Not rain or wind or cold evening temperatures could keep
Kansas' track and field athletes from busting the door wide open on the 2017
season.
In what amounted to the first full week of competition in
the state, several athletes put up mid-season and even late-season
performances. If this is how this season is starting, well, the rest of the
spring could be one for the ages.
Maybe most evident is some early marks we saw this week in
the middle distance and distance races. You'd think that the cold, windy days
would have slowed those in the longest of the track races, but Lawrence Free
State's Emily Venters stared Mother Nature in the face and put up a career-best
time of 10:26 for 3200 meters in her school's annual dual with Lawrence High.
Two other girls -- Shawnee Mission's Northwest's Molly Born
and Manhattan's Cara Melgares -- put up the state's top marks so far in the 800
and 1600 meter events, respectively. Born clocked 2:18 at the Shawnee Mission
South In...