PARSONS — Iola High’s distance runners were golden Friday.
Iola’s Tyler Powelson brought home first place in three events, the 1600- and 800-meter runs, before anchoring the Mustangs’ 4×800-meter relay team to another first-place finish, along with teammates Chase Regehr, Brian Hu and Jeremy Spears.
Two Fillies athletes also shined on the track. Abigail Taylor dominated the two distance races, the 1600 and the 3200-meter run, while Emery Driskel took first in the 300-meter hurdles.
The gold medals allowed both the Mustang and Filly teams to take fourth place overall at the Parsons Invitational Track Meet.
On the boys’ side, Iola scored 60 points, behind first-place Labette County’s 146, Coffeyville with 109 and Independence with 88.
The Mustangs might have scored higher, but again were without Adam Kauth in the hurdles races, high jump and relays and Tyler McIntosh in the long jump and triple jump. In addition, the Mustangs were without Michael Wilson in the pole vault because Parsons does not have a pole vault pit, while head coach Marv Smith declined to enter a squad for the 4×100-meter relay in order to save some of his freshman athletes for a meet today in Chanute.
On the girls’ side, the Fillies scored 86 points behind meet champion Independence, 135, Girard with 96 and Coffeyville’s Field Kindley with 87.
Smith praised his distance runners.
“Tyler Powelson had a ‘Kyle Regehr’ day,” Smith said, recalling the Mustangs’ standout distance runner from the 1990s. “He does not get a lot of rest between events. I don’t know if we will do that again.”
Powelson won the 1600 with a time of 4 minutes. 59.4 seconds and the 800 with a time of 2:11.3. The 4×800 squad went from second to first with Powelson’s leg of 2:05. The team finished with a time of 8:54.3.
Other highlights on the boys’ side, Jeremy Spears took the silver medal in the 3200 with a time of 12:11. McIntosh, Powelson, Hu and Regehr teamed to take silver in the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:43.2.
Freshman Braden Plumlee took third in the 1600 with a time of 5:05.4. An ailing knee prompted Smith to pull Plumlee from the 800.
McIntosh nabbed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56 seconds.
TAYLOR WON the 1600 with a time of 6:01.0 and the 3200 at 13:29.
Driskel’s winning time in the 300-meter hurdles went for 51.7 seconds.
