PITTSBURG — The Iola High Special Olympics basketball and Unified Sports Cheer teams stacked up at the SEK Regional event at Pittsburg State University on Wednesday.
It was the cheerleading team’s first appearance at the event, where they earned a gold medal for their performance. The team performed a routine of two cheers and a few jumps and kicks and included cheerleaders from Iola Elementary School as well as Iola High School.
The Iola Elementary schoolers included Bella Hall, Phoenix Means and Eryx Means and the high-schoolers were Cali Riley, Khloeigh Shafer and Kinzey Wilhelm.
“It was really great to have the opportunity for our athletes and buddies to work together, compete, and promote inclusion,” said Iola head coach Ann Bates.
The basketball athletes competed in different skills challenges which included a passing drill, shooting drill and a 10-meter dribbling drill.
The other competition was a speed dribble to see how many times the athletes could dribble the ball within a minute.
“Everyone did a great job today and had a blast,” Bates said. “It was fun to get to see all their hard work over the last month pay off.”
Kason Botts took third place in the individual skills competition and first place in the speed dribbling.
Xavier Burrow earned third in the individual skills and second place in the speed dribble.
Jacob Catron took first place in the individual skills and fourth place in the speed dribble.
Izzy DeTar took second place in the individual skills and third place in speed dribbling.
Blayne “Golden Boy” Endicott took first place in both individual skills and the speed dribble.
Aiden Fracker took third place in the individual skills and first place in the speed dribbling.
Guilis Pina was second place in the individual skills and speed dribbling.
Kaden “Golden Boy” Priddy was first place in both the individual skills and speed dribble.
