The expectations were through the roof for Ellei McCrory going into the 2024-25 school yar.
 
As a freshman in 2023-24, McCrory had set the bar extremely high.
 
In her debut season for Northern Heights, she first served notice as to how special of a year it would be when she left the 3-1A field far behind in winning the cross country title at the Wamego Invitational and then returned a month later to run away with the Class 1A state title, beating defending champion Emma Weiner of Golden Plains by nearly a minute for the crown.
 
That spring, her sensational run continued as McCrory swept the 1A track titles in the 3,200 and 1,600, winning the 3,200 by 27 seconds and the 1,600 by 11 seconds.
 
Exploding on the state distance running scene, McCroy seemed destined to join some of the all-time state greats, particularly at the small-school level.
 
But the journey between those state championships and the one McCrory captured when she won the Class 2A 3,200 race at this year’s State Track and Field Championships in Wichita was anything but smooth sailing. In fact, a career of greatness was nearly lost all together.
 
“It’s been really hard,” McCrory said. “All I can say is, Thank you Jesus. Thank you to my family and friends who never stopped believing in me when I stopped believing in myself. I honestly can’t explain how hard it’s been and how many times I doubted if I could ever get back to the top.
 
“The only thing that kept me coming back is I’m free and I don’t have to worry about what other people think about me or what I think about myself because the most important thing is Jesus died on the cross for me and that gives me the biggest freedom I could ever ask for, even when running keeps disappointing me.”
 
Coming off her dazzling debut season, disappointment and running would have never seemed to go hand in hand for McCrory. She had gone undefeated during the cross country season, running in the mid-to-high 18-minute range for most of the season while dipping down to a career-best 17:48.02 at the Osage City Invitational.
 
That spring, the only races she lost in the 1,600 and 3,200 came against prestigious fields at the Emporia State and Kansas Relays.
 
But during her sophomore cross country season, things began to turn for McCrory. After opening the year with times in her first two meets that were just slightly off her usual marks from her freshman year, McCrory began to deal with what was then an unknown health problem.
 
Fatigue set in rapidly and she lacked the stamina and strength she had possessed her freshman year. After missing nearly a month, McCrory returned in early October for the Osage City Invitational, missed the next two weeks before winning a regional title.
 
Favored to defend her Class 1A cross country title from 2023, McCrory faded at the finish and placed third, finishing in 20:34.68 – two minutes slower than her state winning time from the previous season.
 
That prompted her and her family to seek medical help for her situation and ultimately she was diagnosed with RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) where the body can’t keep up with the rigorous demands of daily training and basic bodily functions.
 
She battled it throughout her entire sophomore track season, running just four 3,200 races. McCrory qualified for state, but wound up taking dead last in the 1A 3,200 race she had dominated a year before.
 
“One of the biggest things was decreasing performance,” McCrory said. “I was increasing my miles and in my mind, I should have been able to win state. But just a half mile in my energy level was just sapped. I just knew something wasn’t right.”
 
Even in taking measures to combat the RED-S diagnosis this year, McCrory hadn’t really been seeing the results she expected. During cross country she did get back down under 19 minutes at the Lyon County League meet with an 18:45.00, but at state again couldn’t make a push to challenge defending 2A champion Madison Howland of Smith Center, taking a distant fifth in 20:01.03.
 
The longer she went without seeing the results she’d desired, the tougher it was for McCrory to keep going.
 
“I crumbled quite a few times,” she said.
 

 
This spring, however, McCrory began feeling a bit like her normal self. She won her first five 1,600 races of the season and also won five 3,200s with her only two losses coming against large-school competition at the RunningLane Kansas City Relays and Shawnee Mission North Relays.
 
With Smith Center’s Howland coming off a triple crown sweep of the Class 2A 800, 1,600 and 3,200 last season, McCrory’s bid to get back on top had a pretty serious roadblock. But determined to show she still had what it took to be a state champion, McCrory didn’t let Howland stand in her way.
 
