Taking advantage of a good-weather day, Hillsboro track and field athletes posted several best efforts at their home James Thomas Invitational on Friday.
Athletes from 17 schools participated.
Scoring two top-three finishes for the Trojan boys was thrower Wes Shaw, who won the shot put with a throw of 54 feet, 7 inches. The sophomore’s mark was 4 inches short of the meet record and only 31⁄2 inches off the HHS record of 54-101⁄2 set by Milford Klaassen in 1968.
Shaw also placed second in the discus (142-0) and fifth in javelin (129-6).
Kaden Ward picked up bronze medals in high jump (6-0) and long jump (19-5).
Larned won the boys’ team title with 861⁄2 points, followed by Hesston (77), Nickerson (63), Council Grove (59), Smoky Valley (55), Hillsboro (481⁄2), Berean (42), Moundridge (38), Inman (19), Sedgwick (16), Haven (16), Lyons (12), Canton-Galva (8), Remington (8), Wichita Classical (4), Peabody-Burns (4) and Goessel (1).
The Trojan girls earned three top-three finishes: Sienna Kaufman placed second in pole vault (8-6) and long jump (15-11), and the 4×800 team of Tiffany Schale, Savannah Unruh, Brittany Schale and Abby Sechrist placed third (10:56.54).
Berean won the girls’ team title with 92 points, followed by Sedgwick (84), Hesston (75), Smoky Valley (44), Lyons (40), Canton-Galva (37), Goessel (30), Nickerson (30), Hillsboro (29), Moundridge (27), Haven (24), Council Grove (22), Larned (21) and Remington (3).
Seven Trojan seniors competed in their final home invitational meet of their careers.
“One of those seniors was Travis King, who had a wonderful day of competition,” coach Dennis Boldt said. “Travis qualified for the finals in both the 100 and 200 as well as having solid legs in both the 4×100 and 4×400. He definitely made the most of his final home track meet.”
Hesston CKTL—Hillsboro placed third in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions at the six-school Central Kansas Track League meet hosted by Hesston April 25.
Hesston won the boys’ title with 177 points, followed by Berean (129), Hillsboro (119), Halstead (98), Marion (13) and Langdon-Fairfield (11).
Winning gold for the Trojan boys were Wes Shaw in the discus (156 feet, 1 inch) and shot put (51-7), Kaden Ward in pole vault (10-6), Jonathan Hinerman in the 1,600 (5 minutes, 0.1 seconds) and Travis King in the 200 meters (23.99).
Earning silver were Ward in high jump (5-10) and long jump (18-6), Shaw in javelin (122-5), Hinerman in the 3,200 (11:04.59), King in the 100 (11.61) and Garrett Funk in the 300 (58.43)
In the girls’ division, Berean won with 196 points, followed by Hesston (166), Hillsboro (74), Langdon-Fairfield (56), Halstead (44) and Marion (1). The girls did not win gold, but had three second-place finishers: Sienna Kaufman tied in pole vault (8-6), Addie Berens in long jump (14-41⁄2) and Abby Sechrist in the 800 (2:38.22).
“As we work toward our final invitationals and league meet, we load up on events for each individual in order to get marks as well as continuing to condition athletes to work through multiple events,” coach Dennis Boldt said.
Coming—Hillsboro will compete Thursday at the Hesston Invitational, with a 3:30 p.m. start, On May 11, Hillsboro will host the Central Kansas League track meet at Joel H. Wiens Stadium.
