Golden days for PBHS’s Picken’s and Goessel’s Banman

StTrPickens100P5248233.jpg
StTrPickens100P5248233.jpg StTrBanmanP5248257.jpg

TOP: Lauren Pickens of Peabody-Burns crosses the finish line in the 100-meter finals. BOTTOM:Goessel?s Craig Banman battles Isaac Bradshaw of Jetmore in the 300-meter hurdles finals.

Two area athletes had outstanding days at the state meet this past weekend in Wichita.

Peabody-Burns? standout freshman Lauren Pickens swept the 100, 200 and 400 races in Class 2A while Goessel?s Craig Banman won the 200 and 300-meter hurdles, was third in pole vault and anchored the gold-medal winning 4x400 team.

Pickens sprinted to relatively comfortable wins in all three of her races. She posted the second fastest time in the preliminaries of the 100 at 12.58, which was a scant 0.08 seconds behind Whitney Taylor of Ellis. The Pride of Peabody-Burns then turned on the afterburners in the finals with a winning time of 12.22 over Taylor?s 12.61.

In her next race, the 400, Pickens posted the fastest qualifying time of 58.73 on Friday, then came back to lower the mark to 58.40 in Saturday?s finals to outdistance runner-up Dana Kuhlman of Oakley at 1:00.76.

Pickens collapsed after she crossed the finish line, and had to be helped off the track. But she showed no ill effects in the late afternoon, blazing to victory in the 200 in 25.93 with Taylor again second at 26.06.

Pickens? 26.20 was the top time in the prelims on Friday.

Teammate Danielle Savage scored one point by placing seventh in the 400 in 1:03.91.

That gave the Warriors 31 points, tying them for sixth in the team standings with Plain?ville. Rawlings County won the team title with 63.

The Warrior boys tallied 14 points to finish in a three-way tie for 16th in their division.

The PBHS 4×800 team of Jacob Simmons, Aaron Topham, Duane Unruh and Ryan Wiebe led the way with a second-place finish in 8:28.13.

Andrew Loucks scored the other six points Friday with a third-place finish in the discus at 151-5.

In addition to his leg in the 4×800, Wiebe finished ninth in the open 800 in 2:05.06 and Josh Klarmann was 16th in the 3,200 in 11:24.49.

Banman?s heroics, meanwhile, powered his Bluebird team to a second-place tie in Class 1A with South Gray at 35 points. Cunningham won the title easily with 64.

The Bluebird junior won the 200 Saturday in 23.06 after posting a top time of 22.85 in the prelims. He also won the 300-meter hurdles in 40:34 and ended the day by anchoring the 4×400 team that included John Berkholz, Grady Stultz and Weston Hiebert to victory in 3:29.09.

He began his successful Saturday by tying Grant Kerschen of Cunningham for third in the pole vault by clearing 13-6.

Also competing for the boys was Cameron Stultz, who missed the finals of the 100 by posting the ninth-best prelim time of 11.89, and John Berkholz, who posted the 13th-best prelim time in the 400 at 54.14.

For the scoreless Bluebird girls, the 4×800 team of Kristen Hoffman, Kendra Flaming Katrina Harvey and Aspen Frey posted the 11th best prelim time of 10:55.06, while the 4×400 team of Frey, Amy Brubaker, Harvey and Flaming ranked 14th in the prelims at 4:30.00.

Centre?s only state entry, sophomore Trevor Trout, finished 11th in a field of 15 competitors with a discus throw of 124-11.

More from Hillsboro Free Press
Anniversaries (Week of Feb. 27, 2008)
Schroeders celebrate 60th anniversary E. Kenneth and Ruby (Prieb) Schroeder of Hillsboro...
Read More