McCrory let Howland set the race pace for the first two-plus laps and sat fourth through 800 meters and third through 1,200. But she moved up to just off Howland’s shoulder at the 1,600 mark and at the 2,400 mark McCrory made her move.
 
Having just taken the lead, she turned on a kick with two laps to go to open up a lead of nearly nine seconds on Howland, who opted not to go with McCrory. Though McCrory slowed by five seconds on her final lap, Howland never could close the gap and McCrory’s winning time of 11:10.83 was 11 seconds faster than Howland’s runner-up time of 11:21.91.
 
“It’s really amazing,” McCrory said. “I’ve cried so many times just thinking about it and I’m sure I’ll cry tonight. Last year around this time, I was so down and people kept telling me, ‘You can get back there.’ I finally believe it.”
 
McCrory’s winning time was 11 seconds slower than her state winning time as a freshman and is an indication that she’s close to being back to the bar she set so high in 2023-24.
 
“I’m still not quite there yet,” McCrory said about being all the way back. “That last lap, I got really dizzy and I was praying the whole time I’d finish. That journey of recovery from RED-S can take a year and a half to two years and I’m just ending that first threshold so we will see how long it takes.
 
McCrory also came back to place third in the 1,600 and help Heights’ 3,200 relay to a runner-up state finish.
 

 
While McCrory was getting some measure of redemption with her state title, so to was teammate Jaitlyn Johnson.
 
As a sophomore and junior, Johnson was making noise as one of the top small school discus throwers in the state. She went into her sophomore state meet fresh off throwing a 1A-best 129-4 at regionals and as a junior was ranked No. 2 in 1A after a regional title with a season-best of 136-6.
 
But each of those seasons, the state meet was a disaster for Johnson.
 
In 2024, she fouled all three of her preliminary throws and came away empty-handed. Last year, it happened again. Three prelim throws. Three fouls.
 
“I just couldn’t get my foot around,” Johnson said of her state woes. “I just kept tripping over myself. It really took a huge toll on me.”
 
Northern Heights moved up to 2A this season, and once again Johnson found herself in a familiar place going into the state meet. With a throw of 142-10 at regionals, she once again was the favorite to win a state title.
 
Instead of letting past seasons’ disappointments consume her thoughts, Johnson entered this year’s state meet with a free mind.
 
“I looked at how many people I have in my life and thought, ‘You know what? It’s all right. I’ve made it here and that’s all that matters,’” Johnson said.
 
But then she added.
 
“I wanted to show up and show out.”
 
Johnson played it safe with her opening throw of the competition to ensure a mark and had a modest 116-8 that was more than enough to get her into finals. With a counting throw under her belt, Johnson relaxed and let it fly on her next five attempts.
 
Three did end in fouls, but her last throw of prelims was a 136-6 that shot her into the event lead and her final toss was a 133-1 that punctuated a state championship. No other thrower in 2A went farther than 125 feet with Rawlins County’s Kayte Shively taking second with a 124-3.
 
“Resilience has really taught me a lot,” Johnson said. “Everyone that stuck with me throughout it, that’s what got me here. I had no goals really. I just wanted to get a mark and once I did I could go after it. I almost cried (after her winning toss), had to stop and get it back together. I had more throws.
 
“But I’m so happy, beyond words. Everything I’ve gone through I was able to go out with a bang.”
 

 
WELLSVILLE’S STRAIN GETS HER MARK, SWEEPS 3A HURDLES TITLES
 
Ellie Strain spent the last half of her junior season at Wellsville chasing Burlington’s Keely Hoback in the 100 hurdles.
 
She never was able to catch her Pioneer League rival, taking second to her at league, regionals and the state meet. At state, she watched Hoback break the 3A meet record when she ran a 14.18.
 
“She pushed me so much,” Strain said of Hoback, who was a senior last spring. “I was even thinking about her last night and this entire season really.”
 
There was good reason Hoback entered Strain’s thoughts after Friday’s prelims. The Wellsville senior had finally caught her.
 
Not in a head-to-head race. But in the record books.
 
