Andale’s Rylee Meyer believes a large part of her track and field success comes from program culture.
 
Hard to argue, given the Indians’ success across the board with their girls and boys teams.
 
“It’s a really great atmosphere, having a bunch of coaches who really care about what you do, and a bunch of teammates that will push you, and just the community in general,” Meyer said.
 
Combine that with Meyer’s talent, and you had the recipe for a banner senior season.
 
Meyer was impressive was start to finish, ending her high school career with three victories and a second-place finish in the State Track and Field Championships at Wichita State’s Crossland Stadium. Meyer set two Class 4A meet records, eclipsing her own mark in the 100 meters while adding another in the 200.
 
Meyer’s victory trifecta included her first career state victory in the 300-meter hurdles, when she set a personal best in that event. That helped Andale, which scored 98 points, win its second consecutive 4A girls title and eighth since 2017.

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“It’s really been a great experience,” said Meyer, who added a runner-up finish to Wellington’s Dru Zeka in the long jump to finish her state career with 12 medals. “Coming out here for my last season, my last time ever running here and to win is really exciting.”
 
Meyer ran the state’s second fastest 100 meters this spring (11.61) behind Class 6A champion Maria Portela of Blue Valley (11.38). At state, Meyer collected her third title in the event, running 11.98 in the prelims to break her record of 12.06 set last year. She lowered that to 11.90 in the finals, defeating runner-up Callie Noland of Clearwater by .35.
 
A huge smile appeared on Meyer’s face as she crossed the finish line.
 
“I think that winning my third state title in the 100 is definitely the moment that stood out to me,” Meyer said.
 
Meyer was undefeated in the 300 hurdles and 200 this spring, and ran her best in both at state. After finishing third in the 4A 300 hurdles as a freshman and junior, Meyer, the lone senior in the 4A final, set her PR of 43.79 to win by more than 2 seconds over Mulvane’s Haylynn Jones.
 
The third time was also a charm for Meyer in the 200. After finishing sixth as a sophomore and second to Coffeyville’s Renatta Heintz last season, Meyer took down a 35-year-old meet record in the prelims, leading qualifying in 24.67 to top the previous mark of 24.80 set by Basehor-Linwood’s Dawn Steele.
 
Meyer improved on that in the final, winning in a personal-best 24.29, but wind conditions prevented the time from going in the record book.
 
Meyer earned her third career state medal in the long jump, leaping a wind-aided best 18-4 to finish behind Zeka, who went 19-0. Her 38 points in the meet helped the Indians win by 23 points over runner-up Buhler after Andale won by 24 over Eudora a year ago.
 
“It’s senior year and you want to do your best,” said Meyer, who will compete for Hutchinson Community College. “You want to end with a bunch of PRs and just know that you pushed yourself to the limit.”
 

 
WICHITA TRINITY’S COLEMAN WINS DOUBLE GOLD IN STATE TRACK DEBUT
 
As she followed her successful freshman cross country season with a solid spring, Tylee Coleman’s appreciation for the Wichita Trinity program she represents has blossomed.
 
“I’m super blessed and honored to be part of this legacy,” Coleman said. “It’s pretty cool to be running in the same place where all these successful runners have.”
 
Coleman hasn’t taken long to make a name for herself.
 
After winning the Class 3A cross country title and leading the Knights to a second-place team finish in November, Coleman made the most of her first State Track and Field Championships appearance. She won the 3A 3,200-meter title on the meet’s opening day, then added a 1,600-meter victory on the season’s final day.
 
Coleman won the 3,200 by nearly 11 seconds over runner-up Piper Brown of Southeast of Saline. She led wire-to-wire before crossing the finish line in 11:20.39.
 
Coleman ran 5:13.06 for her victory in the 1,600, more than 7 seconds over Hesston’s Reese Quinn.
 
“The 2-mile went pretty good,” Coleman said. “I got what I asked for. In the mile, I can’t really complain. I didn’t get the time that I wanted, but it’s the little wins, I guess.”
 
While neither state time was a season best, Coleman capped a strong track season in which she posted a top-10 time for all classes in the 3,200, running 10:52.97 at the Shawnee Mission North Relays, a race in which Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Ava Claassen set the all-time state record.
 
Coleman’s best in the 1,600 was 5:08.00 in a victory at Cheney’s Vernon Ferguson Invitational.
 
Still, Coleman left her first state track meet as a competitor with plenty of good vibes.
 
“It’s been really cool,” Coleman said. “I used to come and watch this as a kid. To be able to run in it, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s been different.”
 

