Make no mistake.
 
K’lyn Curtis relished seeing his St. Thomas Aquinas teammate Joey Goodenow capture the Class 5A state shot put and discus championships each of the past two seasons. The two developed a close friendship through their years together as not only throwers for the Saints track and field program but also defensive linemen for the football team.
 
“I was really happy for him,” Curtis said. “He’s a good friend of mine and he deserved it.”
 
But yes, there was a caveat that came along with the joy Curtis had for his former teammate, who graduated after capturing his second straight sweep of the 5A throwing titles last spring. Had it not been for Goodenow, two of those championships would have gone to Curtis, who finished runner-up to his teammate in the shot put at state each of the past two years.
 
“The past two years him blocking my way, I understood,” Curtis said. “But it was something I definitely wanted and thought I could get.”
 
Without Goodenow standing in his way this spring, Curtis stood head and shoulders above his closest competition in the Class 5A shot put at the State Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Not only did the Saint senior close out his career with a state title, he did so in dominating fashion.

Curtis’ winning throw of 63 feet, 2 inches was two and a half feet further than runner-up Karson Palmer of Arkansas City. And it delivered the title that had been so close to his for two years running.
 
“Honestly, it’s really emotional,” Curtis said. “Senior year, I had to get it done.”
 
Curtis not only got it done in the shot put, but followed Goodenow’s lead and brought home the title in the discus as well. Ranked No. 2 in 5A to Palmer this season, Curtis came up with a xxxxx to edge his Bulldog rival by xxx for that crown as well.
 
While Curtis felt a discus title was within reach, it was the shot put crown that he was determined to get this year after falling just short each of the past two years. As a sophomore, Curtis threw 55-10.75 at state to take second to Goodenow’s winning mark of 56-6.75.
 
A year ago, however, the runner-up finish had a bit more of a bittersweet feel to it. Curtis had spent most of the season atop the state leaderboard in the shot put after busting a school-record throw of 63-8 at the Shawnee Mission North Relays, breaking Goodenow’s school record of 63-4.
 
It was the only time Curtis went over 60 feet last season and when he couldn’t get over that distance at state last year, throwing just 57-3 – his lowest mark since the second meet of the season – he was relegated to second place as Goodenow won by more than three feet with a 60-7.25.
 
This spring, things were a little different as Curtis returned as the lone member of the 2024 self-nicknamed “Bomb Squad” for the Saints, a trio that included himself, Goodenow and former teammate Joe Loughman, who won the state title in the javelin that spring to give the Saints the throws triple crown. Though sophomore teammate Bode Renner made big strides this year – ultimately placing third at state – Curtis didn’t have his previous partners there to push him on a daily basis.
 
“It was really hard because of the competition,” Curtis said. “I’m a guy who when I have good competition, I do better.”
 

 
The competition Curtis found at the Saints’ meets, however, filled that void and Curtis thrived this spring. He went over 60 feet at each of Aquinas’ eight meets leading up to the state meet and went over 63 feet at three of those meets, falling just inches shy of doing that at two more meets.
 
His best outing of the year came at the Harry McDonald Blue Valley Relays where Curtis moved into the state’s all-time top 10 with a winning throw of 63-11.5 – a half inch away from becoming just the ninth thrower in state history to hit the 64-foot barrier.
 
“It was really shocking,” Curtis said. “All my PRs had been low 63s and then I got a half inch from 64. I really wanted to get that.”
 
Going into this year’s state meet, Curtis was the overwhelming favorite for the title with no other 5A thrower even coming that close to 60 feet. Palmer was the closest, throwing a 59-2.75 at Arkansas City’s home meet.
 
Palmer quickly served notice that if Curtis was going to finally get his title, it was going to be well-earned. After Curtis opened with a 59-6.5, Palmer got within striking distance with a 59-2.75 and then on his final throw of preliminaries took the event lead with a career-best toss of 60-7.
 
Curtis, who had fouled his final two prelim throws, suddenly had a fight on his hands.
 
“Honestly, I was happy for him,” Curtis said. “He’s tall and lanky and built to be a really good thrower. I know that he’s really pushing. When I saw him throw that 60, I was like, ‘Hey, there you go!’ I needed someone to push me and I was glad he was the one to do it.
 
“In prelims, I was really in my head quite a bit. It was hard to break that mental barrier. But when he threw 60, I took a moment for myself and said, ‘If you want to win, you’ve got to take care of business.’”
 
Curtis was all business in the finals. He finally got his first state throw of 60-plus feet with a 60-0.75 on his first throw of finals and then on his second finals throw he popped a 63-2 that proved to be the winning mark.
 
Palmer fouled his first two finals throws and only mustered a 56-0 on his final attempt. Curtis went 60-5.25 on his last attempt to complete a three-throw series of all 60-foot-plus throws.
 
While happy with the title, there was still some bittersweetness to it.
 
“I knew if I just came here and took care of business, I would win it,” Curtis said. “But my goal was to get 65 and it hurts I didn’t get it.”
 