In running a 14.17 during 3A qualifying, Strain broke the meet record Hoback had set last year. Strain had run a 14.09 earlier in the season at the Paola Invitational, that also coming in the prelims. She followed it up with a 14.18 in the finals at Paola with her times at the meet making Strain the overall state leader in the event this season.
 
Even with Hoback no longer around, Strain had plenty of competition for the vacated 100 hurdles title with Beloit’s Dakota Gray (third last year) having run a 14.77 and Perry-Lecompton’s Macie Corcoran and Lakin’s Aryn Michaelis both within less than a tenth of a second of breaking 15 seconds as well.
 
And that’s exactly what Strain needed and wanted as she went after the hurdles title that eluded her a year ago.
 
“I run a lot better when I have someone right there, just in my mind it’s a lot easier when I know they’re right there,” Strain said. “Even though I’ve been running good times all year, one little mishap can happen in that race so I was really focused to make sure I was locked in for that race.”
 
Strain encountered no mishaps in both the prelims, running the meet record 14.17, or in the finals where she turned in a 14.37 to handily beat Gray, who was second in 15.03.
 
In between runner-up finish to all-time state great Ashley Lehman of Hesston in the 100 and 200, Strain came back in the event she won a year ago – the 300 hurdles – and successfully defended her title from a year ago. Strain ran a career-best 43.80 that was more than a second ahead of the Perry-Lecompton duo of Emmy Reed (second, 44.97) and Corcoran (third, 44.98) and was just .04 away from the 3A meet record of 43.76 set by another Burlington hurdling great, Katie Guevel who had held the 100 hurdles record until Hoback topped it last year and Strain this year.
 
“I’m super, super proud of that race,” Strain said. “All the elements throughout, I ran a really good curve, had a really good start and a really good finish. I’m happy with it.”
 
Strain finished the season undefeated in both hurdle races.
 
“(Winning both) really means a lot to me,” she said. “It’s been a goal for me and I’m really hard on myself of wanting to get specific goals. I’m glad I’m able to complete that.”
 
Wellsville also got a title from Alana Green in the 3A long jump as the Eagles finished third in the Class 3A team standings behind Hesston and Beloit.
 
Green had the second-best jump in 3A this season behind Beloit’s Brecken Boudreaux, who had gone over 19 feet to a best of 18-7 for Green. But Boudreaux was two feet off her best at state, going only 17-4.5 and though Green also fell a foot short of her season best, her 17-8 was enough to give her the win by 1.75 inches over Marysville’s Sarah Miller.
 

ONAGA’S WEISER GOES BACK-TO-BACK, GETS GOLDEN COMPANY FROM FORDHAM
 
With the top five placers in last year’s Class 1A pole vault competition returning this spring, Lillie Weiser knew defending her state title was going to be no easy task.
 
Heck, just winning it a year ago was a major challenge as the Onaga standout wound up winning on misses as she, Twin Valley League rival Jordi Fahey of Clifton-Clyde and Kallie Richardson of Wallace County all finished with clearances of 10-6.
 
And even with a season-best of 11-1 this season, Weiser hadn’t separated herself from the pack with Richardson (third last year) and South Gray’s Jacee Deges (fourth last year) also had gone 11-0 and Quinter’s Peyton Baalman having gone 10-9.
 
That title defense was up against it when Weiser missed her first two attempts at 10-0 while Deges, Richardson and Fahey all cleared the height on their first attempts and Frankfort’s Holland Shirley got it (a PR) on her second try.
 
“My head was spinning,” Weiser said. “I hadn’t been in a position like that in a long time, which brought up some fear that I quickly had to combat if I wanted to make the bar. I trusted my own training and my coaches’ knowledge but I didn’t trust the biggest pole I had with me because I had never jumped on it before. Using a pole for the first time without being sure if I would make it far enough into the pit for a safe vault let alone over the bar was nerve-wracking but I dug deep, trusted in God’s pan for me and did what I needed to do to clear the bar, even if it wasn’t my prettiest vault.”
 
