WICHITA — Marmaton Valley High’s Janae Granere and Piper Barney — who have been a fixture at the state track meet through their high school careers — ended the 2024 season with a flourish this weekend.
The last scheduled field event of the two-day meet, the Class 1A girls long jump, pitted the longtime teammates against each other one final time, with a twist.
Granere, a senior who has signed with Pittsburg State University, had to stop midway through the proceedings to run in the 400-meter dash finals.
She did so like a bullet, finishing the 400 in a school-record time of 1 minute, 1.29 seconds, good for fifth. She returned to the long jump pit, admittedly a bit weary from the flurry of activity, but could not exceed her best jump of the preliminary round of 16 feet, 11.75 inches.
Meanwhile, Barney, a junior, was feeling the disappointment of not qualifying for finals in her first two events, the 300-meter hurdles and triple jump. But she was able to one-up her older teammate, taking fourth in the long jump at 17’2”.
Tack on Granere’s second-place finish in the triple jump on Friday night, with a leap of 36’5.25”, and you have another memorable haul for the Wildcat standouts.
“I was happy after the long jump,” Barney said. “During the triple jump, I didn’t do too well, and I felt like I created a little doubt in my mind. But I was able to answer that.”
Granere, too, was hoping for more in both events.
“I didn’t get what I wanted, but it feels good to get back into the groove,” Granere said. “It feels good to get my ankle back to where it was.”
Granere’s ankle injury stems from the final days of the 2023-24 basketball season, an injury that prompted head coach Steve Smith to keep Granere out of the triple jump for most of the season. 
“It was really hard for me because the triple has always been my favorite,” she said.
She returned to the triple jump pits to win gold in both her league and regional competitions, and was hoping for the trifecta at state, but finished at 36’5.25” — short of her goal of 37 feet.
Likewise, Granere said she was disappointed in not getting a longer distance in the long jump, “but it happens. It isn’t always going to be perfect.”
Granere was much more upbeat talking about her performance in the 400. When she qualified on Friday, she was unaware the finals would be occurring at the same time as the long jump.
“When we were looking at (qualifying) times, I didn’t know if I was going to make it,” she said. “What I ran last year didn’t make it to finals, but then I saw my name and thought, Yay, I get another time to run.”
