Hours after emphatically cementing his name in Kansas hurdling history, Shinji Pollard was still at a loss of words.
 
“I still can’t believe it,” Pollard said. “I was just trying to prove a point. I was showing everybody the bib, like, ‘This this is me. This is what I do.’”
 
Who is Shinji Pollard?
 
Well, after his performance at this year’s State Track and Field Championships, the Piper senior very well could be considered one of the very best hurdlers in Kansas history. Already the top hurdler in the state this year after putting up times during the season that had him in the conversation among the state’s all-time best, Pollard was the talk of the state meet after blazing his way to a sweep of the Class 5A state titles.
 
In particular, the buzz reached an early crescendo after Pollard not only took down the 5A state meet record in the 110 hurdles, but did so with a time that only two others in state history have eclipsed. His 13.69 not only blew away the 5A meet record of 13.90 set by St. Thomas Aquinas’ Noah Green in 2017 but also was the fastest time ever recorded at the state meet in any classification.
 
In state history, it only ranks behind a 13.51 that Green during the 2017 regular season and a wind-aided 13.4 from Highland Park’s Jared Huske in 2005.
 
Upon crossing the finish line, Pollard immediately let out a celebratory scream. Upon seeing his time flash on the scoreboard at the north end of Crossland Stadium, he immediately pointed at the scoreboard, then pounded his chest before pulling on the front of his jersey and number bib for anyone and everyone to see.
 
“I don’t even know the emotions I was going through,” Pollard said. “It looked like I was angry, but I was so happy.”
 

 
It was a strikingly different image than a year ago at the state meet.
 
Last year’s 110 field was absolutely loaded with Pollard, Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Dawson Grabendike and Bishop Carroll’s Caleb DeGroot all within .12 seconds of each other with their best times heading into state. And coming into the final hurdle of the state finals, the trio were virtually side-by-side-by-side.
 
Pollard and Garbendike both leaned at the finish and Pollard thought he might have won. But Grabendike claimed the victory by a mere .02 seconds in 14.10, leaving Pollard with his hands on his head in disbelief.
 
“That’s literally the image I pictured getting in the set position for the 110s,” Pollard said. “I’ve always felt like the underdog, particularly when Jayden Henry (former Piper standout and 2023 110s state champion) was always whipping my butt. I had to better myself, become a better athlete and win it for myself.”
 
This year’s competition for the title came from Carroll’s Noah Holthusen, who had run a 14.17 earlier this season. And Pollard was quick to credit the Golden Eagle senior for helping produce his state-meet record run.
 
“Oh my gosh, I have to give him a shout out,” Pollard said. “He beat me off the fourth hurdle and I’ve never had someone beat me off that hurdle like that. I’m thankful for him. I would not have PRed without him.”
 
Pollard turned back that challenge and closed with a fury to get the state record.
 
“I set high expectations for myself that I can’t reach until it’s reachable,” Pollard said of his record time. “I knew some day, some time, at any meet I’d be able to do it. And today was the day.”
 

 
Pollard and Holthusen also battled in the 300 hurdles with Pollard once again holding off his rival for the title, winning in 37.16 to Holthusen’s runner-up 37.59. While the mark fell short of the 5A state meet record of 36.80 set by El Dorado’s Troy Brown in 1987, the time was a career-best for Pollard and ranks him seventh all-time.
 
His biggest challenge for that race may have been trying to put his record-setting performance in the 110s behind him.
 
“I was trying to warm up and focus for my 300s and people kept coming up and talking to me about it and congratulating me,” Pollard said. “It was hard to focus but I was able to lock in.”
 
Pollard first burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2023 when he and Henry gave the Pirates the top hurdling duo in the state. While Henry was winning the state title that season in the 110 hurdles, Pollard took seventh and then came back to edge Henry for third in the 300 hurdles.
 
Looking to build off that, his sophomore year had a disappointing finish. He crashed in the 100 finals at regionals and didn’t make it to state and though he qualified for state in the 300s, he didn’t make finals.
 
He came back with a vengeance last year with his runner-up in the 110s and an eighth in the 300s at state. But this year, Pollard was on another level.
 