Facing the prospects of placing no better than fifth, Weiser came through. She cleared 10-0 on her final attempt and that locked her in. She got over 10-6 on her first attempt while Deges got it on her second and Richardson and Fahey on their third. Weiser then cleared 11-0 on her first try and when the remaining trio all missed all three attempts, a second straight title was hers.
 
“It had been a competitive field for me all year with three over state medalists in the TVL,” said Weiser, who then pushed the bar to 11-7.25 to go after the meet record of 11-7 set by Wallace County’s Keara Walsh in 2000, but missed all three tries at that height. “I think that truly prepared me for state. I am someone who watches Athletic.net religiously so seeing other girls from around the state also clearing 11-0 excited me. I love a good, fun and healthy competition. Winning was very satisfying, especially with some state record attempts and a good clearance over the winning bar on my first attempt under my belt. But my favorite part of the day was getting to share excitement with the other competitors as they reached new heights too.”
 
Weiser also fourth at state in the triple jump and high jump, setting a PR in the high jump with a 5-2, and added a seventh in the long jump.
 

 
She wasn’t the lone Buffalo to bring home a gold from the state meet. Senior teammate Emmarsyn Fordham took advantage of a slightly off day from 1A leader Mackenzie Woolf of Wallace County to win the Class 1A shot put title.
 
Fordham trailed Woolf by six inches going into the finals after Woolf threw 39-11.75 on her final prelim attempt. But on her second throw of finals, Fordham popped a career-best throw of 40-9 to win by nearly a foot as Woolf didn’t improve on her three finals throws.
 

 
NEW FACES CONTINUE BELOIT’S THROWS TRADITION IN 3A WITH TITLES
 
Until this year, Bently Pruitt had never thrown the shot put during a track meet with pole vaulting, hurdles and sprints primarily her specialty. Especially the pole vault, where she placed third in Class 3A at last year’s state meet.
 
But with the graduation of two-time state champion Tatum Seyfert and fellow thrower Addison Budke, last year’s runner-up, Beloit had a vacancy that needed filled in that event this year and Pruitt decided to give it a shot.
 
“When Mr. (Garry) Lowry told me I was going to throw shot put, I was caught off guard and definitely was nervous,” Pruitt said. “But Mr. (Casey) Seyfert made me feel so comfortable and confident.”
 
Turned out to be a golden decision.
 
Pruitt finished fourth in the shot put at her first meet of the season, but didn’t lose again the rest of the year. She capped a breakthrough year by following in Seyfert’s footsteps and claiming the Class 3A shot put title.
 
Unlike Seyfert’s runaway victories the past two seasons, Pruitt’s was anything but comfortable. It looked like it might be when Pruitt threw 41-0.75 on her final throw of prelims to take the event lead by more than two feet over Osage City’s Kaelyn Boss.
 
But the start of finals made things interesting quickly. Sitting just seventh coming out of prelims, 3A season-leader Autry Young of Cheney found her form on her first throw of finals. Having gone 41-9.75 earlier this season to rank third overall in the state, she once again went over 41 feet with the toss.
 
But it fell just a quarter inch shy of Pruitt’s event-leading mark and when Young couldn’t recapture that form on her final two throws, Pruitt had the title by the narrowest of margins – 41-0.75 to 41-0.5.
 
“When I started to figure out my strength and how successful I was becoming in the weight room, I thought I definitely had potential, but I would have never expected to be a state champion,” Pruitt said. “Once I realized I had one of the top marks in the state at the second meet it really made me strive to go be one of the greats like the people before me. Having so many successful people around me every day in practice and a great coach like Mr. Seyfert made the experience so special and I’m so grateful to have coaches, family and a community that  believe in me.”
 
Riverton’s Savannah Mathews also had thrown a little scare into Pruitt when she hit a PR throw of 40-2.5 on her first throw of finals, taking third.
 

 
While Beloit couldn’t crown another champion in the discus this year following Seyfert’s sweep a year ago, the Trojans did come up with another golden performance in the throws as Autumn Lorenz dethroned Osage City’s Boss in the 3A javelin competition.
 