 
That sting was eliminated on Saturday when Curtis added the discus title as well.
 
He and Palmer had separated themselves from the rest of 5A throughout the season as the only 5A throwers to go over 180 feet – Palmer throwing a 189-0 at the Emporia State Relays in mid-April and Curtis throwing a 184-11 at the Saints’ home meet in early May.
 
At regionals, they each won with identical marks of 174-5.
 
Palmer had taken second at state to Goodenow last year while Curtis placed third. This season Curtis had gone undefeated throughout the season while Palmer finished runner-up four times to state leader Logan Clay of Wichita Collegiate, winning four times as well.
 
Palmer took the early lead at state, topping Curtis’ opening throw of 170-5 with a 173-8. Those marks held as the top two going into finals and after the first round of throws in the finals. But on his second throw of finals, Curtis pulled out a 177-11 to take the event lead.
 
Palmer threw a bit of a scare into the Saint when he immediately answered with a big throw, only for it to come up just short at 176-5. Palmer then went 159-0 on his final attempt and Curtis had his sweep.
 
“There was a lot of pressure this year,” Curtis said. “I had to get it done.”
 
 

MORE THAN A ONE SHOT WONDER: SMITH CENTER’S WILSON STRIKES DOUBLE GOLD TO LEAD REDMEN TO 2A TITLE
 
Going into the state meet, Brant Wilson considered himself a bit of a longshot to win the Class 2A shot put title.
 
“I’ve kind of struggled with that in years past,” the Smith Center senior said of the event. “And even this year, I’ve struggled.”
 
But as Wilson quickly added, “It only takes one throw and today I got it done.”
 
Fueled to do everything he could to help Smith Center’s bid to win the Class 2A team championship, Wilson erased an otherwise lackluster performance in the shot put competition with a career-best heave of 50 feet, 7.50 inches that propelled him to his second state championship of the meet.
 
On Friday, Wilson had pulled off a mild upset as well, capturing the state championship in the discus with a career-best throw of 171-1. He capped his state meet with a fourth-place finish in the javelin, doing some pretty heavy lifting as Smith Center won the 2A team title with 83 points, eight ahead of Hutchinson Trinity.
 
“I didn’t know if double gold was going to happen this weekend,” Wilson said. “But I knew I needed to get high points if we were going to win as a team. So that was my goal, get high points and get that team championship.”
 
Of the two titles, Wilson figured the shot put would be the toughest to come by. A year ago, he didn’t even qualify for state in the event, taking just eighth at regionals. His top throw his junior season was 44-9.
 
But after putting in extra work in the event in the offseason, Wilson started the 2026 season off strong. He PRed by a foot and a half in his first meet of the season with a 46-0.5. He then jumped up two and a half feet in his next meet to a 48-6.
 
But after throwing 49-1 to win the title at the Beloit Relays on May 1, Wilson suddenly hit a near month-long funk. At three straight meets, he managed only a best of 46-1.5 and placed just fourth at the Mid-Continent League meet.
 
Wilson rebounded at regionals with a career-best 49-4.25 to give him a shot of momentum going into state, finishing runner-up to Plainville’s Tucker Rudman. But at state, his late-season struggles reared their ugly head once again.
 
He began the prelims with a solid throw of 46-4.25 but not only didn’t improve on that over his next two throws, but got worse by a foot each. His opening mark was good enough to get him in finals, but he went into the final three throws sitting just seventh and was still tied for that position after his first throw of finals.
 
But that “it only takes one” mentality showed up in a big way. On his second throw of finals, Wilson put it all together and went over 50 feet for the first time in his career. His throw of 50-7.50 gave him a lead of 3.50 inches over Rudman going into their final throws.
 
Wilson couldn’t improve and had to wait out six other throwers to see if his mark would hold up. Only Horton’s Austin Garrison threw a bit of a scare into Wilson, going 48-7.50, and Rudman fouled his final throw, giving Wilson the title.
 
“I hadn’t thrown great, barely got into finals,” Wilson said. “I just knew I had to get a good one and I got it. I just knew my team needed it.”
 

 
Wilson said the adrenaline for that winning throw might have come from his victory in the discus on Friday. After not enjoying much success in that event as a sophomore, Wilson made a big jump last year, topping out a 163-1, and wound up placing fifth at state.
 
Throwing in the 160s at all but three of Smith Center’s meets this season, Wilson went into state with the second-best throw in 2A at 167-4, trailing Inman’s Bo O’Neill, who had thrown 171-4.
 
Wilson did have the top regional mark, however, throwing 162-0 to just edge O’Neill’s winning regional throw of 161-9.
 
“My first couple of years I wasn’t really good at it, but last year I started to figure it out,” Wilson said of the discus. “I knew at the beginning of the year, this is the one I wanted.”
 
Unlike the shot put, Wilson didn’t need any late heroics to get that coveted title. After fouling on his first attempt, he went over 170 feet for the first time in his career on his second attempt, throwing 171-1.
 
