COFFEYVILLE — Though short on athletes, Iola High’s track teams still piled up plenty of impressive performances Tuesday. POWELSON won the 1600 by finishing in 5 minutes flat. His silver in the 800 was for a mark of 2:11.3.
Both the Mustangs and Fillies had to make do without some key performers. Iola’s boys finished fifth with 61 points, while the Fillies were sixth with 64.
On the girls’ side, Iola’s Emery Driskel was golden in winning the 100-meter hurdles, while Abigail Taylor, Mikaela Platt, Jo Lohman and Shannon Vogel teamed to win the 4×800-meter relay.
For the Mustangs, Tyler Powelson won the 1600-meter dash.
In all, Iola’s athletes racked up 16 top-five finishes, head coach Marv Smith said.
Adam Kauth remains idle because of an ankle injury; Tyler McIntosh is limited because of an ailing hamstring; and an illness kept Megan Klubek at home.
Driskel won the 100 hurdles, while finishing second in the 300-meter hurdles at 53.9 seconds.
A last-minute change on the Fillies 4×800 squad was necessitated because of Klubek’s illness.
“I hated to use Abigail on the 4×800, but with Megan out, she was our only option,” Smith said. “It kept us from scoring points in the 1600, but at least we got some gold medals.”
Meanwhile, Darci Collins took second in the shot put at 33 feet, 6 inches, and Jessica Oakley took third in the discus with a personal-best throw of 97’3”. Taylor also took third in the 3200-meter run in 13 minutes, 7.8 seconds.
Iola’s 4×100-meter relay team of Driskel, Cassie Delich, Platt and Oakley finished third in 58.1 seconds.
The Fillies’ 4×400 relay team of Driskel, Platt, Delich and Vogel finished in fifth at 4:55.7.
Delich tacked on a sixth-place finish in the 100 hurdles, 19.1 seconds; Collins finished seventh in the discus at 81’4”; Alexis Hobbs was eighth in the javelin at 75’11” and Oakley took eighth in the shot put at 28’5”.
Michael Wilson cleared 11’6”, good for second in the pole vault. Jeremy Spears also took silver in the 2000-meter steeplechase, although that mark may deserve an asterisk, Smith noted.
Track officials were unable to fill a required water pit in time for the race, so runners just ran the required distance while hurdling strategically placed barricades. Allergy issues kept Spears from competing the rest of the day.
Smith brought along three freshmen because of the low numbers, and each made his mark.
Chase Regehr and Braden Plumlee joined McIntosh and Brian Hue to earn silver in the boys 4×800 at 9:09.0.
McIntosh, Powelson, Regehr and Hu finished in third in the 4×400 at 3:53.5.
Plumlee, despite having only a limited number of practices in the pole vault, took fourth at 9 feet. He also took fifth in the 800 at 2:18.7.
“Braden’s 800 is a better race than it looks,” Smith said.
Because of the large number of competitors — 21 — track officials used a “waterfall” start in which all of the runners start from the same line and must avoid tripping over each other as they each seek the inside line.
The congestion relegated Plumlee to 16th at the start for the first 300 or so meters, Smith noted.
“But he really came on down the stretch, passing several guys to take fifth,” Smith said.
Iola’s 4×100 relay team of Wilson, Mason Ingle, McIntosh and Hue took fifth with a time of 51. 3 seconds. Travis Hermstein finished in seventh in the pole vault, clearing 8’6”.
Athletes show mettle