Runner-up to Boss at state a year ago by just over a foot, Lorenz spent this season as the 3A leader after throwing 137-10 at the Lions Club Meet at Belleville in mid-April and upping her best to a 144-6 at the Beloit Relays in early May.
 
After fouling on her first attempt at state, Lorenz got the only throw she wound up needing to win the title when she went 132-6 on her second attempt. She steadily improved to 136-11 and 138-11, the latter proving to be her winning distance as she won by more than eight feet over Nemaha Central’s Ali Henry, who went 130-9.
 

 
Defending champion Boss never found her groove in the javelin, managing just a best of 122-7 that was nearly 15 feet off her season best of 137-4. But while the Osage City sophomore wasn’t able to defend her javelin title, placing seventh, she didn’t come home without a gold medal for the second straight year.
 
A state qualifier in all three throws, she followed in the footsteps of her older sister Lexi and captured the state title in the discus. Lexi won the 3A title in the event in 2024 before seeing Beloit’s Seyfert knock her off last year.
 
But Kaelyn brought the crown back to the Boss household, backing up her distinction as being the top thrower in the event in 3A this spring. She threw 132-11 on her opening attempt of the meet and that held up as the winning mark with Hesston’s Tessa Martin taking second with a career-best 127-10, also coming on her first throw of the competition.
 

 
WURTZ, BAKER LEAD CLIFTON-CLYDE TO 1A TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
 
 Throughout her four-year career at Clifton-Clyde, Sevy Wurtz had accomplished about everything one could from an individual standpoint, ranging from becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball to winning multiple state championships in track.
 
And she added to that individual collection at state again this spring, capturing the Class 1A state title in the long jump for the third straight year.
 
But the one achievement that has eluded Wurtz throughout her decorated career was a team state championship. 
 
No longer.
 
With Wurtz producing four top-three finishes at this year’s state meet and teammate Calyn Baker adding a pair of top-three finishes as well, Clifton-Clyde captured the Class 1A girls team championship – the first for the program since winning the 2A title in 1999. Clifton-Clyde finished with 53.5 points to dethrone defending champion Ellis, which finished second with 48 points. 
 
The Eagles had taken second to Ellis a year ago by eight points and also finished runner-up to Twin Valley League rival Washington County in the 2024 team race.
 
“Winning a state championship was a goal of mine all throughout high school,” Wurtz said. “After realizing that goal was finally coming true, I couldn’t have been happier. I am so proud of my teammates and all the hard work we have put in to make this happen.”
 
Wurtz racked up more than half of the Eagles’ point total on her own. The two-time reigning champion in the long jump after taking titles as a sophomore and junior – the first by a mere 2.25 inches over Wheatland-Grinnell’s Aliviah Ball and the second by just four inches over South Gray’s Kylie Stapleton.
 
This season brought a new challenge as Ness City standout Taegin Liggett emerged as the top jumper in 1A this season after having not competed in the event at state in the past. The two already had a nice little rivalry going after Liggett knocked off Wurtz to win the 100 state title last year after Wurtz had won the 100 title as a sophomore in 2024.
 
During the season, Liggett had gone over 19 feet with a jump of 19-2.5 – a threshold Wurtz had yet to hit during her career though she came close at regionals with a career-best mark of 18-10.5.
 
Wurtz set the early pace at state, going 17-9.75 on her first attempt. Liggett answered with a 17-7.75 on her third prelim attempt while Golden Plains’ Brenlynn Rath was right in the mix as well with a 17-6.5.
 
When Liggett opted to pass her three jumps in the finals while running preliminaries for the 100, 400 and 300 hurdles, Wurtz just had to fight off Rath, who never improved on her preliminary mark. Wurtz, meanwhile, capped her third long jump title with a jump of 18-4 in the finals.
 
She also mixed in prelim runs in the 100 and 200 and easily advanced to finals. Looking to get back her 100 title, Wurtz saw Liggett run a meet-record time of 12.11 in the finals to beat her by .13 seconds.
 
