GIRARD — Surviving and advancing from one of the toughest regional track meets in Kansas Class 4A is a feat in itself. Iola High head track coach Marv Smith pointed out that a lot of the top times and marks out of the Class 4A competition Friday came out of the Girard regional.
“It was one of the toughest I’ve seen in a long time. We got the descending order of contestants in each event Thursday. Our boys didn’t have anybody ranked in the top six in any events. We had to go in and have a tremendous regional,” Smith said.
Iola High’s Fillies did have some competitors in the top six of events. The team survived and advanced to this week’s Kansas High School All-Class State Track and Field Championships at Wichita. The Fillies qualified in three individual events and in a relay.
Unfortunately, Iola High’s Mustangs didn’t. Smith said it is the first time in a very long time that Iola didn’t have a male competitor at the state track meet.
One of the most exciting races of the finals came in the 100-meter high hurdles. Kendra Taiclet, Iola senior, was side-by-side with defending state champion Tayler Soucie of Osawatomie in the middle of the final.
That’s the way the race went. Soucie was able to get the edge on Taiclet and win the race in 15.48 seconds. Taiclet, the Fillies’ record holder in the event, took the silver medal in 15.59 seconds.
Taiclet will be in the 100-meter high hurdles in Class 4A state competition for the second straight year. She missed the state finals by one place last year.
Junior Breanna Stout equaled her personal-best height in qualifying for the 4A state pole vault event for the second year in a row. Stout took second at Friday’s regional with a vault of 9 feet. She placed 13th at state last year.
Iola senior Kelsey Larson qualified for the 4A state javelin event. Larson claimed the bronze medal at the regional with a throw of 116 feet, 11 inches.
Taiclet and Larson will make a third run in the 4A state 4×100-meter relay race. The two seniors combined with Stout and freshman Ashley Campbell to post a fourth-place time of 50.70 seconds at Friday’s regional.
Preliminary races for the high hurdles and the 4×100-meter relay are this Friday at 9 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. in Wichita. The state meet is at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium. Finals are run Saturday.
Stout competes in the pole vault at 8 a.m. Saturday and Larson goes in the javelin competition at 1:15 p.m. the same day.
Campbell finished fifth in the regional high jump, clearing the bar at 5 feet. She was fifth in the 400-meter dash in 1 minute, 1.71 seconds. Iola’s 4×400-meter relay team of freshman Emery Driskel, Campbell, freshman Emma Piazza and Larson crossed the finish line in a season’s best time of 4:09.18.
Taiclet broke her own IHS record in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 47.47 seconds for fifth place at the regional. She had set the mark at 49.6 seconds two weeks ago. Driskel ran the regional race in 52.75 seconds and was 10th.
Sophomore Darci Collins placed seventh in the shot put with a throw of 33’1/4”. Freshman Addie Haar fell on the first lap of the 800-meter run but finished the race in 2:44 for 11th place. Jo Lohman, a freshman, placed 12th in the 1600-meter run in 6:43.05.
