INDIANAPOLIS – Former Wawasee High School girl’s track head coach Marcia Carpenter has been selected for induction into the 2016 Class of the Indiana Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Carpenter started the girls track program at Wawasee High School and coached the first teams to great success. She was a pioneer in the Girls Athletic Association (GAA) which helped to organize girls sports before they were organized by the IHSAA.

She coached Wawasee’s first track state champion Lorene Spearman, who won multiple state championships in the 100 and 220 yard dashes as well as setting multiple state meet records and the national high school record in the 220 yard dash. Carpenter coached the Warriors to a state title and state record in the 440 yard relay. In 1976, Carpenter’s team won the team state track championship and it remains the only team state title in Wawasee history.

Carpenter also was coach of the highly successful Wawasee gymnastics program that produced multiple state champion athletes, part of the winningest stretch of gymnastics in that program’s history.