan, SV, 18.07. 300H: Fehribach, PAO, 45.94; Etienne, PC, 50.77; Hudson, M, 53.50. SP: Stroud, CC, 35-1.5; Meehan, SV, 34-9; Ash, CC, 32-0. DT: Drabing, SV, 102-9; Wright, CC, 98-6; Ash, CC, 89-0. LJ: Campbell, SV, 16-7.75; Alston, O, 15-2; Lamm, M, 15-1. HJ: Fehribach, PAO, 5-2; Alston, O, 5-1; McCormick, Sv, 4-10. 400R: O, 53.93; SV, 54.93; PC, 55.08. 1,600R: PC, 4:24.13; O, 4:39.64; M, 4:49.85. 3,200R: PC, 11:10.08; O, 11:29.89; SV, 13:03.21.