STERLING’S KILGORE COMPLETES 400 TITLE RUN, RECLAIMS 200 CROWN
 
Sterling senior Julia Kilgore remembers sitting in the then-Cessna Stadium grandstand as an eighth grader, watching the 400-meter races at the State Track and Field Championships with Black Bears assistant Jack Dillard.
 
“We were watching and he was like, ‘You’re going to win that next year,’” Kilgore said. “After I won the first year, I was like, ‘We’re not backing down.’”
 
Kilgore held true to those promises until her final day as a high school track athlete.
 
Replicating a 1-2 finish with Marion’s Dylan Kraus for the third consecutive year, Kilgore completed a four-year sweep of the Class 2A 400, winning in 56.56. Then, after a lengthy weather delay, Kilgore added a victory in the 200 meters, closing her career with her second career win in that event.
 
“I haven’t won it since my freshman year, so it’s very special that in my last race in a Sterling uniform, I was able to just go out and go crazy and just go get it.”
 
Kilgore’s final 200 victory came against a runner – Ellinwood’s Reagan Wirtz – who relegated her to second place in the 200 with a meet record a year ago. Kilgore’s finals time of 24.82 bettered Wirtz’s 24.98 from the 2025 meet, but wind conditions were too strong to make it official.
 
Either way, Kilgore was elated to prevail after lightning in the area pushed back the start of the race.
 
“I was ready to go the first time,” Kilgore said. “But I think it helped. It calmed me down a little bit more.”
 
Kilgore snagged the 2A meet record in the 400 last year, when she ran 56.40 to claim her third title in the event. While she hoped to lower that mark, she was nonetheless happy with the outcome.
 
“I didn’t break into the 55s like I’d hope to,” Kilgore said. “I’m just very happy with how I finished and I still leave with that record. Hopefully the girls can break it next year.”
 

PATIENT WARRIOR: AFTER DELAYED START TO SEASON, MARION’S KRAUS WINS 2A 800
 
Dylan Kraus laughed sheepishly as she discussed the prom morning auto accident that left her with a broken wrist.
 
But in reality, Kraus added, “I was lucky it wasn’t way worse.”
 
The accident sidelined Kraus, a Marion junior, for the first half of the spring track season. Kraus returned in time for Halstead’s Conrad Nightingale Invitational and collected her first victory of the season in the 800 meters.
 
A little over a month later, Kraus headed to the top of the state medal stand as a 2A champion in the 800. Running a personal-best time of 2:15.75, Kraus outkicked runner-up Emmy Lee of Sacred Heart, who set a PR in 2:18.42.
 
The field also included last year’s champion, Smith Center’s Madison Howland, who finished fourth.
 
Kraus’ victory highlighted her second straight four-medal performance at the state meet. She also finished second to Sterling’s Julia Kilgore for the third straight year in the 2A 400, running a personal-best 57.29 in the final. A pole vault medalist last year, Kraus helped Marion’s 1,600-meter relay finish third and its 3,200 relay take seventh at this year’s meet.
 
“It’s really a blessing that I can run against all these great runners who’ve helped push me to be better,” Kraus said. “I love competing against Julia. I felt so happy to finally win (the 800). My friends and family have been helping me get to everything this season. It was nice to show them all of the hard work paid off.”
 

GOLDEN GIRLS: UNDERCLASSMEN’S VICTORIES BOOST BISHOP CARROLL TO 5A TITLE
 
Making her debut on the first morning of the State Track and Field Championships, Tess Martin found herself in a jump-off for the Class 5A high jump title.
 
An invitation for butterflies, for sure.
 
But the Bishop Carroll freshman took solace in something she knew about fellow competitor Kyndal Bugni of Pittsburg.
 
“I felt like there was a bunch of pressure,” Martin said. “But also since my main competition was also a freshman, it felt like I kind of had it under my control.”
 
The event was full of young hopefuls, as five of the eight medalists were freshmen. And after clearing 5 feet, 4 inches in the jump-off, Martin prevailed to get Carroll off to a good start in the two-day meet. With junior Lauren DeGroot and sophomore Reese Whiteley sweeping the hurdles events the following day, the Golden Eagles pulled away for their second 5A team title in program history.
 

Carroll finished with 92 points, well ahead of runner-up and 2025 champion St. James Academy, which finished with 57. The Eagles also got runner-up finishes from senior Clare Munn in the javelin and their 3,200-meter relay team to boost their margin.
 
Martin added a seventh-place finish in the 100 meters for Carroll, and joined Whiteley as half of the Eagles’ third-place 400-meter relay team. And after clearing a personal-best 5-6 to win the Hays regional, Martin notched her fifth high jump victory of the season at state.
 
“The rest of the season was kind of up and down a little bit,” Martin said. “I would do good and then I would do OK and then I would do good. But I feel like today,  I really took action and did the best I could.”
 
