Bartholmew Brown Jennings’ Alexis Gotoh, from left, Josh Holley, Chaz Rothrock and Jason Sprague finished second in the 4x100-meter relay in the Special Olympics Indiana Summer Games at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.
Submitted photo
Josh Holley has won multiple gold medals at the Special Olympics Indiana Summer Games, but he’s been wanting to share his success with some of his Bartholomew Brown Jennings teammates.
So Holley put together a 4×100-meter relay team that they hoped would earn a gold medal at this year’s games earlier this month at Indiana State. Alexis Gotoh, Jason Sprague, Chaz Rothrock and Holley didn’t take gold, but they captured the next-best thing — silver medals.
“We had a great relay team in 2019 with strong competition, and we came in third,” Holley said. “I have bugged my coach, Andy Hunnicutt, every year since then if he thought we could pull this off again. Again, this year, with strong competition, I’m proud to say we came in second.”
Prior to the competition, Holley had engraved medals made for the relay team members with money he’s earned from working at Cummins’ human resources department.
“I wasn’t sure if we would medal, and I had medals made for my teammates for something extra for their hard work,” Holley said. “My coach predicted — and he was right — that we dropped 10.6 seconds from Area games in May. Strong competition makes you go faster.”
Holley and Gotoh also won gold medals in both the 1,500 and 800. Sprague also won gold in the shot put and silver in the running long jump, and Rothrock took silver in the shot put and fifth in the 50.
Joe Cox won silver in the 50 and shot put and finished fourth in the mini-javelin. Becca Hunnicutt won silver in the standing long jump and finished sixth in the 50 and eighth in the softball throw.
Hannah Hart won bronze in the 200 and finished fourth in the 400. Jacob Taylor was fourth in the mini-javelin, fifth in the shot put and seventh in the 50.
“The level of competition greatly increases at the Summer Games, along with issues with the weather, and I am extremely proud of all of our athletes, their work ethic, and their accomplishments,” BBJ coach Andy Hunnicutt said.
“All Bartholomew, Brown and Jennings County athletes did really well in their individual events — shot put, standing jump, running long jump, softball throw, javelin and running events,” Holley added. “This year, it was good to see everyone cheering for each other like we do every year. Hard training pays off.”
