GARNETT — Iola High took a smaller than normal contingent of athletes to Garnett’s annual Anderson County Invitational Thursday.
That’s because track and field head coach Dana Daugharthy opted to send several of his frontline performers instead to Wichita State’s Prestate Challenge Friday. (Results from Wichita will be in Monday’s Register.)
And with most of the other schools bringing their entire varsity roster to Garnett, it made for a tough day for the Mustangs and Fillies squads.
That said, the teams’ rankings in the final standings belied what really counted, Daugharthy noted.
“We had a lot of personal records, which is all that really matters,” he said. “Our care and focus is on improving each week, and that is what we did.”
To wit, Kaster Trabuc and Travis Wanker both set career-best marks in the 800- and 1600-meter runs. Trabuc missed out on placing in the 1600 by 3 seconds, taking seventh.
“Kaster ran well in both of his races,” Daugharthy said. “Setting two personal records in a meet is a great accomplishment.”
Luke Wcioff also set two personal-best times, shaving 10 seconds off his previous best in the 800-meter run and improving his 1600 time by 20 seconds.
Japheth Rutoh improved his triple jump mark by a foot, while Brock Sander had his career best javelin throw. Drake Matthew and Sam Sturgeon both set career-best times in the 400-meter dash.
HIGHLIGHTING the Fillies’ day, Iola’s 4×800-meter relay team of Averie Sharon, Abigail Meiwes, Audrey Coltrane and Sage Barney teamed up to take the silver medal, despite almost not making it to the starting blocks.
“One of our four girl distance runners got sick the night before, so it looked like we were not going to be able to run it,” Daugharthy said.
Meiwes stepped in to fill out the relay team, despite not having run anything longer than 200 meters this season.
“They all ran really well with great split times,” Daugharthy said. “They really were not running with anyone to pace them, so I would be curious to see how this team will improve when placed against some competition.”
Barney, meanwhile, set her personal best 1600 time to take third.
Caiden Cloud took fifth in the 100-meter hurdles with — you guessed it — another personal best time. She also ran her best ever 300-meter hurdles time later in the evening.
Iola’s 4×100-meter relay team of Ashtyn Aikins-Ansley, Abigail Hirt and Cloud ran a blistering 58.96 seconds, “but the competition was very stiff,” Daugharthy said, which relegated the Fillies quartet to fifth.
