Girls finish third, boys eighth

With regionals on tap this week at Valley Heights, the Hillsboro High School girls’ track team put together a strong showing Thursday competing at the Central Kansas League meet at Halstead.

Behind six top three finishes, including Addie Berens’ first-place throw in javelin, the Trojans finished third out of 11 teams with 62 points.

Smoky Valley easily cruised to a league title, outdistancing runner-up Hesston, 115-92.

Despite Wes Shaw easily nabbing league titles in both shot and discus, the boys’ 34 points left them eighth out of 11.

Josiah Driggers’ long jump of 20 feet, 7 inches for second place was the only other top three finish the boys’ team mustered.

Freshman Jessica Saunders already owns the girls’ shot put record and on Thursday, Saunders set a new one with a throw of 36’ 3-3/4” for second place.

Saunders also finished third in discus with a throw of 109’6”.

Sienna Kaufman paced a stiff battle among teammates in long jump, edging Kinsey Kleiner and Berens for second place with a leap of 14’11 3/4”.

Eva Franz took third in triple jump, leaping 30’11”.

Abby Sechrist rounded out the top-three finishes for the girls in the 1600 with a time of 5:55.08.

Shaw continued to dominate the state in shot put, throwing 58’6”—12 feet further than Kingman runner-up Jack Govert.

Shaw’s dominance was even larger in discus, blowing Govert away by nearly 25 feet with a meet-best throw of 170’.

Driggers had another strong finish in high jump, clearing 5’8” for fourth to mark the boys’ best finishes.

The Trojans get one final tuneup before state Friday, traveling to Blue Rapids for the Valley Heights’ regional.

Field events are set to begin at 3 p.m. with running events starting two hours later.

Thursday at Halstead

Girls

Shot put — 2. Saunders, 36 feet, 3-3/4 inches ”.

Discus — 3. Saunders, 109’ 6”.

High jump — 4. Klein, 4’10”.

Long jump — 2. Kaufman, 14’11-3/4”. 3. Kleiner, 14’ 9 3/4”. 6. Berens, 14’.

Triple jump — 3. Franz, 30’ 11”.

Pole vault — 5. Kaufman, 9’9”.

Javelin — 1. Berens, 114’ 10- 1/2”. 5. Saunders, 107’1”.

1600 — 3. Sechrist, 5:55.08.

4x100 — 5. Hillsboro, 53.12 (Roxana Nieto, Kaufman, Klein, Kleiner).

Boys

Shot put — 1. Shaw, 58’6”.

Discus — 2. Shaw, 170’.

High jump — 4. Driggers, 5’8”.

Long jump — 2. Driggers, 20’ 7”.

4x800 relay — 6. Hillsboro, 9:27.88, Brodie Rathbone, Dillion Boldt, Tristan Reed, Caleb Diener).

400 — 6. Rathbone, 54.86.