Rain before and during Thursday’s Crest High Invitational track meet did not deter area high school athletes from strong performances. The meet was held at Iola’s Riverside Park.
Zach Louk, Marmaton Valley High, was a double gold-medal winner in the 800 and 3200 meters. Another double gold-medal winner was Crest’s Kurston Gilliland in the girls’ javelin and shot put.
Crest’s boys had gold-medal performances by Jordan Morton (javelin) and Kyle Hammond (long jump) while Southern Coffey County High’s only gold came in the girls’ triple jump by Ashton Isch.
Winning gold medals for Uniontown High were Emily Aikins (100 meters), Abby Dixon (discus) and Trenton Miller (discus). Marmaton Valley’s Chase Dudley won the triple jump.
Iola High’s Fillies captured gold in the 4×800-meter relay. Jeremy Spears claimed a gold in the 1600-meter run for Iola High’s Mustangs. The IHS junior varsity athletes competed against varsity teams from smaller schools at the meet.
Waverly won the boys’ team championship with 107 points. The Mustang JV took second with 79 points, followed by West Franklin and Hartford, both with 68 points.
Crest’s boys were fifth at 63 and Marmaton Valley was sixth with 61. Pleasanton scored 50 points followed by Lyndon with 45, Uniontown with 16 and Southern Coffey County with one point.
Pleasanton dominated the girls’ division with 157 points. Waverly was second with 63 and Crest’s Lady Lancers finished third with 53 points. West Franklin was fourth with 47 points.
Uniontown (42), Southern Coffey County (41) and the Fillies’ JV (35) were fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
Hartford placed eighth with 34 points, followed by Lyndon with 25 and Cornerstone with 20. Marmaton Valley’s girls scored 17 points.
“It was kind of crazy weather for the meet — sunshine, rain, sunshine — but our kids performed well with some of their personal-best performances,” said Jackie Hall, Uniontown head coach.
There was rain during the morning but the sun was out by the start of the meet at 3:30. It began clouding over as the running event finals began. The wind shifted and the temperature dropped.
Action was halted for about 20 minutes as it rained hard. The sky cleared and the sun came back. Races resumed to finish out the meet.
“It was a good meet for our younger kids,” said Marvin Smith, IHS head coach. “There were some very good athletes at the meet and it pushes our kids to work a little hard to go against varsity competition.”
Iola lost several athletes during running events because of the IHS band concert Thursday night. Michael Wilson, Justin Baker and Alexis Hobbs all qualified for the 100-meter dash finals and Baker had advanced to the 200-meter final but they did not get to run the finals.
In field events, Gilliland won the girls’ shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 73⁄4” and Iola’s freshman Darci Collins captured second with a personal-best throw of 30’ 13⁄4”. Dixon of Uniontown was third at 28’21⁄2” and Crest’s Amber Tinsley placed fifth at 28 feet.
In the girls’ javelin, Gilliland let loose a winning throw of 117’11” with teammate Shayla Stephens in second at 110’11”. Southern Coffey County’s Katelyn Rogers took the bronze medal at 100’11”. Iola’s Ty Ellis placed fourth at 84’10” and Dixon was sixth at 80’6”.
Dixon captured first in the discus with a throw of 96’2”, with Gilliland placing second at 91’61⁄2”. Crest’s Tessa Louk was third with a toss of 90’ 113⁄4” and Tinsley was fifth at 79’83⁄4”. Myranda Hegwald of Southern Coffey County was sixth at 79’31⁄2”.
Iola’s Breanna Stout earned bronze in the pole vault with a clearance of 7 feet. Teammate Chanel Coyne was fifth at 6 feet.
Southern Coffey County’s Isch won the triple jump with a leap of 30’7”. Marmaton Valley’s Mercedes Trollope finished third with a distance of 29’6” and Iola’s Coyne was sixth at 28’2”.
In the the long jump, Aikins of Uniontown made a leap of 15’21⁄2” to earn the bronze medal. Trollope was fourth at 14’6”. Southern Coffey County’s Sarah Webb cleared the bar at 4’10” for third in the high jump and teammate Hegwald was fifth at 4’6”.
On the boys’ side, Crest’s Morton won the javelin by an inch over teammate Dakota Ramsey. Morton’s throw was 148’4” and Ramsey came in second at 148’3”. Iola’s Jacob Rhoads set a new IHS freshman boys’ mark in the javelin with his third-place throw of 141’21⁄2”. The old IHS freshman record was 140’1” by Dana Daugharthy in 2003. Marmaton Valley’s Jared Kale placed sixth in the javelin at 127’41⁄2”.
