Even though Kasen Parsons had immediate success in the javelin in eighth grade, it wasn’t something he was convinced he needed to focus on once he hit high school.
 
So, as a freshman at Osage City, he didn’t even go out for track and field. Instead, he dual-sported playing both baseball and golf for the Indians in spring 2023.
 
But that early success he had – Parsons set a middle school record in the turbo javelin the first meet he competed in after only having one day of practice – did stick with him during that season he took off from track. And last year as a sophomore, he had a change of heart.
 
“I decided I should take it back up again,” he said, trading the golf clubs for the javelin.
 
It’s been a wise decision.
 
After placing fourth in Class 3A in the event at last spring’s State Outdoors, Parsons finds himself as the state leader this spring. Improving by more than 25 feet over his top mark last year as a sophomore, Parsons became the first thrower in the state this year to go over 200 feet at Tuesday’s Royal Valley Invitational.
 
Parsons won the meet title with a career-best throw of 203 feet, 3 inches – a mark that ranks as the ninth-best in the nation overall and is tops in Kansas this year by nearly seven feet.
 
“It’s pretty crazy to think about, really,” Parsons said of being one of the nation’s best.
 
Just as he found immediate success when he picked up the javelin for the first time in eighth grade, so too did that success return when he picked it back up again last spring as a sophomore. Parsons finished no worse than third at any meet until the State Outdoors, where he placed fourth in Class 3A.
 
He maintained his dual sport status last spring, earning first-team All-Flint Hills League honors in baseball while helping Osage City to a Class 3A regional runner-up finish to eventual state champion Hayden.
 
This spring, however, his ties with that sport lessened with the graduation of his older brother, Cooper, and a host of other seniors whom he’d spent most of his baseball career playing with. And after putting more work in on the javelin during the offseason, he made the decision to simply participate in track this spring.
 
“I just wanted to focus on jav and sprinting to get better for football,” Parsons said, a sport where he was an All-Class 2A selection last fall after quarterbacking the Indians to a program-best 10-1 season. “Last year, I pretty much played (baseball) because that was my brother’s class and I’d grown up my whole life pretty much playing with them. But they all moved on and I’ve never been a huge baseball guy really.”
 
Knowing that ultimately would be his decision, Parsons spent the offseason working with former Southern Coffey County state champion and Wichita State All-American Aaron True – the Class 1A state meet record holder – at the Performance Throws Academy in Reading. And it didn’t take long for that extra work to show up.
 
Finishing his sophomore season with a best of 177 feet, 10 inches at the state meet, Parsons topped that by eight feet at the Indians’ season-opening Lyndon Spring Relays. At the Indians’ home meet five days later, Parsons jumped up almost 10 more feet with a throw of 194-9.
 
“It was kind of mind-blowing,” he said. “I feel like I really got a hold of that one. I knew I’d been putting in a lot of work at practice and that one of them was going to go, but I didn’t know it would happen that quick.”
 
Parsons barely had time to relish in taking the 3A lead and moving up to No. 2 in the state with his mark at Osage City. A week later, he unleashed his throw of 203-3 that not only moved him to the top of the state honor roll but also broke the Indians’ school record of 200-0.5 set by Carter Swindale.
 
It came on his final throw of the meet.
 
“I felt like I could 100% improve (on the 194-9) because I didn’t have my full steps down,” Parsons said. “I’ve slowly worked up to doing a full run-up. I started a seven-step with the 185 and then I knew I was going to build up to the full run-up and that’s where my throws would come.
 
“Talking to Aaron, he definitely thought I could get 200 so that was my goal for this season. I feel like I really got a hold of it and I felt like it flew forever. Once they read it off, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s impressive.’”
 
Already to his goal, Parsons has now set his sights on the 210 mark.
 
“It’s just about practice and time,” he said. “Just doing the little things right, the mechanics, and letting everything else take care of itself.”
 
In addition to throwing the javelin, Parsons has added some running events as well. He’s placed top four in the 110 hurdles at two meets, winning at Osage City, and at Royal Valley teamed with Reed Silver, Dylan Theel and Noah Martinez to set the school record in the 400 relay with a 44.36.
 
He’s had plenty of record-setting company on his team as well this spring.
 
