ALTAMONT — Multiple Iola High School athletes set a solid foundation to build upon while making their 2026 debut at the Labette County Invitational.
With a slew of first and second-place finishes, Iola coach David Daugharthy likes how his team performed and looks forward to seeing them improve their times and distances as the season progresses.
“It was a really good day and the second meet for most of our younger kids,” Daugharthy said.
“They had a JV meet Tuesday. We had a lot of PRs from just two days and the varsity kids are picking up right where they left off.”
Keegan Hill was Iola’s Swiss Army knife. Hill took first in the 3200-meter run second in the 1600 and dove to edge out Fort Scott for second in the 4×400.
One of his teammates in the 4×400 was sophomore Kevon Loving, who took third in the long jump. Junior Rohan Springer secured a fourth-place finish in his pole vault debut.
“The 4×400 is always an exciting way to end a meet and this meet really set the tone,” Coach Daugharthy said. “Our expectations are clear. We expect your best effort, and we saw that continuously. We got our marks and now we’re going to go out and try and beat them.”
For the girls, junior Mahailie Genoble made a strong first impression in the 300-meter hurdles with a second-place finish.
Senior Ari Ramirez’s never-say-die attitude paid off in the 800-meter run after she made a hard break in the final stretch for the bronze medal.
In throwing events, senior Bethany Miller proved Daugharthy’s early predictions correct with a 31-foot, 6-inch throw. “We had a couple of PRs, even in distance races,” Daugharthy said. “We saw better 800 times than what they were last year. That’s an encouraging sign.”
“Kaden Coltrane, within a span of two years shaved 10 seconds off his 400 time,” Daugharthy said. “Ari Ramirez PR’d by 8 seconds in the 800. We had good athletes last year, and all a sudden our team became a lot more competitive. It’s those athletes, right in the middle, that really make us more competitive.”
The Mustangs will have to rest up over the weekend. Pioneer League action begins at 3 p.m. Monday at the Prairie View Invitational.
Complete results as follows:
Boys
100-meter dash: 13th: Kevon Loving, 12.43; 15th, Austin Crooks, 12.70; 18th, Maddox Riley, 13.49. JV: 18th, Ethan Hunt, 15:42; 20, Jace Warner, 17.09; 21, Domonic Bables, 19.16.
200-meter dash: 12th, Landon Shelton, 26.28; 13th, M. Riley, 27.24. JV: 13th, Jimmie Maloney, 27.63; 19th, D. Bables.