Whiteley and DeGroot gave Carroll 16 points in the 100-meter hurdles. Whiteley, who set a PR of 14.71 in a second-place finish at regionals, ran 14.79 to edge preliminary leader Nora Turney of Piper. DeGroot was third in 15.31.
 
DeGroot, who finished fourth as a freshman in the 300 hurdles and second to Andover Central’s Allison Saunders last year, got a state title in her third try. She won the final in 43.98, slightly off her PR of 43.76 in last year’s race.
 
DeGroot added a fifth-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 16-11.5.
 
 
OTHER SOUTH CENTRAL KANSAS GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONS
 

 

• Wichita Heights senior Isabel Einwich set meet records in winning the girls wheelchair 100 and 1,600 meters, and added a third title in the wheelchair 400 meters. Einwich’s time of 21.30 in the 100 improved on Andover Central’s Annaliese Vitosh’s winning time of 22.61 in last year’s state meet. Einwich, the lone competitor in the 1,600, posted a time of 5:36.99 to improve on the previous record of 5:59.18 by Bishop Carroll’s Jade Link in 2024. Einwich won the 400 in 1:23.78.

 

• Wichita North senior Nelly Puente earned her first state victory, making a third-lap charge and holding off the field to win the Class 6A 1,600-meter title. Puente’s personal-best time of 5:00.89 outpaced runner-up Charlotte Hardy of Shawnee Mission East, who finished in 5:04.20. Puente finished second to Hardy in the 3,200, setting a PR in 10:46.14.

 

 

• Buhler junior Corbin Starkweather opened the State Track and Field Championships with a victory in the Class 4A 3,200 meters, winning by more than 10 seconds over runner-up Irelyn Kennedy of Baldwin. Starkweather finished in 10:55.81, her third run under 11 minutes this season. Starkweather added runner-up finishes in the 1,600 and as part of the Crusaders’ 3,200 relay.

 

 

• Buhler senior Jenna Lackey cleared a personal-best 11 feet, 6 inches to win the Class 4A pole vault title. Lackey, a four-time state qualifier in the event, improved on her seventh-place finish as a sophomore and third place a year ago. Lackey also took third in the 4A 200 meters and helped Buhler’s 400 relay team take second.

 

 

• Conway Springs junior Delaney Jones picked a good time for her longest javelin throw, reaching 140 feet, 1 inch on her final attempt to win the Class 2A competition. Jones, the Central Plains League and Medicine Lodge regional champion, was in second entering her sixth throw, but surpassed last year’s champion, Smith Center’s Alexis Koelsch, who also threw a PR of 137-8 on her final attempt.

 

 

• Little River freshman Dempsey Lafferty eclipsed her personal best in the javelin by more than 7 feet, throwing 147 feet, 2 inches on her first attempt of the finals to win the Class 1A title. Lafferty, the Wheat State League and Lincoln regional champion, finished more than 8 feet ahead of runner-up Josie Haverkamp of Centralia.

 

• Salina South senior Paityn Fritz threw a school-record and personal-best 139 feet, 8 inches to win the Class 5A discus title. Fritz’s best in the event entering state was 123-2, but she took the lead on her second throw and it held up. Fritz also finished second in the 5A shot put with a throw of 40-0.5.

 

 

• Inman’s second-place finish in the Class 2A team race was aided by the Teutons’ victory in the 400-meter relay. Senior Addison Wedel, juniors Brooklyn Black and Lily Heflin, and sophomore Olivia Brunk posted a time of 49.79, .23 ahead of runner-up Hoxie.

 

• Halstead’s quartet of senior Mackenzie Ervin, juniors Jordy and Piper Schroeder, and sophomore Annie Williams won the Class 3A 400-meter relay in 49.57, .11 ahead of second-place Beloit. The Dragons, who set a school record (49.08) at the Cheney regional, qualified second behind Silver Lake in the preliminaries, but took advantage of an errant exchange by the Eagles, who were disqualified.

 

 

• Clearwater won the Class 4A 400-meter relay for the third consecutive season, replacing three runners from last year’s champions. Seniors Callie Noland and Kynlee Martin, junior Millie Allred and freshman Ali Thompson ran a time of 48.45, .62 ahead of second-place Buhler. Allred and Noland were on the Indians’ state-winning quartet two years ago, while Noland was the lone returnee from last year’s champs.

 

 

• Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s 3,200-meter relay team of seniors Courtney Nye and Taylor Barringer, junior Abigail Bird and sophomore Ava Claassen set a Class 5A meet record, winning by more than 15 seconds over runner-up Bishop Carroll in 9:18.71. The Crusaders topped the previous mark of 9:19.60 by St. James Academy in 2018.