“While preparing for the state meet, I knew her and I would be competing back and forth for titles in both events,” Wurtz said of battling Liggett. “It’s been great competing with her over the years at state.”
 
Wurtz also took third in the 200 behind Ellis’ Evelyn Merriman and Hanover’s Gracie Bruna with just .20 seconds separating the trio – Merriman winning in 25.54 with Bruna second in 25.68 and Wurtz third in 25.74. The Eagle senior capped her meet with a third-place finish in the triple jump behind four-time state champion Havana Olander of Little River and Golden Plains’ Rath.
 
She finished her career with four state gold medals and 10 other top-five finishes.
 

 
Senior teammate Baker, meanwhile, was a double medalist in the throwing events. State runner-up in the discus last year, Baker took second again this year, throwing 132-7 to finish five feet behind Wallace County’s Lyla Pearce, who won with a 137-9.
 
Baker also was right in the hunt for the shot put title, throwing 39-8.5 on her next-to-last attempt of finals to jump from fifth to third, finishing behind Twin Valley League rival Emmarsyn Fordham of Onaga (40-9) and Wallace County’s Mackenzie Woolf (39-11.75).
 
Clifton-Clyde also got a third from Jordi Fahey in the pole vault and fifth from Paige Joy in the javelin.
 
 
WABAUNSEE’S ZELLER FOLLOWING, ERASING STANDARD SET BY FORMER TEAMMATE
 
Grace Zeller doesn’t need to look at the record boards to know the standards she’s chasing to create her own legacy in Wabaunsee track history.

She got to see it every day in practice during her freshman and sophomore seasons, running along side what had become the gold standard in middle and distance running at Wabaunsee. When Payton Wurtz graduated from the Charger program in 2025, she held every school record from the 400 through the 3,200.
 
“Payton was an amazing runner and someone I looked up to so much,” Zeller said of Wurtz, who ran on three state championship relays with her in 2024 and 2025 -- the 2A meet-record setting 1,600 relay in 2024 and back-to-back 3,200 relay champions. “She’s a great friend and she’s been nothing but supportive of me.”
 
And motivation for her as well. After finishing behind Wurtz in the Class 2A 800 each of the past two seasons with Wurtz taking the title in 2024 and finishing runner-up to Smith Center’s Madison Howland last spring, Zeller has spent this season – her first without Wurtz as a teammate – continuing the trail that Wurtz had blazed.

Earlier this season, Zeller broke Wurtz’s school record in the 400, running a 58.76 at the Solomon Invitational and then lowering it to a 58.71 at regionals. That prompted a call from Wurtz, who offered up her congratulations.
 
Zeller’s performance at state in the 800, however, may warrant some in-person congratulations. Moving down to 1A after those two straight third-place finishes in Class 2A, Zeller stunned not only the field, but perhaps herself with the race she turned in to follow in Wurtz’s footsteps as a state champion.
 
Going into the meet with a season-best of 2:20.02 that had her nearly four seconds off Wurtz’s school record time of 2:16.16, Zeller found a gear she hadn’t tapped into previously. She set a fast pace with a 1:03.04 first lap that produced a one-second lead on 1A season leader Lilly Bruna of Hanover and then used her 400 speed to power her way home to a time of 2:13.76.
 
Not only did it whack a whopping two and a half seconds off the school record, it also demolished the previous 1A state meet record of 2:16.44 set by South Gray’s Kylie Stapleton a year ago.
 
“My coaches told me earlier in the season that it was a 2:16 so I was preparing for it for sure,” Zeller said of the meet record. “To break it by that much, it was a big PR and that was pretty exciting. I had the 4X800 before it so I was trying to save a little, if that’s possible at a state meet, but I had prepared well for this.
 
“I feel really blessed. It’s taken me a lot to get here. I feel so grateful for all my teammates and coaches and the training I’ve had.”
 
Zeller also placed third in the 400 and anchored Wabaunsee’s 3,200 relay to a third-place finish and the 1600 relay to a sixth-place showing.
 

