Trojans dominate regional track

The Hillsboro High School boys' team won the Regional Track Championship at Cheney on Friday. After the dust cleared in what was one of the toughest fields of competition in recent years, the Hillsboro boys and girls qualified 19 athletes in 14 events for state Friday and Saturday at Wichita State University. Teams competing included Belle Plain, Cheney, Cimarron, Conway Springs, Eureka, Gypsum-SE of Saline, Halstead, Hesston, Hillsboro, Holcomb, Kismet-SW Heights, Lakin, Leon-Bluestem, Marion, Medicine Lodge, Wichita Collegiate. The Hillsboro boys team won the team title with 123 points, while Conway Springs won the girls' title with 134. "There was incredible competition in all events," said Head Coach Dennis Boldt. "We are fortunate that we qualified so many girls and boys in so many events. As I thought there would be, many of the fifth and sixth place teams would have not only qualified in other regionals. They would have won other regionals." Starting the day off for the boys' team was Scott Winter in the discus and shot put. Winter won the discus competition with a season's best toss of 150 feet 10 inches and placed third in the shot with a season's best put of 49-11.5. "The hardest part of each regional is waiting for the first athlete to qualify. Once Scott qualified, everything started happening quickly," Boldt said. As Winter began the javelin competition, sophomore standout Alan Yoder was qualifying in the long jump. "I saw Alan's first jump of 21-1.5, and I knew he would be in the finals," Boldt said. "What we didn't expect was that his early jump would be the best." As the field event competition continued, Winter placed third in the javelin with his sixth and final throw qualifying him for his third and final event of the day. Wrapping up the field events for the boys was Sheldon Funk in the pole vault. The event featured the three top vaulters in Class 3A, Austin Young of Cheney, Dustin Hamilton of Hesston and Funk of Hillsboro. In the end, all three vaulters cleared 14 feet with Young placing first, Funk second and Hamilton third. "I would have to say it was the effort of the day," Boldt said. "Sheldon set a new school record and competed well in a very strong field." Qualifying for the girls in field-event competition was Trista Hanley in the shot put. Hanley placed third with a put of 33 feet 7 inches. "I heard her name called for finals and went over to see her final throws," Boldt said. "Trista competed well today. She showed poise throughout the competition and should be proud of her accomplishment." As the competition moved to the track, Hillsboro found all of its sprint competitors in the finals. Qualifying for state in the sprinting events were: junior Andrea Peachey, finishing second in the 100 hurdles; Ryan Jilka placing first in the 110 hurdles; and Alan Yoder, who led an incredible sprinting field to win the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.0. Ryan Jilka also placed first in the 300 intermediate hurdle competition. As the competition moved into distance events, the Trojans really found their stride. Placing second in the 3200 meter relay, the team of Adam Jilka, Daniel Yoder, Garrett Call and Aaron Yoder found themselves qualified for state competition while setting a new school record with a time of 8:16.2. But that was only the beginning, the Trojans will feature three 1600 meter runners in the state finals. Aaron Yoder won the event with a time of 4:37.0. Garrett Call was right behind him with a time of 4:38.6 and Pete Richert qualified as a fourth-place finisher with a time of 4:41.0. "This is very unusual. Not many teams can boast three milers in the state championships," Boldt said. "As we looked at the schedule of events, we decided to run all three of our team members in hopes of qualifying, and these guys didn't let us down. They came to run." Call qualified in the 800-meter run, placing second with a season's best 2:01. Aaron Yoder qualified in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:32.3. In girls competition, the 3200-meter relay team of Julie Hett, Katie Fast, Alisa Jost and Shannon Kroeker qualify with a season's best time of 10:03.7. "The girls showed a lot of character today," Boldt said. "Despite a fumbled handoff and dropping the baton, they recovered well to place fourth and qualify with the state's fourth best time. Julie Hett is still relatively new to the 800 meter but ran a season's best split of 2:28 today to put us in good position. But the credit for the qualifying goes to Shannon who ran a super anchor leg split of 2:24 to get us back in fourth place position to qualify." Kroeker also qualified in the 800-meter run and was anchor leg in the 1600-meter relay (Jessica Boese, Alisa Jost, Hett) which placed third. Hett qualifies for her fourth consecutive trip to the state championships. Hett has competed in the 4x400, 4x100, and 400 meters previously at state. She won the 4x400 in 1998, 1999, and placed second in 2000. State competition begins with qualifying on Friday. Finals will be on Saturday.