Uniontown’s Miller claimed the gold in the discus with a toss of 133’1⁄2”. Iola’s Stephen McDonald was the silver medalist with a personal-best throw of 127’5”. Crest went 3-4-6 in the event, led by Ramsey at 125’6” followed by Jayden Bowen at 122’21⁄2” and Kyle Hammond at 115’7”.
Jayden Bowen placed third in the shot put with a toss of 40’101⁄4” and Ramsey was fourth at 40’7”. Marmaton Valley’s Ryan Stephens placed sixth at 38’61⁄4”.
Hammond of Crest won the long jump with a leap of 19’23⁄4” and David Harris of Marmaton Valley was sixth at 17 feet.
Marmaton Valley’s Dudley was the gold medalist in the triple jump with a leap of 38’81⁄2”. Iola’s Christian Kauth finished third at 38’1”.
Chris Brallier of Crest and McDonald of Iola both cleared the high jump bar at 5’4”. Brallier ended up winning the tiebreaker for fourth and McDonald was fifth. Crest’s Cole Bowen and Uniontown’s Carter Wood tied for sixth at 5’2”.
ON THE TRACK Marmaton Valley’s Zach Louk pulled away from the other runners in winning the 800-meter race in 2 minutes, 4.94 seconds. Later he won the 3200-meter run in 10:34.63. Uniontown’s Montana Beerbower took fourth in that race in 12:27 and Iola’s Bryan Mueller placed fifth in 12:37.
Iola’s Jeremy Spears went to the front quickly and stayed to win the 1600-meter run in a personal-best 5:15.6. Marmaton Valley’s Marcus Miller was second in 5:24 and Beerbower placed sixth in 5:43.
Harris of Marmaton Valley was fifth in the 100-meter dash in 13.12 seconds. In the 200-meter dash, Iola’s Mikal Bossell ran third in 24.7 seconds and took third in the 400-meter dash in 54.7 seconds.
Marmaton Valley’s Zack English placed third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 44.35 seconds.
Iola’s 4×400-meter relay team of Jacob Harrison, Bossell, Rhoads and Tyler McIntosh earned silver, running the race in 3:49.5. Marmaton Valley’s foursome of Lucas Hamlin, M. Miller, English and Louk was third in 3:54.86. Crest ran fifth in the race at 4:06.
In the 4×100-meter relay, Iola’s team of Bossell, McDonald, Rhoads and Christian Kauth finished third in 48.21 seconds. Marmaton Valley’s team of Hamlin, Harris, Dudley and English was fourth in 48.57. Crest took sixth in 49.29 seconds.
Crest took third in the 4×800-meter relay race, which was run in the rain, in 10:03, followed by Iola’s team of McIntosh, Harrison, Rhoads and Dylan Lower in fourth at 10:18.34. Marmaton Valley’s team of Ken Thron, Nicholas Trollope, Seth Cuppy and M. Miller was fifth in 10:48.75 and Southern Coffey County ran sixth in 11:08.36.
Just before that Iola’s Fillies won the girls’ 4×800-meter relay race. The team of Shannon Vogel, Jamie Spears, Kristen Linn and Sydney Owens took the gold in 12:20. Southern Coffey County finished third in 13:20.
Uniontown’s Aikins won the 100-meter dash in 13.43 seconds with Southern Coffey County’s Jenna Witteman third in 13.87.
Crest’s Stephens was sixth in 14.52.
Aikins picked up a silver medal in the 200-meter dash in 28.06 seconds as Witteman was fourth in 28.84 and Iola’s Stout placed fifth in 29.42.
Iola’s Ty Ellis finished the 100-meter high hurdles in 23.12 seconds for sixth. In the 300-meter low hurdles, Trollope of Marmaton Valley finished sixth in 1:02.61.
Crest’s Ashley Catt was fourth in the 800-meter run in 2:51.93. Iola’s Owens was sixth in 2:56.66. Marmaton Valley’s Ashtynn Louk placed fourth in the 1600-meter run in 6:28.68. Louk was fifth in the 3200-meter run in 14:00 and Uniontown’s Rachel Henderson was sixth at 15:07.
Crest’s 4×400-meter relay placed fourth in 5:11.13.
