Barbre Makes History
Over the weekend, Ty Barbre put an exclamation point on one the most impressive sophomore athletic campaigns in the history of Carmi-White County High School by earning two medals at the Class 1A state track and field meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Barbre wrapped up his 10th grade year by taking sixth place in the 3,200-meter run in a career-best time of 9 minutes, 45.4 seconds Saturday morning at O’Brien Stadium. Then, a few hours later, he added a fifth-place finish in the 1,600-meters in a time of 4 minutes, 30.43 seconds.
Barbre’s 3,200-meter time Saturday topped his previous best by seven seconds, as did his mark of 4:28.61 in the preliminaries of the 1,600-meters last Thursday.
Of the five competitors who finished ahead of him in the 3,200, four were seniors and one was a freshman. Of the four who finished ahead of him in the mile, three were juniors and one was a senior.
Barbre is just the sixth Carmi track athlete to ever earn two medals at the same state meet and just the second to accomplish that feat as a sophomore.
Only halfway through his high school career, Barbre’s athletic resume is already the stuff of legends. He has experienced state competition five times. He went to state as an individual in golf during the fall of his freshman year, then went in track (in the same two events) last spring. As a sophomore, he went to state in both golf and cross county last fall (finishing in a tie for 16th in golf), and again in track in the spring. He improved his times from last year’s state track meet by a whopping 41 seconds in the two-mile and by 10 seconds in the mile.
The other five Carmi athletes who have won multiple medals at the state meet in the same year are Mitch Russell in 1988, Eric Dixon in 1989, Jason Zieren in 1992 and 1993, Lauren Winkleman in 2008 and 2009, and Michael Brown in 2012. Brown was the only sophomore in that group, and he and Zieren were both two-time state champs (Zieren in the 3,200 in 1992 and 1993, and Brown in the 800 in 2013 and 2014).
