Sydney Stotler competes in the long jump at the field portion of the Hoosier North Athletic Conference Championships in North Judson Tuesday. (Photos by James Costello)

NORTH JUDSON — With day one of the Hoosier North Athletic Conference Championships in the books, Pioneer has put itself in good position to top the conference track and field standings on both the boys’ and girls’ sides. Triton’s girls have their work cut out for them sitting in third place, while the Trojans are in a tough spot rounding out the standings.

Pioneer’s boys scored a dominant 58.5 points in the field portion of the HNAC Track and Field Championships at North Judson-San Pierre Tuesday, while the Lady Panthers lead Winamac 42-41 in a tight girls’ race, with the Lady Trojans sitting in third with 26.5 points, two points ahead of host Judson. The track portion of the HNACs is scheduled for Thursday night in Knox.

“We’d have to make up a lot of ground, and we don’t really have the depth to do that. But we wanted to compete, and we came here and did that tonight I think so hopefully we’ll have a better performance Thursday night,” said Triton girls coach Jason Groves.

The Lady Trojans scored all of their points in four of Tuesday’s events, placing two in the top eight in both the high jump and the shot put and one in the pole vault and the discus.

Jaela Faulkner’s third-place performance in the vault was Triton’s best finish as she cleared 7’6” to place ahead of Culver’s Kate Heim and Knox’s Emilee Richardson, both of whom also made the 7’6” mark.

“I think she was a little disappointed she didn’t get 8 feet, but she cleared 7’6”, and she’s been improving each meet so that’s nice to see,” said Groves.

Senior Charlotte Morris and freshman Abbey Viers scored points in two events each, meanwhile.

Charlotte Morris competes in the discus Tuesday.

Viers placed fourth in the high jump with a 4’6” clearance ahead of teammate Annie Hill, who cleared the same ark on her way to a fifth-place tie with Winamac’s Margaret Smith. Viers also finished sixth in the shot put with a 29’03” mark behind Morris’ fifth-place, 29’04” measurement. Morris threw 87’01” in the disc for fourth place there.

“I think she’s off a little bit,” said Groves of Morris’ finish in the discus, where the senior had legitimate high hopes Tuesday. “She scratched in her first two in the prelims, but she rebounded and got to the finals at least. But she was a little bit disappointed in her throws. Hopefully she’ll rebound for sectionals. I know she wants to advance and get out.”

On the boys’ side, Triton scored all of its points via Connor Ousley’s seventh-place finish in the shot put.

The first-year junior’s best effort was a 41’00.5” mark and earned his team two points with the field events wrapped up headed into Thursday’s capper.

Connor Ousley competes in the shot put.

“He’s a junior, first year out. He placed sixth, which was good. Didn’t throw his best but threw about 41 feet, which was good,” said Triton boys coach Curt Kreft.

“For him to do that, that’s really great. I was really pleased with that. I’d like to see him at 43’ so he builds for next year. At practice he’s thrown better so at sectional we’re just hoping we’ll have a breakthrough.”

While no other Trojan scored points Tuesday, Triton’s boys did earn themselves a trio of personal bests in the high jump and the long jump, where freshmen Hunter McIntyre and Jesse Page cleared 17’11” and 17’1”, respectively, so there were performances to grow on with sectionals just around the corner.

“We’re kind of young. We’re trying to rebuild, but 15 kids for a track and field team is not enough, so that’s really where we’re at,” explained Kreft. “So we come here to see where we’re at for sectional. We’ll try to get some good performances for sectional and see where we’re at.”

With Tuesday’s HNAC field championships now complete, the Trojans will prepare for Thursday’s running events at Knox. This year’s unique HNAC format is due to the fact that construction is still underway at originally-scheduled-host LaVille’s track. Officials decided to break the championships up into one field and one track day, rather than the more standard format of one boys and one girls day.

“I don’t really have a preference right now. It doesn’t seem to make much difference,” said Kreft of the format. “I thought it might be a downer. I don’t know if they’ll come back well in two days, the kids who really performed hard, but it’s nice since we’re a small school to be there for the girls. If you do it separately you don’t see what the girls do because you’re out practicing. So a conference meet doing it this way, it’s nice for camaraderie for small teams.”