He never improved that mark, but it was more than enough to earn him the title as O’Neill only managed a best of 163-4 to take a distant second with Plainville’s Rudman third at 160-10.
 
“My goal was the school record, which was a 181,” Wilson said. “I didn’t get that, but 171, a state championship, that was always the main goal.”
 
Wilson had originally been slated to throw the javelin Friday night after his discus win. But the javelin was running behind schedule and lightning moved in and delayed the event until the end of Saturday’s schedule.
 
After waiting out two more weather delays on Saturday, Wilson and his fellow competitors in the second flight finally got to throw at 10 p.m. Though he couldn’t quite pull off the triple crown, he and teammates Parker Hutchinson and younger brother Brady Wilson clinched the team title with their performances.
 
Hutchinson took third with a 174-6 while Brant was just behind in fourth at 173-11 and Brady added an eighth with a 162-9. Brady had actually had the best regional mark of the trio with a 180-5 and that was some motivation for Brant as well.
 
“After he beats me, I get to hear it a little, so yeah,” Brant said.
 
Wilson’s big weekend was complemented by senior teammate Gavin Hickert, who was a triple medalist in the distance events. 
 
Hickert began his big state meet by capturing the state title in the 3,200, running a 9:44.71 to win by nearly 14 seconds over Hutchinson Trinity’s John Lindstrom while Lindstrom’s twin brother, John – the 2A cross country champion in the fall – was 16 seconds back in third.
 
While he couldn’t add another title to his collection, Hickert added fourth-place finishes in the 800 and 1,600 to also give the Redmen a boost for their team title. Smith Center also got a runner-up finish from Cole McKelvey in the 200, a pair of top-six finishes from Carson McKelvey in the hurdles and a runner-up finish from the 1,600 relay and fourth from the 3,200 relay.
 
 

 
MIEGE’S TESMER JUMPS UP TO DOUBLE GOLD, JUST MISSES THIRD
 
In some ways, winning his first state track title in the high jump wasn’t much of a surprise for Liam Tesmer.
 
The Bishop Miege sophomore had already been a two-time state placer in his first two seasons, including a tie for third as a sophomore in 2025.
 
But given the struggles he’d had recapturing his previous form this season and the struggles the entire field was going through to start off the State Outdoor championships, there was a bit of a surprise element added to Tesmer fulfilling that quest for a state title in the event.
 
“Nobody was really jumping great so I was like, ‘Shoot, I hope this doesn’t happen to me,’” Tesmer said of the 4A competition that was held in the first session of the state meet on Friday. “But I stayed consistent and that’s what got it done.”
 
Tesmer avoided the struggles his fellow competitors and enjoyed his best day of the season in the event. After failing to reach his career-best mark of 6-6 throughout the season – a height he had cleared as both a freshman and sophomore – Tesmer was able to match it on his second attempt.
 
By that time, he already has the state title in hand as all six of the jumpers who had cleared 6-2 – three needing multiple attempts – bowed out with misses at 6-4 leaving Tesmer as the state champion after he cleared that height on his first attempt.
 
The championship was the first of two on the day for Tesmer with the other also a bit of a surprise.
 
Before last year, Tesmer had never really taken to the long jump, competing almost exclusively in the high jump and triple jump. But he added the event to his repertoire last year and experienced immediate success, going 21-10 at his first meet to win the title at the Topeka West Invitational.
 
Though he never bettered that mark a year ago, he equaled it at the state meet and wound up finishing second to Ulysses’ Aden Alvarado, who went 22-7.75 for the title.
 
“I had a lot to learn so there was a lot of room for improvement,” Tesmer said. “I just started taking it seriously.”
 
Tesmer’s investment into the event has paid dividends this season. He began the year with a 21-3.25 but has been over 22 feet in every other meet. He made a huge leap at the Eastern Kansas League meet, literally, with a career-best jump of 24-2.75 that ranked as the third-best overall mark in the state this spring.
 
Though he couldn’t duplicate that performance at state, Tesmer still went 22-11.25 and that was good enough to hold off Rock Creek’s Aidan Torrey for the state title with Torrey throwing a bit of a scare into Tesmer with his final attempt, falling just short at 22-8.25.
 
It was Tesmer doing the chasing in Saturday’s triple jump event and he nearly got there to get the triple crown. Class 4A leader Adrian Adigun of Hugoton threw out a huge jump of 46-11.25 on his second attempt of prelims to set the bar for the rest of the 4A field, a mark that was six inches further than his previous 4A-leading mark of 47-5 and a foot and a half farther than Tesmer had ever gone with his best ahead of state a 46-4.5.
 
But sitting second going into finals with a 46-3 in prelims, Tesmer opened the finals with a huge jump he thought had maybe caught or surpassed Adigun’s leading distance. Instead, it was just short, measuring 47-8.5.
 
“Three inches off,” Tesmer said. “I thought I got it, but then I didn’t. But it was a big PR, so I was happy. It was a good jump so I wasn’t too mad not to get it. I’ll be ready to go for the triple crown next year.”