Performances of the Week - League!

Performances of the Week - May 5-11

League week is an interesting time in track and field. Teams can be all-in on winning a league title, or saving their best for a heavy load at regionals and state. Some teams are a combination of both, using league to make final relay or event adjustments. In any case, athletes across the state still impressed this week in many ways.

Throws

Leading off this week is a senior thrower from Council Grove. Tucker Day had a strong showing at the Flint Hills Championships in Lyndon on Friday. His first discus throw of 155'5" was good enough to move on to finals with a 11-foot lead on second place. In the finals, his disc sailed beyond the league record mark twice, both landing at 158 feet even. Day wasn't done setting records, though. In a career day in the shot put, each of his six throws would have broken the old league record of 50'10", but his first launch of 52'7" was the winner. As a cherry on top, the throw was also a school record 3.5-inches. Pretty impressive for a school that's been around for 100 years.

Just as a side note, meet records are a nifty feature of Hy-Tek's meet manager, and should definitely be utilized more often.

Jumps

Next on our list is Faith Turner from Pittsburg. The junior sure does know how to put force into the ground. She led off the day with a 17'3.5" in her first attempt of the long jump. She would never relinquish the lead from there and earned her first gold of the day. Moving over to the triple jump pit, she leaped to a shiny new PR of 40' 0.5", just the second Kansan to eclipse the forty-foot mark this season. Another gold. Jumping isn't her only strong suit, though. She added two more golden notches to her belt in the 100 and 200, clocking 12.56 and 26.15.

Hurdles

Our hurdler this week staked their claim in the Frontier League this week. Paola's Carson Eilts made his way through the prelims with ease in the high hurdles. In the finals, he broke 15 seconds for just the second time, and the first this season. Later on, in the 300 hurdles, Eilts ran away from the competition in 38.77, knocking a second off his PR from the Friday before. His late-season surge has put him at the top of 4A in that event.

Sprints

Hailing from Blue Valley West, Nevan Tebb-Iolar is a sprinter you should probably familiarize yourself with. The senior speedster pulled off a clean sweep of the short sprints at the EKL championships, leading both the 100 and 200 through the prelims, and solidifying his dominance in the finals. His better times would come in the first round, where he zoomed to a 10.95 in the 100 and a 22.16 in the 200. Solid times that keep him right in the 6A mix with the likes of the Wichita sprinters Deron Dudley and Jaleel Montgomery.

Distance

Speaking of Wichita runners, Bishop Carroll's Hope Jackson unleashed an impressive performance at the Greater Wichita Championships on Friday. The gutsy freshman ran a 2:29.6, just four tenths of a second ahead of teammate Grace Gorges. The impressive part of the performance is the quick turnaround. After just 1 heat of boys and girls in the 200 finals, she stepped back onto the track for 8 more laps. The 11 minutes and 7 seconds that followed were painful and mostly alone. She finished 33 seconds ahead of second place. She was just a second shy of her PR set at the Seaman relays a few weeks ago, a meet without a quick turnaround like this one. The spectators that stayed for the end of the meet sure got their money's worth for this one.

Our sixth performer is also a distance runner. Collin Oswalt is one of the top distance runners in 1A but has been relatively quiet this season. At the Heart of the Plains meet this week, though, he reminded everyone who he is. The sophomore from Central Christian blasted a 4:39 in the mile, a career best in an event he's only run twice this year. In the 3200, he cruised his way to a 9:52. He had time for a Monopoly game before the next runner crossed the line nearly a minute later. Oswalt has gone under 10:00 in every race but one this season (the one was a 10:00.5), the only runner in 1A to do so this season.