Even as he dominated meet after meet throughout the season, going undefeated in both the 100 and 200, Ashton Gratton wasn’t sure just how he would stack up once he got to the State Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
Yes, the Pleasanton senior had turned in the fastest 100 time in Class 2A this year by nearly a half second when he ran a 10.56 in the finals of the Jayhawk-Linn Invitational. But that had come in late April and much of the season he had been at two-tenths slower than that and the led to definite uncertainty in his mind when he got to Wichita.
 
“I only ever run against people who are usually a second slower, or in the 100 a half-second slower,” said Gratton, who also came into state as the 2A leader in the 200 as well. “It’s kind of hard to find competition without big meets. So I was really scared someone was going to pull one out. I’d gotten a bunch of tailwinds this year and maybe someone had come in here with nothing but headwinds and they were going to blow me out of the water.”
 
Channeling the spirits of a former Pleasanton speedster, Gratton proved that his 2A-leading times in the 100 and 200 weren’t just built on ideal conditions, both from a weather and competition standpoint. Gratton outdueled Jackson Heights’ Kyson Proffitt and Moundridge’s Kaden Elmore to sweep the 2A sprints crowns.
 
“I thought there was a good chance if I worked as hard as I could,” said Gratt, who as he left the track following his 200 win proclaimed, “This is the best day of my life!”
 

 
Gratton’s rise to the top of Class 2A was a rather meteoric one. He missed all of his freshman season with a back injury that also limited him his sophomore season as well as he only ran in six meets and barely dipped up 12 seconds in the 100 and was 26 seconds or slower in the 200.
 
During those two seasons, however, Gratton had the role model he needed in older teammate, Isaiah Bates. Bates finished his career ranked in the top 15 all-time in state history in the 100 and won the 2A 100 title in 2021 and 2022 as a sophomore and junior before seeing his bid for a three-peat end when he pulled up in the finals with a leg injury.
 
Even though Bates went on to run in college, he came back to Pleasanton this spring to help mentor Gratton in his pursuit to follow in his footsteps.
 
“He was my whole inspiration for doing track,” Gratton said of Bates, who had a career best of 10.41 in high school. “He was helping during track this season and was a big help with my success this season.”
 
Fully healthy as a sophomore, Gratton qualified for state in both the 100 and 200 but hadn’t quite reached contender status in either. He didn’t make the state finals in the 200 and finished a distant fifth in the 100, clocking an 11.16 in the finals.
 
That was his best 100 time of his junior season and in the offseason, Gratton hit the training hard. He really didn’t see the immediate jump in times in either the 100 or 200, but had the big breakthrough in the 100 at Jayhawk-Linn.
 
Gratton was consistently under 11 seconds from that point on but his 100 regional time of 10.95 was just .02 better than the 10.97 Elmore in winning his regional.
 
“That Kaden Elmore guy, he’s crazy,” Gratton said. “I was so scared.”
 
In the 200, Gratton’s breakthrough came at the Humboldt Invitational when he took more than a second and a half of his previous best with a 21.82, a time he bettered in winning regionals with a 21.59. That was nearly a full second ahead of any other regional winner.
 
While Elmore was a threat, finishing third in both the 100 and 200 around winning the state title in the 400, it was Heights’ Proffitt who proved to be his biggest challenger. The Northeast Kansas League champion, Proffitt has sat in the No. 2 spot in 2A in the 100 after running a 10.89 at the league meet.
 
Gratton topped him by .12 seconds in prelims with a 10.85 and then held off both Proffitt (10.92) and Elmore (10.99) with a 10.78 state-winning time in the finals. That also earned him the 2A state meet record, edging the 10.79 Bates posted in winning his second title in 2022.
 

 
In the 200, not only were Proffitt and Elmore in the field, but so was defending 2A champion TJ Mills of Eureka as well as his teammate, Payton Hare, who had run the second-fastest regional time. But none could catch Gratton, who blazed to a 21.68 to win by .17 over Proffitt with Elmore and the Eureka duo more than a half second back.
 
“I was so nervous for that 200 I thought I was going to throw up,” Gratton said. “Halfway through I saw (Proffitt) creeping on me and I was so scared. I had a crazy headache and thought I was going to throw up, but I kept my composure.”
 
