The boys’ portion of the triangular meeting involving Rushville, South Decatur and North Decatur was a decidedly one-sided affair as Rushville easily outdistanced the Decatur County schools.

The girls’ meet was something else as North Decatur edged Rushville with South in striking distance as the three squads scored 58, 56 and 42 points, respectively.

“Despite injuries, I thought we did well,” South Decatur’s track coach, Jeanne Saylor said. “We won three of the four field events and did well in the relays. “When we get healthy we’ll be where we want to be.”

Her counterpart at North Decatur, Betsy Davis, was pleased.

“I’m ecstatic. In this triangular event, we’ve finished second,” Davis said. “They have a great program. Meredith Tarplee, our high jumper, had her career best (at 4’10”) and she jumped after running the 3200 meters.”

Another thing that pleased Davis was the Chargers were missing their fastest runner, Hayley Hayden.

“Amelia Daeger stepped in big, and Allison Hoeing did a good job,” Davis said.

Daeger finished first in both the 100 and 200 dashes with Hoeing finishing third in the 100 hurdles and 100 dash, second in the 400 dash and fourth in the 300 hurdles.

The Cougars excelled in the field events with a two-three finish from Taylor Nolting and Heather Helms in the shot put, a first from Allison Cunningham in the long jump, a first from Helms in the discus and a first and third from Julie French and Ashley Lewellyn in the high jump.

On the men’s side, South Decatur had a disappointing afternoon.

“The kids did okay for being inexperienced. Jordan Clark scored in both the shot and discus, and we expected Tyler (Mote) to score and he did,” Coach Tom Black of South Decatur said. “The kids competed and showed some signs of team work. Track is an individual sport, but it’s so much easier when you know you have someone there encouraging you.”

Chargers’ Coach Dennis Crowe was encouraged with the performance of his squad.

“I thought tonight was a very good performance for our first meet. As Betsy said, they are a very strong program. We were probably closer than we’ve ever been,” he said. “Tanner (Derflinger) in the 100 beat Bud Jones. He doesn’t get beat often. And Kyle Lusk in the 200 and his little brother (Eric) went 5’10” in the high jump. The 4X100 relay team almost broke the school record.”

Team results: Boys: Rushville 95, North Decatur 53, South Decatur 6; Girls: North Decatur 58, Rushville 56, South Decatur 42.

Individual results: