Three win Regional titles; seven advance to 4A State in 12 events
GIRARD, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School sophomores Jillian Lattimer and Katren Rienbolt each had issues to deal with in the week before the Class 4A Regional Track and Field Meet at Jameson Field here Friday.
Lattimer was suffering from a lack of confidence. Rienbolt was trying to shake off the effects of a high fever that hit her over the weekend and didn't allow her to go back to school until Wednesday.
But each fought off their demons and won events, each qualifying for next weekend's Class 4A State Meet at Wichita in two events.
Senior Brady Fink was also an event winner and double qualifier. In all, seven Tigers advanced to State in 12 events. The girls won a total of seven medals while the boys won 10.
The top four finishers in each event advance to State. The top six earned medals.
Lattimer won javelin, an event that she had been struggling with after winning events earlier this season, and also broke her own school record in shot put. That earned her other State berth as that record throw held up for third place.
"Eleven. That's how I'm feeling right now," Lattimer said when asked to rate her performances. "I didn't have a lot of confidence this week. Nothing was going right. And then today, I just bucked up and the two things on my mind were 'Don't stop believing' and Phillipians 4:13. That's what got me through this week.
"During the throws, I kept thinking those two things and I think that was what got me through it."
Lattimer won javelin by 2 inches over Haley Taylor of Chanute with a mark of 126 feet, 7 inches. It was her first win in the event since taking the Fort Scott Relays on April 20 and her best mark since going 122' 9" at the Pittsburg State University Relays on April 13.
"I was nervous at first because I wasn't sure how things were going because I hadn't been throwing my best lately," Lattimer said. "But then it just came out of nowhere."
Lattimer's shot put record of 38' 7" came on her second throw of preliminaries. It broke the school mark of 36' 7 1/2" she set at Pitt State. That in turn, broke the mark set by her sister-in-law Nicole (Brown) Lattimer, in 2001.
"(Nicole) teases me sometimes but she said if anyone was going to break her record, she wanted it to be me," Lattimer said.
Megan Gilliland of Paola took the lead in shot with her first throw of finals, 43' 5 1/4". She went one inch farther on her final throw for the winning mark. Her teammate, Kelsey Slawson, claimed second place with a 40' 1" effort on her last throw of the prelims.
Rienbolt won the 1,600 meters in a time of 5:20.85, beating Labette County's Michaela Ozier by 2 1/2 seconds. Fort Scott's Paige Denton held the lead on the first lap --Rienboldt started out in fifth. Parsons' Kaylee Krull took over on the second lap and Rienbolt took over during the third. Krull went on to finish third in 5:26.76 and Denton earned a trip to State with a fourth-place time of 5:29.32.
"I was able to run some miles (Thursday) and I felt pretty good," Rienbolt said.
"I didn't really feel it," she added when asked if there was a point she felt she had the race won. "I just get out there and go. I don't really think about it."
Rienbolt began the 3,200 slowly as well, concluding the first trip around the lap in fifth. But she caught up to Ozier and the runners were even on the second lap.
Rienbolt took the lead briefly on the backstretch of the third lap and the runners were even at the 100-meter mark on the track. But Ozier had the lead as the fourth lap began and never let it go again, finishing in 11:40.02 while Rienbolt came in second in 11:45.
"My legs weren't really under me much and I started off kinda slow," Rienboldt said. "But I had a good day and got second and Paige made it with a fourth (in the 1,600)."
Fink started in lane five in the 400 and looked to be in fourth at the first turn, provided one believes the stagger means anything. But he went on to win the race in 50.30 seconds while teammate Dezmund Willard was fourth in 51.75.
Fink also cleared 41' 2 1/2" to finish fourth in triple jump. Paola's Justin Dumars won that event with a mark of 43' 0 3/4".
Willard, a senior, advanced in two other sprints. He had the best time in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash, 11.09. But Coffeyville's James Newton won the final in 10.64 while Osawatomie's Brandon Oakes took second in 10.84. Willard finished in 10.89 while teammate Nick Nuzum was fourth in 11.32 to qualify for State for the first time as a senior.
Willard finished fourth in the 200 meters in 23.29 while Fink was seventh in 26.71. Newton won this event as well in 22.29 with teammate Elijah Jones second in 23.20 and Louisburg's Greyson Honsinger third in 23.28.
Fort Scott's final State qualifier is senior Mallory Shelton, who cleared 5 feet even in high jump to fourth place. Randi Pirece of Girard was the winner at 5' 2".
Denton was the girls' final medalist, taking fifth in the 800 in 2:34.05. The remaining boys' medalists were Nuzum in long jump, going 19' 3 1/2" for sixth place; David Goff in javelin, fifth at 149' 3"; Daniel Durbin in shot put, sixth at 44' 9"; and Race Kastl in the 110-meter hurdles, sixth in 16.07.
The State Meet will be held at Wichita's Cessna Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University Friday and Saturday. Class 4A has the morning/early afternoon session on Friday this year.