CHERRYVALE — Yates Center High’s girls claimed third, and the Wildcat boys were fifth at Thursday’s Cherryvale High Invitational track meet.
It was the final regular-season track meet before the Tri-Valley League meet this week.
Then Yates Center’s athletes ready themselves for the Kansas Class 2A Regional track meet at Mound City May 18.
Hurdles are the Wildcats’ signature events.
Katelyn Hatch led a 1-2-3 finish for the Wildcat girls in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. Hatch won in 54.4 seconds followed by Haley Bedell in 61 seconds and Nikki Akin in 65 seconds.
Mindi Holloway earned the silver medal in the 100-meter high hurdles in 18.3 seconds and Hatch was fourth at 18.5 seconds. Aikin finished sixth in 22.8.
For the boys, Sam Aguirre was a double gold medal winner in the hurdles. He won the 110-meter highs in 15.6 seconds. He ran a personal-best time of 41.94 seconds to win the 300-meter intermediates.
Yates Center’s girls were vying for second place overall right to the final event, the 4×400-meter relay. An exchange zone violation with the baton disqualified the Wildcats. St. Paul took second place overall by two points.
But the Wildcat girls 4×100-meter relay team ran a season’s best time of 54 seconds and struck gold. The team members were Rylie Albert, Lindsay Francis, Paige Steinforth and Holloway.
Holloway won the 800-meter run in 2 minutes, 45 seconds. Steinforth took the gold in the high jump, clearing 4 feet, 4 inches. Francis won the long jump with a personal-best leap of 15’1”.
The Wildcats’ Ceaton Cooper took the silver medal in the 400-meter dash. Cooper ran a personal-best 53 seconds. He was fourth in the 800-meter run in 2:24.
Yates Center boys’ 4×100-meter relay team of Cooper, Aguirre, Bryce Leon and Myles Dice posted a second-place time of 47.1 seconds. The same foursome took fourth in the 4×400-meter relay race in 3:50.1.
Dice was third in the high jump at 5’4”. Austin McNett took fourth in the javelin with a personal-best throw of 122 feet.
Yates Center returns to Cherryvale this Thursday for the TVL meet.