 
OTHER NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS GIRLS STATE CHAMPIONS

• Centralia set a Class 1A meet record in the 400 relay. Going in with a season best of 49.13, the foursome of Hayden Kramer, Harper Kramer, Malayna Becker and Carlee Steinlage set a state meet record with a 48.56 in the prelims that took over a second off the old record of 49.60 set last year by Ness City. The Panthers followed it up with a 48.98 in the finals that was just off their record time, but still good enough to hold off Canton-Galva for the title with the Eagles taking second in 50.68.

 

 

• Manhattan got caught up in the record-setting jet stream that set in during the 3,200 relay races. After Baldwin took down the 4A meet record and Kapaun Mt. Carmel followed with the 5A mark, the Indian relay team of Talia Tindall, Zara Koehn, Allison Knopp and Gabrielle Converse smashed the previous 6A meet record, turning in a 9:15.63 to take five seconds off the old mark of 9:20.63 set by Shawnee Mission South in 2007.
• Hanover’s foursome of Gracie Bruna, Kamryn O’Dell, Einslee Stallbaumer and Lilly Bruna ran away with the Class 1A title in the 1,600 relay as they finished in 4:02.80 to win by nearly six seconds over Centralia, which was second in 4:08.53. The time was just .70 seconds off the 1A meet record of 4:02.10 set by Bucklin in 1982. All four Wildcats will return next season with Lilly Bruna and Stallbaumer just freshmen this season
• Lyndon followed Hanover’s win in 1A with a victory in the 2A 1,600 relay. Lexi Totty, Charleigh Bean, Jaedyn Segrist and Trysten Sowers finished in 4:04.20 to win by more than a second over Inman, which posted a 4:05.59.
• Marysville made it a North Central Kansas small-school sweep of the 1,600 relays with a thrilling win in the 3A race. Bulldog anchor Reese Packett got the baton in the lead for the final lap but saw Perry-Lecompton anchor Macie Corcoran and Scott City anchor Kinleigh Wren both overtake her. In third with 100 to go, Packett mounted a furious kick on the final stretch and not only caught those two, but passed them in the final five meters to pull out a stunning win by .04 seconds over Perry and .41 over Scott City. Packett was joined by Sarah Miller, Eden Miller and Reese Wassenberg as the Bulldogs finished in 4:03.97 with Perry runner-up in 4:04.01.

 

 

• Jefferson West freshman Brynlee Koontz got her career off to a golden start with a victory in the Class 3A 800. Running just her third 800 of her career and battling defending champion Kinsey Zorn of Russell, the versatile Koontz – who ran everything from the 100 to the 800 as well as the 300 hurdles this season – took more than three seconds off her previous season best with a 2:14.92 to win by just over six seconds over Zorn, who was second in 2:21.03. Koontz led Zorn by less than a second after the first lap but used the speed that helped her to a third in the 400 earlier in the meet to pull away from Zorn on the last lap and win going away.

 

 

• Doniphan West’s Reese McCauley pulled off an upset to get the first state championship of her career with a victory in the Class 2A 300 hurdles. Third in the event last year behind state champion Camryn Gourley of Hoxie and Emily O’Brien of Remington, McCauley had to deal with both again this year. But after running a career-best 45.62 in the prelims to qualify second behind Gourley, McCauley blazed to a career-best 44.99 in the finals to win by .54 seconds over O’Brien while defending champion Gourley slipped to fifth. McCauley had finished runner-up to Gourley in the 110 hurdles as Gourley set the meet record with a 14.45 while McCauley’s 15.17 was just .02 off her career best 15.15 she had run in the prelims.

 

 

• Riley County’s Sarah Effiong capped a big season in the triple jump by out-dueling Lakin’s Aryn Michaelis for the title. Only a half inch separated their season-best marks going into the state meet and the battle for the title was nearly as tight. Michaelis took the event lead going into finals with a jump of 38-3.75, but Effiong soared 38-10 on her first jump of finals and that held up for the state title as Michaelis never bettered her top prelim mark. Effiong only lost once this year in the triple jump, taking second to 5A standout and former state champion Paige Newland of Emporia at the Manhattan Invitational.