With that, Gratton accomplished something Bates never did, sweeping the 100 and 200.
 
“This really is the best day of my life,” Gratton said. “I never in a million years thought I’d go to state, let alone win it. And I won my two main events and got a record. I’m so shocked and so happy.”
 

 
ACTION JACKSON! LABETTE COUNTY SPEEDSTER NABS 4A 100 RECORD AFTER YEAR LAYOFF
 
First and foremost, Jamaal Jackson is a football guy.
 
And a pretty good one, too. As Labette County’s feature tailback, he’s turned in back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons for the Grizzlies, including a monster junior season last fall when he ran for 1,822 yards and 18 touchdowns.
 
In fact, the sport is so much of a priority for Jackson that when he suffered a left groin and hip injury at the end of his sophomore football season in 2023, he opted not to compete in track last spring to make sure he was good to go for his junior football season last fall.
 
“I didn’t want to risk it,” Jackson said.
 
At the same time, it wasn’t the easiest of decisions.
 
“Man, it hurt,” Jackson said of missing his sophomore track season last spring. “But I knew if I came back and busted my butt this year, I was going to do something great.”
 
That Jackson did. The Grizzly speedster spent his entire junior season re-writing Labette County’s school records in the 100, 200 and 400 and then capped the season with an even bigger record.
 

 
Bolting to a huge lead early in the Class 4A 100 at the State Outdoors Track and Field Championships, Jackson blazed his way to a career-best 10.65 to win the state title by .30 seconds over Ulysses’ Gaige McGaughey, who came back to win the 200 crown. His time also equaled the 4A state-meet record set by Buhler’s Jordan Hawkins in 2019.
 
“It felt great,” Jackson said. “I’ve been dreaming about it all week. I know what I can do. But striving to be the best of myself is what I do. Just chase, chase.
 
“I was just worried about winning. (The record) was in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t let the nerves get to me. When I saw it, I was excited.”
 
Jackson came up just short in getting a second state gold, taking second in the 400. His time of 47.98 actually tied the previous 4A state-meet record set by Tonganoxie’s DJ Lindsay in 2010, but Jackson saw Holton’s Brayden Peek take the record and title in 47.70.
 
Jackson’s time also was a career-best by a half second, breaking his own school record. He also holds the school record in the 200 with a 21.87 earlier this season, but didn’t run that at state. 
 
Jackson anchored Labette County’s 400 relay to a third-place state finish as well.
 
“It was really putting in the hard work and focusing on recovery and preparation for races,” Jackson said of his huge record-setting junior season. “It was performing at the best of my ability.”
 

  
OTHER SOUTHEAST KANSAS STATE CHAMPIONS

• Despite missing nearly the entire regular season after suffering an injury in Coffeyville’s first meet of the season, Jake Horner finished with a bang. Returning in early May, he quickly established himself as the Class 4A favorite in the 300 hurdles as the only 4A runner to go under 40 seconds this season, doing so at regionals, which was just his third race of the season.

 
Horner proved it wasn’t a fluke at state, qualifying first by a half second. The senior then captured his first state title by nearly a full second as he cruised to a career-best time of 39.32 to finish well ahead of 110 hurdles champion Harrison Potucek of Andale, who was second in 40.28.
 
Horner also finished eighth at state in the long jump.
 

 

• Chanute’s Canton Fitzmaurice only had one shot put attempt he weas truly pleased with in the Class 4A state competition. But it was the only one he needed to win a state title. On his second throw of prelims, Fitzmaurice – the 4A state leader this year after throwing 55-7.75 early in the season, popped a 54-5.25 that held up to give him the state title by nearly two feet over Southeast Kansas League rival Keegan Stritzke of Labette County, who was runner-up in 52-7.75.

 
Fitzmaurice nearly came away with two golds. The Blue Comet senior threw a career-best 170-4 on his first attempt in the Class 4A discus, but saw Tonganoxie’s Tucker McGuire come up with a 172-6 on his second attempt to take the title. McGuire didn’t have another throw over 158-6.