A new location didn’t change the outcome for the Ben Davis boys track team Friday night.

For the seventh time in the past eight years, the Giants claimed the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference indoor track championship.

Ben Davis and Carmel battled throughout the evening for the team title. With many outstanding performances and great effort, the Giants fought their way to another conference crown, outscoring Carmel by just two points.

Ben Davis used good depth and a strong field event showing to stay in the hunt throughout the meet.

“Last year’s seniors scored a lot of points to help us win in 2014,” coach Mike Davidson said. “With them gone, we needed the next stars to shine and give us some big performances.”

That is just what the Giants got. The first events to score were the 60 meter high hurdles and dash. Junior Chris Evans ran his first hurdle race ever, taking fifth place while senior Derrick Jones ran a new PR (7.09) in the 60m dash to take third in a photo finish. Jones’ time is the 6th fastest in the state so far this season.

Both Evans’ and Jones’ performances look to be qualifiers for the HSR State Championships. The Giants work hard on technical details showed in the field events as the Giants scored 51 of their points in the field events.

In both the shot put and the long jump, BD maxed out the points with a 1-2 sweep. Jalil Brewer set the standard in the shot put, blasting a 52’4” throw in trials to lead all by more than two feet. Carmel’s Jake Herr sat in 2nd and Dallas Pitts was in 3rd with a toss just over 50’. On Pitts’ last throw, he scored a PR 50’9.5” mark that moved him into second.

Pitts and Brewer make the 1-2 sweep to score 18 points for the Giants

In the high jump, Jailyn Harden was down to his last attempt at 6’2”, and dug deep for a big clearance. Then he cleared 6’3” to secure a runner up placing.  In the pole vault, Jamiu Lawal was able to take 5th, earning four points the Giants we not seeded to score.

Evans and Christian Powell attacked the LJ from the first jumps. Evans hit over 22’ and Powell 21’6 in the trials, and took 1-2 for another 18 points.

This event followed the girls LJ, so it was the last event of the evening. Going into finals, the team scores were Carmel 99, Ben Davis 90. Carmel was currently sitting at 3rd and 5th (10 points). If the meet ended there, Carmel wins 109-108. Both Evans and Powell bettered their jumps to keep the 1-2 sweep.

When it was all done, Carmel was bumped to 5th and 6th, and the Giants took the team title.

The relays score double in the indoor meets. The 4×800 relay team was seeded to place 6th. The team of Connor O’Day, Trace Perez, Noah Pumphrey, and Amanuel Araya ran a season best 8:30.95 for fourth place, scoring 10 points.

The 4 x 200 relay ran the fastest time in the state (1:32.10) to take the conference title. Jones started things with a 22.1 lead off leg. Chris Evans had a physical battle on the second leg (23.2) handing to Ray White. White ran 23.4, blowing the race open. Jordan Wilkerson cranked a 22.9 anchor leg to bring it home.

The 4×400 team of Noah Thomas (53.4), Ray White (54.5), Jordan Wilkerson (51.1) and Derrick Jones (51.8) ran 3:31.40 to win the ’fast’  heat. When the final results were posted, the winner of the first section, Center Grove, clocked a time of 3:31.37, putting the Giants runner up by 3/100’s of a second. BD’s time currently ranks third in the state.

In the girls meet, Ben Davis finished third with 91 points while Carmel won with 117. The girls only champion was the 4 by 200 relay team.

Complete meet results can be found at http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/38406.html