It was just the second meet of the season for Portage senior Daveon Finley, but he was ready to make up for lost time.
His competition in the hurdle events at Wednesday’s Duneland Athletic Conference Meet at Portage was tough: Michigan City senior Makiyah Smallwood, the 2016 state champion in the 110-meter hurdles.
“I was ready,” Finley said. “That’s my biggest competition. We bring out the best in each other.”
Finley showed no signs of rust after battling hamstring injuries this spring, winning the 110 hurdles in 14.53 seconds, just ahead of Smallwood’s 14.59.
“It feels really good to be running decent in just my second meet,” Finley said. “I haven’t really been practicing — I’ve been doing a lot of stretching and going to physical therapy. But I’m working on that now, getting stronger and going to the gym. I’m back at 100 percent now.”
It was the first time in two years that Finley beat his longtime rival.
“He took over last year,” Finley said of Smallwood.
There was no rematch in the 300 hurdles, with Smallwood winning in 39.93 and Finley held out as a precaution. Smallwood would later exit competition after injuring himself in the high jump, but Finley said he expects to see plenty of Smallwood this postseason.
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“I know he’s been waiting on me,” Finley said. “I was talking to his mom about that. We’re only one race into it.”
Finley’s points helped Portage earn a 104-98 lead when the meet was suspended because of lightning after 15 of the meet’s 16 events. But in pole vault — the lone remaining event — Portage still had two active competitors while Chesterton had none, clinching the title for the Indians.
The Trojans’ spot in the team standings was fueled by junior Braden Corzan, who had to watch the 2016 version of this meet from the stands while nursing two stress fractures in his spine.
“The adrenaline was through the roof, without even running,” Corzan said of last year’s meet. “It just made me upset that I couldn’t run.”
Corzan made up for that absence by owning the sprint events on Wednesday. He won the 100 (10.94) and 200 (22.19) and later helped the 400 relay (42.22) and 1,600 relay (3:26.01) also finish first.
“It felt like a good day,” he said. “I could’ve ran faster (in the 1,600 relay) if I didn’t have five races before it. But it always feels good to catch two people and bring the lead back in our favor.”
Chesterton junior Jakob Kintzele also won two events for the Trojans, taking the 1,600 in 4:20.74 and the 3,200 in 9:29.27.
“In both of those races, I had some fire in my gut,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it to be there, but it was just there. For the last two years in a row, I’ve been in second place. It felt like I was getting second place all the time.”
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.