WICHITA It was a long and wet three days at Cessna Stadium in Wichita over the weekend for the annual state track meet. Lightning and excess rain stopped the meet in its tracks early Friday afternoon, pushing the vast majority of events over to Saturday.
On Saturday, preliminary races were thrown out for all events in order to save time and that nearly worked. Unfortunately, rain and lightning reared their ugly heads again late in the day pushing a handful of events to Sunday for the first time in meet history.
But even through all of that, area athletes still managed to put up stellar performances, breaking both personal and school records on the way to collecting multiple podium appearances throughout the three-day event.
Iola, featuring its largest group of state qualifiers since 2010, didnt come away with any state champions, but junior Elysia Kunkler did manage two top-eight finishes.
Kunkler took second in the 100-meter hurdles, losing to first place Tori McGinnis of Circle by less than half a second with a time of 15.46. The junior also took fifth in the long jump with a jump of 1601.
Junior Christine Helman had an electrifying performance in her first-ever state track meet, finishing seventh in the girls shot put with a throw of 356.26.
Jack Adams took ninth (10:26.72) and Rachel Bycroft took 13th (13:23.19) in the 3200 and Kolton LaCrone finished 15th in the discus with a throw of 113.
Ella Taylor took 14th in the pole vault with a height of eight feet and 15th in the triple jump with a jump of 2911.75.
The 4×100 relay team of Kassy Shelby, Ella Taylor, Elanie Sturgeon and Kunkler took 15th with a time of 53.32.
The girls 4×800 team of Averie Sharon, Audrey Coltrane, Rachel Bycroft and Josie Plumlee all finished 14th with a time of 11:19.07 and the boys 4×800 team of Tavon Bass, Riley Jay, Jack Adams and Cole Regehr all took 16th with a time of 9:14.38.
Humboldt
Humboldt had a similar showing with no state champions but multiple finishes near the top of the heap.
Tucker Hurst climbed his way up on the podium twice during the tournament, finishing second in the javelin with a throw of 17306 and fourth in the discus with a throw of 15008.
He also took 13th in the shot put (452).
Kaylie Johnson placed fifth in the triple jump (3406.25) and Savanna Puckett took 15th in the 200 (28.08) and the 400 (1:06.5).
Isiah Coronado took 11th in the 400 with a time of 53.1 and 13th in the 100 (11.68). Seth Barlow took 16th in the 800 with a time of 2:12.6.