“It’s well-deserved with the hard work and sacrifices I’ve made,” Pollard said. “Focusing everything on track, it’s a result of all the hard work I did in the offseason. It’s amazing. I don’t think anything can replace this feeling.”
 
What started as something he thought would “be cool, a hobby” when he took up hurdling in middle school has evolved into something far bigger.
 
“It’s a mentality, a lifestyle,” Pollard said. “I live it, breathe it.”
 

 
WICHITA COLLEGIATE’S RITCHIE DELIVERS TRIPLE CROWN IN 3A SPRINTS
 
It took all of one race at last year’s state meet for Timmy Ritchie to become “the next big thing” on the Kansas high school sprint scene.
 
In between runner-up finishes to Burlington’s Brody Anderson in the 100 and 200, the Wichita Collegiate speedster made his own mark, throwing down a time of 47 seconds flat in winning the Class 3A 400 state championship.
 
For anyone, it was a time that turned heads, ranking as the sixth-best 400 time in Kansas history. But for a sophomore to do it, well, expectations for Ritchie’s future went through the roof.
 
“I’d say there was a lot of pressure going into this year,” Ritchie said. “I set my goals really high for all my stuff and I know a lot of people expected a lot of me as well.”
 
Instead of letting both self and outer expectations become a burden during his junior season this spring, Ritchie used them as fuel. He went undefeated throughout the season in the 200 and 400 and lost just once in the 100, that coming at the Spartans’ second meet of the season.
 
Holding the target on his back as the guy to beat at the state meet, Ritchie wore that like a champion as well. He successfully defended his 400 title, holding off Osage City’s Quenten Stark down the stretch, and sandwiched that title defense with the 100 and 200 crowns that just eluded him a year ago, beating Bishop Ward’s Devontae Davis for both.
 

 
Despite getting the 3A sprints triple crown, Ritchie was far from satisfied, which speaks to the expectations he was trying to living up to – mainly his own.
 
“I didn’t do as good as I wanted to,” he said. “It was great this weekend, but I was looking for better times. Last year was definitely something different. Brody really pushed me so much and it was so nice having him to look up to. This year, there were a lot of people around. And I’ve been hurt a little bit, too.”
 
Dealing with hip flexor and hamstring issues throughout the season, Ritchie hadn’t come close to that 47 in the 400 he ran a year ago with his season best going into state a 48.29 that still had him ranked first in 3A by nearly a second and third in the state overall.
 
But he had improved his best in the 100 from the 10.50 he ran in last year’s state finals – just .01 behind Anderson’s state-meet record time of 10.49. And his top 200 mark ahead of state of 21.81 was just off his best of 21.46 run in last year’s state finals (Anderson also setting the meet record in 21.18) and second to Davis’ 3A-leading time of 21.77.
 
He calls the 200 his “worst race” with the technical aspects of the race something he’s still fine-tuning. The learning curve is greatest in the curve at the start of the race and after qualifying with a solid 21.93 in Friday’s prelims, Ritchie made a rather bold move for the finals.
 
He changed his form.
 
“I’ve always kind of really leaned into the curve,” Ritchie said. “I just tried to stay more upright which I think really helped. I was talking to Gaige (McGaughey, Ulysses’ sprint standout) and he’s a good 200 runner. And he taught me that.”
 
It worked quite well in fact as Ritchie turned in his best 200 time of his career to win in 21.45, .39 seconds ahead of Davis.
 
That capped Ritchie’s triple gold showing. He began the day by out-dueling Davis for the 100 title, winning in 10.68 to beat Davis by .21 seconds with Holcomb’s Avery McVey right behind in third in 10.89.
 
He got more of a challenge than might be expected in the 400 with Stark having never dipped below 49 seconds in the event in his career and had only run the race at three meets before state. But the Indian standout stuck right on Ritchie’s heels throughout the race to finish in a career-best 47.84 – almost a two-second drop from his previous best of 49.52 in the prelims – while Ritchie finished in 47.49.
 
“It means a lot because not everybody get to do that,” Ritchie said. “I felt pressure, especially going against Davontae in the 200. I hadn’t really run a good 200 this year. I thought it would be really close and it was, and so was the 100 with him and Avery. I’d race Avery before and only beat him by .04.”
 
