Track & Field is in a renaissance in Kansas at the moment. In the last three years, the competition level has risen across the board. All events. All classes. Four years ago, Kansas had fallen behind its neighboring states in Track & Cross Country, but now it's our state's turn to break through.
Broken records were a theme this week. Personal records, meet records, school records, and even two All-Time State Records. Bryce Barkdull's Pole Vault and Olathe West's girls' 4x800 deserve their own articles outlining their feats, and that's exactly what they'll get later this week. For now, though, we'll focus on the rest...
The biggest meet of the week was the Shawnee Mission North Relays. It hosted our two big records, along with countless other performances. Our database will flag any major performances in our results to show some of the meet's highlights. A typical meet will have less than 10, while bigger meets can have 30 or more.
The North Relays had 154.
Like the big records, it's deserving of it's own article, so my full recap of the meet is linked here.
For the rest of the state, we'll move West to East, starting with the Lakin Invitational. The home-team Broncs dismantled the field in both the girls' and boys' divisions. Colter Oldham led the charge, winning the discus (162-9) and shot put (53-6). Chesney Peterson of Stanton County bettered her state-leading mark in the 800, dropping to 2:10. Ross Rider certainly enjoyed competing at home, leaping to a state lead and school record in the triple jump at 47-1.
In Colby, some of 3A's best showed out. Holcomb's boys and Phillipsburg's girls won the meet. They each will carry the Western-Kansas torch at state in hopes of winning the 3A crown. Hoxie, an emerging 2A boys contender, was second. They blitzed a 3:29 4x400 to win that event and take the top spot in 2A. Phillipsburg sprinter Heather Schemper improved to 15-0 on the season, one of the best records of any athlete this year, winning the 100, 200, and 400. Phillipsburg's 4x400 also won in 4:11.
Goodland's Lindsey Cure can sling the javelin. She launched it 152 feet, good for 19th all-time in Kansas and #2 this year. She beat out an impressive Jenessa Ruder from Norton (144-8). Cure also won both the 100 and 300 hurdles. Also in the throws, Brewster's Brock Woolf won the discus in 158-11 (a PR) and shot put in 52-9.5.
In Dighton, the team standings fell in favor of Quinter. The girls' battle came all the way down to the 4x400, where Hodgeman County made a heck of a fight to win it, but Quinter still placed high enough to hold them off 148-145. The boys demolished a good Ingalls team 177-92. Max Neeley was the highlight of the meet, winning the pole vault in 14-6 for the home crowd.
Victoria hosted the Red Pfeifer Invite, where their own Macy Hammerschmidt won the 100m and set a school record in the long jump of 18-6.5.
At the Ellinwood Invite, Sterling's girls posted a few major marks. Julia Kilgore blasting a 57.93 in the 400 and Faith Ekart rolling to 2:14 in the 800. Kilgore now sits atop 2A, while Ekart is #2 right behind Chesney Peterson. An oddity from this meet was Ellinwood going 1-2-3 in the boys' 400m, but losing the 4x400 by 3 seconds to Ellsworth. On a similar topic of oddities, Mission Valley's AJ Rubio, formerly an elite distance runner, won the 100m at Royal Valley this week.
Ellinwood Results | Rock Hills Results
At the Rock Hills Grizzly Invite, Hanover's Anna Jueneman raised her undefeated streak to 16-0, winning all 3 sprints. Her team however, has struggled to beat next-door-neighbor Washington County. The defending 1A champs got 3rd, behind both Washington and Osborne. If anyone can figure it out late in the season, though, it's Hanover.
Salina Central played host in a monster sprints meet. Dejuan Colbert (Wichita-Southeast) out-dueled Tanner Dowling-Burnett (Manhattan) by 0.01 in the 100m, both breaking 11-seconds. Dowling-Burnett would go on to win the 200m and 4x100, setting the 4x100 school record (42.41) along the way. Not to be left out, the Manhattan girls also set their 4x100 record at 48.83. Hanna Pellant and Harli Omli swept the 100-200-400 for Manhattan on the girls side.
Salina Central Results | Goddard Results
At Goddard, Andale's girls set school records in the 4x100 and 4x400, along with their boys having the state's best throwers relay (and best throwers in general). Wichita Northwest's Adryana Shelby keeps getting better in the hurdles, this time knocking off Andover's McKinlee Walker and setting a state lead of 14.03. She also set a state lead in the 300 hurdles at 45.06. Maize sprinter Bryce Cohoon continues to win big, while Rose Hill's Teagan Cobb broke through in the 110 hurdles at 14.57.
When I mentioned Andale has the best throwers, Beloit's throwers probably got angry at me. The Trojans have an elite crew as well, claiming 11 medals (of the 18 available) at Southeast of Saline.
At Wamego's triangular with Chapman & Rock Creek, the Red Raiders continued their school-record flurry. This time it was Brady Stegman in the 1600 (4:23) and Liz Adams, just a freshman, in the 800 at 2:19. Rock Creek didn't want to be left out, so their boys 4x100 set a school record at 44.1. However, Chapman blitzed a 43.59 to win that race.
Wamego Results | Topeka City Championship Results
Topeka hosted their annual City Championships, where Washburn Rural's boys and Seaman's girls won team titles. West's Lenny Njoroge and Shawnee Heights' Jackson Esquibel traded blows in the 1600 and 3200, winning one each. Highland Park's Tre Richardson won the long and triple jumps. West's AlaJah Brooks popped a 57.26 to win the 400m, then came back to win the 200m. Seaman's Bethany Druse took the 1600m and 800m, the former of which was a PR at 5:13. Lastly Hayden's boys blasted a 3:23 4x400, bettering their statewide best by nearly 2 seconds.
At the Wellsville Redbud Classic, Osage City's Landon Boss went absolutely nuts. Throwing objects a combined 420 feet, the USD420 athlete won the discus by 12 feet (172-8), the javelin by 5 (191-6), and shot by 6 (56-6). He now sits 2nd in 3A in the Discus and Javelin, and 3rd in the Shot. However, all are top-5 marks in all classes.
Boys Throws Leaders
A few other highlights from Eastern Kansas were Silas Miller winning the 800 & 1600 at Sabetha, Marion Ryan from Parsons winning the High Jump at 6-7 in Chanute, and Kelby Windmeyer of Doniphan West winning the sprints triple-crown at Jefferson Co. North.