WICHITA — A number of Iola High track and field athletes competed in the Wichita Prestate Challenge over the weekend.
The meet prepares high school track athletes across Kansas for the state meet. It’s a bigger crowd and the intensity is cranked up to mimic a postseason-like environment. Dozens of Mustangs took top eight places as well as personal and season best marks.
“The Wichita Prestate Challenge is a fun meet,” said Iola head coach Dana Daugharthy. “I generally try to take all athletes that have a shot at going to state. This year, we took a fairly large group out, and they performed very well.”
“This meet pulls a lot of quality talent from across the state, and that is why I love it,” Daugharthy continued.
Gavin Jones competed in his first-ever track meet at the Wichita Prestate. He ran the 100 meter in 12.36 seconds and the 200 meter race in 25.58 seconds.
Eli Adams earned a season-best time of 2:09.46 in the 800 meter dash.
“This is a great time in the 800 at this point in the season,” said Daugharthy. “He really ran tough against some quality competition. At this point last year, he was not running a 2:09, so let’s hope he can continue to improve and get that time down.”
Travis Wanker got a season-best time of 2:28.92 in the 800 meters.
“Travis is a new 800 runner, and he has been working hard,” said Daugharthy. “He has run well on our relays, and we are hoping to get his time down in the 2:10’s.”
Jesse Taylor finished the 3200 meters in 10:50.68.
“Jesse’s best time last season was a 10:10, but he ran that at the end of the season,” said Daugharthy. “At the beginning of last season, he was running in the 11’s. Therefore, we are hoping that through his hard work that he can get down to the low 10s again as the season progresses.”
Kyler Mittelmeier snatched a season-best time of 18.50 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles.
“Kyler had been struggling with the hurdles at practice, but he was able to run them very well at prestate,” Daugharthy said. “He almost set a personal record in the event. We are going to try some different things, like switching his lead leg, and hopefully that should help him out.”
Cortland Carson took a personal-record time of 19.61 seconds in the 100 meter hurdles while he finished the 300 meter hurdles in 48.25 seconds.
Gage Skahan was injured during the meet and only competed in the long jump for a distance of 16’ 11”.