In addition to being a state champion on the track, Ritchie has a hobby that he’s fast-tracked success in. He’s a member of Collegiate’s bowling team and not only made it to state this year but found himself in contention for the Class 4-1A individual state title when he rolled a 276 opening game at this year’s state meet at Bowlero Northrock.
 
A rough second game of 151 dropped him out of contention for the title, but he rebounded with a 231 final game and placed 13th individually.
 
“Bowling is so fun, I love it,” Ritchie said. “Our whole team is kind of like me, we all have our other sports that we play and then just love doing bowling too.”
 
So what’s tougher: Winning the 3A triple crown or picking up a 7-10 split?
 
“The 7-10 split, definitely.”

 

KAPAUN’S ENRIQUEZ ADDS 5A 3,200 RECORD TO HIS COLLECTION
 
A motivated Daniel Enriquez emerged as a sight to see when it came to the Class 5A state track meet.
 
The Kapaun Mt. Carmel distance standout showed that at the 2025 high school season finale, using the postseason HOKA Festival of Miles qualifying standard as a target while blazing to a meet-record 4:06.58 to win the 1,600 meters.
 
Enriquez, an Oklahoma State signee, was at it again on the opening day of his final state appearance. Buoyed by the track announcer’s proclamation that he was on pace for a meet record, Enriquez turned on the jets to win the 5A 3,200. He pulled away from a pack that included Seaman’s Brody Anderson, Andover’s Aidan Braun and Blue Valley Southwest’s Andrew Claar, winning the race in 8:59.18 to kick off a successful high school swansong.
 
“The motivation was definitely my team,” said Enriquez, who won the 3,200 for the second straight year before defending his title in the 1,600 the following day. “I just wanted to put it out there for them. We’ve won the past two state championships for track, so I just want to win it three years in a row.”
 
The Crusaders’ 5A reign ultimately ended with a second-place finish to St. James Academy. But Enriquez, a highly decorated competitor throughout his career, put on a good final show. While just missing his personal-best time – and No. 9 all-time in Kansas – of 8:58.77 set at last year’s Kansas Relays, Enriquez moved the 5A meet record under 9 minutes, bumping the previous mark of 9:05.39 set by St. Thomas Aquinas’ Thomas Hazen in 2021.
 

Enriquez ran his final 800 in 2:02.77, with a closing lap of 1:00.19 to fend off runner-up Anderson by more than 6 seconds. The final push was reminiscent of Enriquez’s pacing in last year’s state 1,600, which he turned into a one-man show in winning by nearly 7 seconds.
 
“It was pretty similar,” Enriquez said. “In my mind, this was just a lap. I needed to power through it and hurt as much as I could at the end. That was the goal.”
 
Enriquez, who led Kapaun to the 5A cross country title last fall and joined his older brother Erik as an individual state champion, made it back-to-back double gold at state track with his victory in the 1,600. After running the fifth-best time in state history in last year’s victory, Enriquez repeated in a time of 4:07.92, well ahead of Anderson’s runner-up time of 4:12.48.
 
Anderson got his win later in the day in the 5A 800, outkicking Valley Center’s Nathan Webb and Enriquez. All three, however, took down a 41-year-old meet record set by Bishop Miege’s Kevin Waters. Anderson won in 1:52.08, Webb crossed in 1:52.78 and Enriquez finished in 1:52.99 – all personal bests.
 
Enriquez set the first boys record of this year’s meet in his final 3,200. It came right after his Crusader teammate, Ava Claassen, won the 5A girls 3,200 in 10:04.27 – also a meet record. Enriquez said he was energized by the performance of Claassen, who ran the state’s all-time fastest 3,200 (10:01.55) in early May at the Shawnee Mission North Relays.
 
“It’s so amazing,” Enriquez said. “I’m sure when she came in and saw some of the things I was doing, she was like, ‘Let’s get after it.’ Now she’s done incredible things as a sophomore. It’s super impressive and I’ve been like, ‘I’ve got to get after it, too.’”