FREDONIA — Change came to the Fredonia Relays hosted by Fredonia High School. For the first time the longtime annual high school track meet had just one school-size division with 18 schools in the field.
Iola High’s Fillies finished fourth in the girls’ competition with 53 points. Chanute took first with 133 points followed by West Elk with 83 points and Fredonia with 57.
Iola High’s Mustangs ended up fifth in the boys’ competition. Caney Valley won the team title with 113 points followed by Chanute with 97, Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan with 76 points, Fredonia with 45 and Iola with 41.
Yates Center High’s track athletes competed in the meet also.
“Both our teams were a little out-matched in numbers,” said Dan Berg, Yates Center head coach. “Our teams did as well as we could hope and we had some personal bests.”
Yates Center’s Sam Aguirre claimed the gold medal in the 110-meter high hurdles in a personal-best time of 15.7 seconds. He took the bronze in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles with another personal-best performance at 42.9 seconds.
The Wildcat girls’ 4×100-meter relay team of Paige Steinforth, Rylie Albert, Lindsay Francis and Katelyn Hatch placed fourth in 55.6 seconds.
Youngsters led the Fillies and Mustangs on Friday in Fredonia.
Four freshmen — Emery Driskel, Ashley Campbell, Emma Piazza and Addie Haar — captured gold in the 4×400-meter relay race. The Fillies’ foursome ran the race in 4 minutes, 28.2 seconds.
Campbell, Driskel and Piazza and sophomore Breanna Stout combined to win the 4×100-meter relay race in 53.2 seconds. Driskel ran the 300-meter intermediate hurdles for the first time and placed second in 51.4 seconds.
Piazza was the silver medalist in the 200-meter dash in 28.3 seconds and Stout took the silver in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet. Campbell placed third in the high jump, jumping over the bar at 4’10”.
Campbell also placed sixth in the 100-meter dash in 13.9 seconds. Haar joined with freshmen Jo Lohman and Brianne Jett and sophomore Shannon Vogel to place fifth in the 4×800-meter relay race in 11:59.3.
The Mustangs’ 4×800-meter relay ream of sophomores Jeremy Spears, Tyler Powelson and Tyler McIntosh and senior Christian Kauth edged Chanute by one second at the finish line. The Mustangs claimed the gold medal in 8:55.0.
Roman Yocham was the bronze medalist in the 1600-meter run in 4:57.5 and fourth in the 3200-meter run in 10:36.6. Powelson placed third in the 800-meter run in 2:11.4 and Spears placed sixth in 2:14.2.
Jacob Harrison finished fourth in the 400-meter dash in 53.3 seconds. Harrison combined with Devan Burton, Adam Kauth and Justin Baker for fifth in the 4×100-meter relay race in 47.7 seconds. Harrison, McIntosh, Yocham and Baker turned in a fifth-place finish in the 4×400-meter relay race in 3:47.9.
