ARMA — Cooper Scharff missed out on a gold medal hat trick by .09 seconds Thursday.
After breezing to wins in the long jump and 100-meter dash, the Marmaton Valley High eighth-grader was barreling stride for stride down the stretch in the 400-meter dash with Liberal (Mo.) runner Ben Dingman. But Dingman crossed the finish line in 59.21 seconds, .09 seconds better than Scharff’s 59.30.
Most folks can’t blink that fast.
Nevertheless, the scintillating finish highlighted another strong day on the track for Marmaton Valley at the Northeast Junior High invitational.
In seventh-grade action, Marmaton Valley’s Ethan Lawson, Colin Ard, Kaden McVey all earned gold, as the Wildcat squad breezed to the team championship.
The MV seventh-grade boys racked up 128 points, more than 30 points clear of runner-up Northeast.
The Wildcat seventh-grade girls, buoyed by Emma Louk’s distance running, finished second as a team. Louk won both the 3200- and 1600-meter runs, while Addisyn Drake was tops in the 100-meter hurdles and Clara Ferguson topped all comers in the shot put. (Side note: Ferguson, a sixth-grader, competed amongst primarily seventh-graders.)
Full results follow:
Seventh grade boys
Team scores — 1. Marmaton Valley, 128
High jump — 2 (tie). Thomas Allee and Ethan Lawson, 4’8”
Long jump — 2. Lawson, 14’2”; 12. Truett Blevins, 11’3”; 16. Lane Lord, 10’6”
Discus — 2. Kooper Welch, 83’9.5’; 8. Kris McVey, 66’6.5”; 10 Blevins, 54’8”
Shot put — 9. Kr. McVey, 27’2.5”; 15. Welch, 22’2.5”; 17. Blevins, 19’6”
3200 meters — 3. Tucker Sutton, 13:00.57; 5. Bryant Uhlrich, 13:44.26; 8. Jaxon Stevens, 22:05.22
100m hurdles — 1. Lawson, 18.55; 2. Kaden McVey, 18.55: 8. Brady Burton, 22.73