Defending state champion in the Class 3A discus, Lexi Boss has broken her own school records in both the javelin and discus to start the season. She threw 130-2 in the javelin at Lyndon to beat her previous record of 125-5 by nearly five feet. She also broke her old school record of 144-6 in the discus with a throw of 147-1 at the Osage City meet.
 
Freshman teammate Alaynah Dorsey broke the school record in the high jump, going 5-3 at the home meet to beat the old mark of 5-2 set by Campbell Stark in 2023. Dorsey then broke it again at Royal Valley with a 5-4 clearance.
 
OTHER TRACK AND FIELD STANDOUTS

• After capturing her first state javelin title last spring, Washington County’s Jesse Hoover served notice that the title won’t be easy to get from her this season. Already the school-record holder in the event, Hoover topped her old record of 144 feet, 7 inches by nearly seven feet with a throw of 151-4 at the Riley County on April 11, winning by 31 feet. She was one of four Tigers winners at the meet as Addy Goeckel swept the hurdles titles, leading a 1-2 finish with sister Anna in the 100s, Macie Gepner led a 1-2 finish in the pole vault with Keira Cheely and Alyssa Jueneman won the long jump.
• Jackson Heights’ Kyson Proffitt broke a 50-plus-year-old school record in the 200 at the Shocker Pre-State Challenge on his way to a third-place finish in the Elite Division. Proffitt ran a 22.49 to break the Cobra’s old school mark of 22.70 set by Charlie Woltje in 1972. Proffitt also won the Class 3A-1A division at the meet.
• Washburn Rural’s Isaiah Terry broke a 56-year-old school record in the 400. Terry turned in a time of 48.68 to beat the old mark of 48.9 that was set in 1968.
• Abilene’s Renatta Heintz broke the school’s 200 record at the Shocker Pre-State Challenge, running a 25.61 to break the old mark that was set in 1992. Heintz finished second in both the Elite 100 and 200 at the meet, running a 12.51 in the 100.
• Leavenworth’s Kelsie Kudzia brook the Pioneers’ record in the 1,600 with a time of 5;03.
• Wabaunsee’s Payton Wurtz already has broken her old school record in the 1,600 twice this season. She opened at the Lyndon Relays with a 5:11.88 to demolish her old record of 5:17.53 from 2023. At last week’s Shocker Pre-State Challenge, Wurtz lowered the mark to a 5:11.73. She also teamed with Talen Orton, Adalynn Miller and Grace Zeller to run a 4:1171 in the 1,600 relay.
• In leading the St. Marys girls to the team title at the Pre-Big East League meet hosted by the Bears, Jolenna Wingerter broke her own school record in the long jump. She set the mark last year soaring 17-1 and topped it by two inches with a 17-3 at the meet. Cyprian Jackson broke the boys’ 100 school record with a 10.80, besting the old record of 10.86 set by Taegan Schoenfeld in 2015.
• Lebo’s Caleb Durst set the school record in the 800 with a 1:59.03 at the Lyndon Spring Relays. His time is the fastest in 1A in the 800 this season and broke the old record of 2:00.58 set by Austin Holmes in 2011.
• Chapman’s Drew Elliott is 2-for-2 in breaking his own school records in the 1,600 and 3,200 this season. Elliott ran a 4:21.24 at the Weishaar/Miller Memorial Chapman Invitational on April 7 to lower his own school record and then ran a 4:20.46 at the Concordia Invitational to knock nearly another second off. He also broke his own 3,200 record of 9:45.74 by a whopping 14 seconds with a 9:31.91 at Concordia. Elliott also won the 800 at the home meet.
• Nemaha Central’s Conner Lueger set the school record in the 400 at the Perry-Lecompton Invitational, running a 52.78 to beat the old mark of 53.37 set by Isaac Haverkamp in 2018.
• Wamego’s Slade Smith broke the Red Raiders’ school record in the high jump, going 6-6 at the first meet and then 6-8 at the next one. Teammate Isabella Wilbur added a school record of her own in the long jump with a mark of 17-5.75.
• Basehor-Linwood’s Kimberlee Scott broke her own school record in the triple jump at the Bobcat Relays, going 37-8 to break her old one by seven inches. Twin brother Kolton set a new PR in the pole vault by three feet, going 12-6 at the Relays after having a previous career best of 9-6.