WICHITA — Area athletes brought home medals, with a number of near misses for others Friday and Saturday at the state track meet. CREST’S Kurston Gilliland capped her storied high school career with another throwing medal Saturday. She finished seventh in the 1A girls with a throw of 116 feet, 4 inches. On Friday, Gilliland took home third place in the shot put with a throw of 39’8 1/2” and narrowly missed a medal in the discus, finishing 10th at 101’8”. IN CLASS 2A, Yates Center’s squad featured a bevy of young talent that failed to produce any medals, but did gain plenty of experience.
Marmaton Valley High’s Daylen Houk brought home a fifth-place medal in the Class 1A boys 200-meter dash with time of 23.85 seconds. The time was .37 seconds behind gold medalist Kurt Van Der Mewe of Linn, and just .24 seconds away from earning a bronze.
“It was a pretty tight race, but that was because the fastest guy in the preliminaries didn’t race in the finals,” Houk said.
Otis-Bison’s Jordan Hoffman was nearly a full second faster than his nearest pursuer in the preliminaries, but withdrew because of a leg injury, Houk said.
Houk missed out on a second medal by .15 seconds, this coming in the 400-meter dash preliminaries Friday afternoon. Houk finished in 53.25 seconds. The eighth and final qualifier had a time of 53.10 seconds.
Houk also competed in the 100-meter dash. He failed to qualify with a time of 11.54 seconds, 11th fastest. Crest High’s Rene Rodriguez was nearly stride for stride with Houk, finishing an eyelash slower, at 11.57 seconds.
“I ran OK,” Houk said. “I was just happy to make it to state in four events. To get a medal was pretty cool, too.”
Also in Class 1A, Southern Coffey County’s Walker Harred capped his season with a fourth-place finish in the 1A boys discus. He finished with a throw of 148’9”.
The Lady Titan’s 4×800-meter relay squad of Che-nae Newkirk, Martyna Hegwald, Sarah Webb and Jessica Cole took home 14th with a time of 11 minutes, 18.67 seconds.
On Saturday, Riley Albert failed to qualify in the girls’ 100-meter dash, finishing in 13.79 seconds.
Drake Busteed raced twice, finishing 12th in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:29.20 and 13th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:10.72.
Yates Center’s Jones brought home 15th in the girls shot put with a throw of 30’8 1/4”.
“We are extremely proud of our efforts even though we did not medal,” Yates Center coach Dan Berg said. “We sent out a lot of young kids and they performed well for their first efforts. All the kids have been great to work with this year and we are looking forward to next year. We are going to miss our four-year letter winners Ceaton and Paige (Steinforth). They added so much to our program with their work effort and leadership. They will be sorely missed.”
Small schools get big results in Wichita
