CHARLESTON — Dealing with injuries was something that the Salt Fork Storm did all season.
Last week’s IHSA Class 1A sectional meet at Westville was pretty much the first time all year that Salt Fork was at full strength.
It looked like perfect timing for the defending state champions, but during Thursday’s prelims, senior Ben Jessup appeared to injured his hamstring in the 800-meter relay and senior Ethan Davis was battling a bad back.
Was this going to keep the Storm from another title?
Nope.
Garrett Taylor won the shot put and discus state titles, while Nathan Kirby won the title in 110-meter hurdles and he anchored the Storm’s winning 800-meter relay team to a title as the Storm scored 45 points to win the title easily over Shelbyville, who finished second with 30.5 points.
“To be able to get four first-place finishes was remarkable,’’ said Surprenant. “These guys just stepped up when we needed it the most.’’
And one of the biggest surprises was senior Jacob DePratt, who was an injury substitute for Jessup and Davis on the 800-meter relay. He along with Brysen Vasquez, Ethan McLain and Kirby won the state title with a time of 1 minute, 28.69 seconds. That victory sealed the state title for the Storm.
“I was ready. I had my full uniform, my bib number and my shoes. I was not expecting to run at all,’’ DePratt said. “I knew that Davis’ back was hurting, but I didn’t think it would be bad enough for him to run the 4-by-2.’’
Surprenant had to make a quick coaching move.
“We totally changed our handoffs to open instead of closed,’’ he said. “We just have to do it and we may never go back to closed hanoffs in the 4-by-2 because it worked so well.’’
But, as Surprenant pointed out, this wasn’t exactly DePratt’s first time in the 800-meter relay.
“I actually ran a lot of 4-by-2s this season because Kirby missed so much time with his injury,’’ DePratt said. “I also think coach Supe (Surprenant) does an amazing job with his coaching program of getting everyone prepared for a big meet like this.’’
McLain, who finished his career with six state medals in three seasons, said dealing with adversity is something you have to do.
“We always have backup people ready to go,’’ he said. “When things happen, you have to change the plan.
“We just competed hard and got first place. It was a great experience for Jacob.’’
Jessup, who was a part of both the 400-meter and 800-meter relay teams that qualified for the state finals, admitted it was very frustrating watching in the stands at O’Brien Field in Charleston.
“Your main goal is to run in the finals and when you can’t do that, it’s awful,’’ he said. “But when you have guys step up for the team, it really means a lot.’’
The other big individual for Salt Fork on Saturday was Kirby.
In just his third 110-meter hurdles race in eight days, he claimed the 1A state title with a time of 14.28 seconds. It was his fastest time ever.
“I was just trying to make the finals coming into this weekend,’’ he said. “I got my mentality right. I blew up that first hurdle, so I was kind of scared, but I didn’t let that faze me.
“I kept trying harder and harder to keep up with them and then to get past them.’’
Quite a contrast to last year, when Kirby blew up a hurdle and got disqualified for putting his hands on the next hurdle.
This time around, he recovered and edged Jackson Kern of Auburn for the state title.
“That has been my dream forever,’’ said Kirby.
And then he closed out the Salt Fork state championship with his anchor leg in the 800-meter relay.
“This is very impressive because nobody had us winning or even coming in the top-three,’’ Kirby said. “We wanted to show everyone on Thursday in the prelims and we were still here.
“Today, we came out and showed them the Salt Fork way.’’
The Storm have not only won back-to-back 1A titles, but over the last four state meets held, Salt Fork has finished first three times and second once.