Trojans set 3 meet records at JT Invite

Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 01 May 2012 15:16

Shaq Thiessen leaps 22 feet, 3 inches to win the long jump and set a new meet record at the James Thomas Invitational. The HHS school record of 23-21?2 is the oldest one on the books, set in 1956 by Jerry Harder.

Mitchell Day leaves the starting blocks on the way to running a wind-aided time of 10.8 seconds in the preliminaries of the 100 meters. Day won the finals in 11.12 and earned silver medals in the 200, long jump and 4x100.

Hillsboro track and field athletes established three of the six new meet records at the James Thomas Invitational Friday at Joel H. Wiens Stadium.

Freshman Emily Sechrist set two of those marks, winning the 1,600 meters in 5 minutes, 30.73 seconds and the 3,200 meters in 12:00.01. Shaq Thiessen set a new mark for long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 3 inches.

Long jump proved to be a key event for the Trojan boys, who finished second in the 10-team field. In addition to Thiessen’s gold medal, Mitchell Day also nailed a personal best at 21-4 to give HHS a one-two finish.

Day’s long-jump performance was only one component of an outstanding meet. The junior also won the 100 in 11.12 seconds after qualifying in a wind-aided time of 10.80. He went on to place second in the 200 in 23.66, a mere 0.67 seconds behind the winner, Nick Deterding of Smoky Valley.

Day and Thiessen teamed with Cody Craney and Jesse Brown to win the 4x100 in 46.12.

“To say Mitchell had a good day would be an understatement,” coach Dennis Boldt said.

The boys picked up second-place medals in four other events: Aaron Slater in shot put (44-0), Brown in high jump (5-10), Avery Franz in triple jump (42-43?4), the 4x400 team of Bret Mueller, Brown, Josh Richert and Franz (3:39.80) and the 4x800 team of Franz, Grant Knoll, Mueller and Richert (8:56.93).

Mueller picked up a bronze medal in the 800 with a time of 2:07.74; he ran his leg of the 4x800 in under 2:05.

“Of all the boys competing today, I would say Bret Mueller made the most improvements on his performances,” Boldt said.

As a team, the Trojans rolled up 105 points, second only to Berean Academy’s 133. Smoky Valley placed third with 93.

Sechrist’s record performances gave the fourth-place Hillsboro girls’ team two of its three gold medals for the day.

“Early in the day, as we anticipated poor, windy weather,” Boldt said. “We knew with her times that we could get the record today, but the poor weather would probably hinder that.

“But as fate would have it, the wind died down right before the 1,600 and she pulled in the record. By the time the 3,200 came around, the wind had died down and she had a nice run to get that record as well.”

Callie Serene scored the third gold medal for Hillsboro by winning time the 800 in 2:26.24 after leading the entire race.

“With 19 girls anticipated in the field, we talked about getting out early to avoid any traffic—and that she did, coming in with her best time of the season,” Boldt said.

The Trojans didn’t a capture silver medal but did collect three bronze for third place: Kiara Espada in shot put (33-6) and discus (101-9) and Ashley Bartel in pole vault (8-3).

The girls finished with 66 team points to trail Berean (116), Sedgwick (88) and Haven (79).

“I thought our team results were excellent,” Boldt said. “They indicate if we get our athletes in the right races and they all come to compete, both the boys’ and girls’ teams can achieve great things.”

The other three meet records Friday were set by Nickerson’s Cassie Caswell in girls’ shot put (41-2), Sedgwick’s Jamie Lovett in girls’ long jump (17-11) and Lyons’ Zach Loesch in boys’ shot put (54-11).

Marion—Hillsboro finished behind Berean Academy in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions at the five-school Central Kansas Track League meet in Marion April 24.

For the boys, Mitchell Day won both the 100 (11.07 seconds) and 200 meters (24.17) and placed second in long jump.

Also taking gold were Jesse Brown in high jump (6 feet even), Aaron Slater in shot put (43-2), Avery Franz in triple jump (41-3) and the 4x100 team (55.71).

Taking second were Josh Richert in the 1,600 and 800, Grant Knoll in the 3,200, Slater in discus, Josh Siebert in shot put, as well as the 4x800 and 4x400 teams

Cody Craney claimed third in the 200.

Times and distances were reported only for first place.

Berean won the team title with 199 points, followed by Hillsboro (116), Marion (22), Goessel (17) and Bluestem (6).

For the girls, Emily Sechrist won the 3,200 (11:56) and the 1,600 (5:35) while Callie Serene broke 5:30 for the first time this season to win the 800 (2:29).

Winning silver for HHS were Lindsey Brazil in long jump, Heather Mayfield in high jump, Kiara Espada in discus and all three relay teams (400, 1,600 and 3,200).

Placing third were Espada in shot put, Amy Bartel in pole vault, Brazil in triple jump and Lakyn Johnson in the 100.

Hillsboro scored 122 team points to trail Berean (175), but outscore Marion (42), Goessel (25) and Bluestem (19).