OSCEOLA - Following performances at the conference championships, LaVille head track and field coach Kathe Beehler had an idea that her Lancers were set up for advancement in the state tournament. "We knew going into the meet that we had the opportunity to  qualify for regionals in a few events with some top three performances!" said Beehler. "Performances from the conference meet put them into those positions." LHS, along with 10 other schools competed at the Indiana High School Athletic Association Penn Sectional Thursday at Penn High School. The late-May event was more like March weather, however, Beehler watched as her squad stepped up with some solid performances and an overall strong team placement. "The weather wasn’t ideal as we continue with the cold (temperatures) and windy (conditions)," said the LaVille coach. "But everyone is competing in it so you have to adjust! We had a good night! As a team we ended up tied for 4th place with SB Adams!" Competing against eight schools larger than LaVille, the Lancers closed out at tied for fourth place with South Bend Adams.  Penn, South Bend Saint Joseph, and Mishawaka went 1-2-3 in the fight for the sectional trophy. Although Beehler's crew was led by four regional qualifiers, she was also pleased with fine performances from others up and down the Lancer roster, as her team finished with 47 team points. "That means we had good things happen!," Beehler said when asked about her team's overall performance.  "Cristian (Bianchini) started us out on the track with a 7th place finish in the 1600 and then finished off with a PR and 7th place finish in the 3200!  "Eli (Platz) finished 8th in the discus with a throw of 118’8”, Keenan (Richhart) placed 7th in shot put. Lance (Edison) tied for 7th in HJ, Cole (Stafford) placed 8th in the 400 and Dylan (Miller) ended up 4th in the 800 and the 4x4 relay (Hudson Rush, Cole Stafford, Lance Edison, Dylan Miller) got 4th. A great night! And then we get some boys that ended up in 3rd and move on to regionals!" Among those punching their ticket to the IHSAA Goshen Regional on May 29 was Avery Garrett, Ryan Maenhout, Dylan Miller, and Lance Edison. Garrett, a senior, is set to move on in the high jump. "Avery is having a really good senior year," Beehler said of her senior jumper. "He has been right there at 6’ for the last two years and he has just been able to put it together at the right time! He also got 5th in the pole vault!" Maenhout, who just picked up track and field here in 2025, already has a Northern State Conference pole vault title to his credit and is now a regional-qualifier. "Ryan coming out for track this year has been great!" noted the LaVille coach.  "The fact that he’s able to qualify for regional his first year doing track and pole vault is fantastic!" Miller, who was fired up about being on the long jump runway, put himself into solid position after finishing first in the qualifying jumps. "Dylan was seeded 9th going into sectional meet in long jump," explained Beehler. "He PRd on his second jump and ended up heading into finals as the leader. It’s disappointing to get beat when you’re leading but he qualified for regionals and gets to jump again at Goshen on Thursday! He just missed..." Edison, who has been working on the middle part of his 300 hurdle event, worked his way into a regional spot. "Lance was able to hold off and get third in the 300 hurdles," said the Lancer coach. "He’s been working on the middle part of the race, working to get stronger there and finish strong. So he will continue with that mindset going into practice this week leading up to regionals!" Beehler also got word that the LHS 4X400 relay team qualified for the Goshen Regional based on their time. "Based on times our 4x4 relay of Hudson, Cole, Lance and Dylan are moving onto regional too! That’s a hard race to do after you’ve given so much to your other races trying to qualify and then add the weather to it but they did it and get to compete again and work on breaking the school record!" IHSAA Penn Boys Track & Field Sectional At Osceola Team scores Penn 185, Saint Joseph 97, Mishawaka 88, LaVille 47, South Bend Adams 47, South Bend Washington 40, Mishawaka Marian 33, South Bend Riley 33, John Glenn 23, Trinity Greenlawn 15, Career Academy 11 Running Events 100: Kellen Watson, Penn (10.84); Kohen Turner, Penn (10.93); Richard Haliburton, SJ (10.95). Note: All three hit state-standard time in event 200: Kohen Turner, Penn (22.25); Richard Haliburton, Saint Joseph (22.73); Sam Harshman, Saint Joseph (22.79). Note: Career Academy’s Jace Woods ran state-standard 22.13 in prelims, but was not listed as competing in the championship race. 400: Quincy To’oto’o, Adams (51.33); Braden Young, Penn (51.46); Elijah Young, Washington (51.66). Other -  800: Trevor Crump, Riley (2:01.65); Brayden Mainwaring, Penn (2:02.75); Aidan Probst, Penn (2:02.76) 1,600: Liam Bauschke, Mishawaka (4:29.16); Tanner Mammolenti, Penn (4:32.75); Jack Ryan, Penn (4:34.24) 3,200: Liam Bauschke, Mishawaka (9:42.73); Matt Givens, Penn (9:50.93); Brody Lederer, Penn (9:54.55) 110-hurdles: Will Elick, Saint Joseph (15.27); Josh Sandy, Mishawaka (15.50); Shamar Sampers, Penn (15.73) 300-hurdles: Will Elick, Saint Joseph (40.82); Austin Pflugner, Riley (41.76); Lance Edison, LaVille (41.82) 4x100 relay: Washington (Walker, Murray, Young and Williams, 43.29); Penn (Parker, Turner, Rutland and Forbes, 44.81); Mishawaka (Brown, Newsome, Hooton and Sandy, 44.94) 4x400 relay: Adams (Johnson, Keen, Barr and To’oto’o, 3:25.98); Penn (Stith, Wysong, DeDario and White, 3:30.05); Mishawaka (Britton, Plonski, Newsome and Gaugler, 3:32.16) 4x800 relay: Penn (Mainwaring, Hart, Schafer and Probst, 8:30.26); Trinity Greenlawn (Heintzelman, Seachris, Philpott and Sgori, 8:44.75); Saint Joseph (Max Elick, Vogel, Lara and Mark, 8:51.96) Field Events High jump: Chris Wright, Penn (6-3); Braylen White, SJ (6-2), Avery Garrett, LaVille (6-0) Long jump: Bryan Forbes, Penn (22-0; IHSAA standard); Leon Fowler, Mishawaka (21-2); Dylan Miller, LaVille (21-1.75) Pole vault: Matt Champlain, Saint Joseph (13-0); Gavin Jozwiak, Penn (12-0); Ryan Maenhout, LaVille (11-6) Shot put: Kaleb Johnson, Marian (54-8); Vikrant Turna, Penn (47-9); Jalil Neely, Washington (47-1.5) Discus: Kaleb Johnson, Marian (164-6; IHSAA standard); Evan Wiseman, Penn (151-10); Cade Stout, Penn (144-7)