Bremen girls track sectional preview: Competitive Doran looks to advance again in long jump

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Kyra Doran

WABASH — This was happening to Kyra Doran again, and it was getting aggravating.

She finished second behind Whitko’s Emerson Harper in the long jump at both the 2024 and 2025 Three Rivers Conference track meets.

And going into her final jump at this year’s TRC meet at Wabash May 8, she was in second place again.

Sometimes it’s about perfecting the slightest flaws in your technique. And sometimes, you just have to want it more. 

Doran jumped 16-5 on her sixth and final attempt to beat Northwestern’s Bryella Lefforge. Lefforge had already jumped 16-3 ½.

Her long wait is over. Doran has her TRC title.

“I feel like I’ve been waiting three years for this,” Doran said. “Because every year, I’ve been second place, and this year, I finally got that first place.”

Doran spoke of her will to succeed.

“Technique, I don’t think was really there tonight,” Doran said after the TRC meet. “I was pretty sore from the 300 (hurdles). But I think desire was more of it today.”

Doran could be the favorite in the long jump at tonight’s Bremen sectional. Doran finished second last year. She was the only non-senior who finished in the top five, and of the other girls who did not graduate, no one was within a foot of her.

Doran also finished second in the 100 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles at the TRC. Zoie Schieffer of Northwestern won both races. Doran said her time of 16.11 seconds in the 100 hurdles was not what she was hoping for, but her time of 50.80 seconds in the 300 hurdles was a personal best.

“I think it was more than two seconds (of a PR),” Doran said. “It was crazy, I think. I just … gave it my all. Usually, I think of it as my fourth event to fill, and today, I was like, let’s really do this. I don’t know. … When I heard that time, I was like, ‘Wow.’ But it really hurt. Whole body. That’s why I was surprised that I even jumped that long jump.”

Doran also ran a leg on the 4 x 100 relay that finished fourth in the TRC at 52.79 seconds. Her teammates include sophomores Maddie Bailon and Kyla Conley and freshman Maddie MacLain. If not for Conley’s untied shoelace with one of the runners, they think they could have gone faster.

“She competed very well tonight in all her events,” Rochester coach Ryan Helt said. “A first-place finish, a second-place finish, a third-place finish, and in the four by one, she had a great start. We had a lead with her coming into the first exchange. She competed very well. She held high standards for herself. I really was impressed by her 300 hurdles. She cut about two-and-a-half to three seconds off that in the last two weeks. She ran well in every event.”

Said assistant coach Dr. John Nile: “She wanted to win. When I was talking her through that, and it came down to knowing what the other girls were doing, she said, ‘I can do that.’ And she actually went out and did it.”

Doran said assistant coach Alysha Wachtmann has helped her in the hurdles.

“She’s always encouraging,” Doran said. “She believes in me for the 100 hurdles. She works with me a lot. She’s probably the coach that works with me the most.”

Top area athletes at Bremen sectional

ROCHESTER: Allyson Calloway (3,200), Adison Hayes (3,200), Ashlynn Weyant (discus, shot put), Maddie MacLain (100, long jump, pole vault), Kyla Conley (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles), Maddie Bailon (100, 400), Ella Hake (high jump), Kyra Doran (100 hurdles, long jump)

TIPPECANOE VALLEY: Betty Shepherd (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, discus), Tristan VanDoren (100, 200), Lauren Martin (100, 200), Mackenzie Evans (400), Chaney Miller (400), McKenna Lowe (1,600), Alexis Elliott (300 hurdles), Haley Derf (shot put)

ARGOS: Avery Binfet (100, pole vault), Emily Pippenger (800, 1,600), Peytyn Willis (pole vault)

Caston: Camila Hernandez-Rios (100, 200, 400), Grace Colvin (100, 200, long jump), Autumn Sanders (400), Hannah Rogers (800, 1,600, 3,200), Callie Salisbury (100 hurdles), Lyla Gebhardt (discus), Jada Martz (discus, shot put), Allison Craig (shot put)

CULVER: Ava McCune (100, 200, 300 hurdles), Kaira Luhnow (100 hurdles), Celine Brandstad (high jump), Savanna Harrington (discus), Maddison Beach (shot put)

NORTH MIAMI: Sydney Lane (200, high jump), Kinley Deardorff (400), Bryanne Sturch (400), Grace Sailors (100 hurdles, high jump, discus), Leah Shafer (300 hurdles), Ashtyn Halterman (long jump), Andrea Hoover (shot put)