By William / www.mcpherson-county-ks.com
LINDSBORG – The Smoky Valley track/field team hosted an 11-team invitational on Thursday and the Lady Vikings ran away from the rest of the field while the Viking boys placed fourth.
In the girls meet, Smoky Valley racked up 117 points, well ahead of the 81 scored by runner-up Chapman while McPherson, Abilene and Buhler rounded out the top five with 72, 69, and 64 points, respectively.
“This was, by far, our greatest challenge of a meet thus far this spring,” noted Viking head coach Jay Myers. “There were some incredible performances from athletes from many schools and some events were notably challenging and had some stellar results. The Vikings had many notable things happen today, even our mixed 4×100 meter rumble earned a third-place medal.”
For the Lady Vikings, Breanne Peters continued to leave her mark as she won the pole vault and 100 meters while finishing second in the 200 meters. Other first place finishers for the Smoky Valley girls were Abby Rose in the 400 meters and Gracie Lambert in the 800 meters.
Both the 4×800 and 4×400 meter relay quartets also scored gold with Rose, Keira Mullen, Lambert, Katja Blanchat, and Sophia Fruits earning solid times in their respective leg run.
The Viking boys scored 62 points which put them fourth behind meet champion Buhler (134), SE of Saline (88), and Concordia (69). McPherson placed fifth with 57.
Lukas Apel had the lone individual gold for the Vikings as he won the 400 meters while both the 4×800 and 4×400 meter relay teams also scored first-place finishes. Tytus Reed, Justice Gardner, Garrett Huffman, and Apel ran legs on the 4×800 relay while Wyatt Johnson, Ki Blanchat, Reed and Apel made up the quartet for the 4×400 relay.
Coach Myers concluded his reflections on the meet by adding, “People quote all the time how it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to run a large track meet and hats off and thanks to all the great folks who helped us. It is an honor to be part of the village with our amazing ‘kids.’ The energy, camaraderie, and pure joy of competition I witnessed in those wearing the orange and black plus the significant help of those who were not competing but looking to help wherever they could made me smile. We had several events where we competed quite well and worked hard at them but came up a bit short of what individuals wanted because of the depth of the field on entrants today.”
The Viking track/field teams will now be off until Friday, April 22 when they travel to Halstead.
SMOKY VALLEY VIKINGS TRACK/FIELD MEET
LADY VIKINGS RESULTS (top 6 finishers):
Team Scoring: 1. LADY VIKINGS 117; 2. Chapman 81; 3. McPherson 72; 4. Abilene 69; 5. Buhler 64; 6. SE of Saline 55; 7. Scott Community 45; 8. Concordia 26; 9. Bluestem 17; 10. Ellsworth 12.
Pole Vault: 1. BREANNE PETERS 9’9”; 2. Noelle Peters 9’9”.
Javelin: 3. Keira Mullen 108’1”.
High Jump: 5. Hope Duncan 4’8”.
Long Jump: 1. BREANNE PETERS 17’0”.
Triple Jump: 4. Hope Duncan 31’4.75”.
4×800 Meter Relay: 1. LADY VIKINGS 10:09.46 (Keira Mullen, Sophia Fruits, Abby Rose, Gracie Lambert).
100 Meters: 2. Breanne Peters 12.84; 3. Noelle Peters 13.34.
1,600 Meters: 3. Gracie Lambert 5:35.72.
4×100 Meter Relay: 2. Lady Vikings 51.70 (Noelle Peters, Breanne Peters, Clara McElroy, Abby Rose).
400 Meters: 1. ABBY ROSE 59.93; 3. Keira Mullen 1:03.74; 6. Katja Blanchat 1:05.61.
800 Meters: 1. GRACIE LAMBERT 2:21.16.
3,200 Meters: 5. Sophia Fruits 12:55.78.
4×400 Meter Relay: 1. LADY VIKINGS 4:10.94 (Abby Rose, Keira Mullen, Katja Blanchat, Gracie Lambert).
VIKING BOYS RESULTS (top 6 finishers):
Team Scoring: 1. Buhler 134; 2. SE of Saline 88; 3. Concordia 69; 4. VIKINGS 62; 5. McPherson 57; 6. Scott Community 53; 7. Abilene 45; 8. Hutchinson Trinity 29; 9. Bluestem 14; 10. Chapman 6; 11. Ellsworth 1.
Long Jump: 6. Ki Blanchat 18’10.5”.
Shot Put: 6. Justin Holt 40’8.5”.
Discus: 3. Trystan Stambaugh 118’6”.
4×800 Meter Relay: 1. VIKINGS 8:36.72 (Tytus Reed, Justice Gardner, Garrett Huffman, Lukas Apel).
100 Meters: 6. Justice Autry 11.49.
1,600 Meters: 4. Tytus Reed 4:45.14.
4×100 Rumble: 3. Vikings 55:57 (Justin Holt, Cody Krause, Breanna Campion, Trystan Stambaugh).
4×100 Meter Relay: 3. Vikings 45.85 (Gavin Stambaugh, Zach Gross, Jerome Autry, Justice Autry).
400 Meters: 1. LUKAS APEL 51.43; 3. Wyatt Johnson 52.26; 6. Ki Blanchat 53.25.
800 Meters: 3. Tytus Reed 2:04.08.
4×400 Meter Relay: 1. VIKINGS 3:32.69 (Wyatt Johnson, Ki Blanchat, Tytus Reed, Lukas Apel).
(William is a free-lance writer covering McPherson County Activities – he can be reached at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)