Medals elude Wildcat track athletes

BURLINGTON — The theme for the day was “near misses” for Marmaton Valley High’s track team Monday.
“We had a lot of close calls on medals,” Wildcat assistant coach Scott Brady said. “We just need to work a little on form and having that hunger to kick it in and win at the end. Hopefully, one of these days we will get to see what we can do on a warm day.”
Temperatures at Monday’s Gene Farrow Track Meet, hosted by Waverly High, were in the 40s and 50s with a strong north breeze.
Brady noted Marmaton Valley took only a handful of kids to Burlington.
The Wildcats were led by Carlos Gonzales, who took fourth in the 200-meter dash in 24.65 seconds.
Gonzales also jumped 35 feet, 8 inches in the triple jump, failing to qualify for the finals.
“It just wasn’t his day to jump,” Brady said. “If he would have hit his normal distance, he would have finished in the top five.”
Gonzales also narrowly missed medaling in the 300-meter hurdles, taking seventh with a time of 47.76 seconds.
The top six finishers earn a medal.
Chance Stevenson narrowly missed a medal in the 1600-meter run, finishing seventh with a time of 5 minutes, 33.16 seconds. He finished ninth in the 300 hurdles at 49.84 seconds. His long jump of 17’1” did not qualify for finals.
Garrett Booth was a fraction of a second from qualifying for finals in three sprints, but came up empty in all three attempts. He ran the 100-meter dash in 12.57 seconds, the 200-meter dash in 25.2 seconds and the 400-meter dash in 61.37 seconds.
Wyatt Bolinger ran the 400 in 61.99, the 800-meter run in 2:27.26 and finished with a top leap of 16’2 1/2” in the long jump.
Marcus Miller took 11th in the 1600 at 5:46.32. He ran the 100 in 13 seconds flat and the 200 in 26.7 seconds.
Gonzales, Booth, Stevenson and Bolinger teamed in the 4×100-meter relay, finishing in 50.18 seconds, good for seventh.
“That was not our normal team, so handoffs were a little off,” Brady said.
Monday’s meet featured an abundance of talent from across the region, Brady said.
“Almost every event had at least 25 to 30 kids in it,” he said.