NEODESHA — Donnie Bennett of Yates Center High and Abbie Smith of Uniontown High are having record-setting seasons in the hurdle races.
At Thursday’s Neodesha High Invitational, Bennett and Smith set meet records.
Bennett’s came in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. He not only set the meet mark but also the YCHS mark in winning the race in 40.3 seconds. Bennett was second in the 110-meter high hurdles in a personal-best time of 15.6 seconds.
“We’re very proud of Donnie’s achievement in both hurdle races. He had worked very hard and I know getting the record has been a goal for him,” said Dan Berg, Yates Center head track coach.
“We had a lot of personal best marks Thursday and that’s great for our kids.”
Smith set the Neodesha meet record in winning the 100-meter high hurdles in 15.6 seconds. Smith also won the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 50.08 seconds.
Smith posted another meet record mark in the long jump, She won it with a leap of 17 feet, 8 inches, which is also a Uniontown record.
“Abbie obviously had an outstanding day. Our kids are getting better and better each meet and that is what we are looking for at this point in the season,” said Jackie Hall, UHS coach.
For Uniontown, Jacy Ermel won the shot put with a throw of 30’11” and won the discus at 88’11”. Jessica Schaaf placed third in the 3200-meter run and fourth in the 1600-meter run.
Ben Dixon had the top performances of the day for the Eagle boys. He was second in the long jump and second in the 400-meter dash plus fifth in the 100-meter dash. Trenton Miller took fifth in the discus.
Bennett won the boys’ long jump with a leap of 20’9”. Dylan Sicka was the gold medalist in the 1600-meter run in 4 minutes, 50 seconds for Yates Center.
Bennett took fourth and Brent Rice was fifth in the high jump. Both cleared 5’6”.
Yates Center’s girls were led by Paige Steinforth and Cherokee Shaffer going first and third in the high jump. Steinforth’s winning height was 4’10” and Shaffer cleared 4’8”.
Steinforth was second in the 400-meter dash in 66.5 seconds. Haley Bedel was sixth in the 100-meter high hurdles in 20.4 seconds.
The 4×100-meter relay team of Shaffer, Sami Hatch, Steinforth and Bedel was fifth in 57.8 seconds.
Bennett, Smith post hurdle records at Neodesha
