Eagle relay team earns 7th-place medal

Monday, June 1, 2015
Uniontown's Tommy Joles (bib No. 3548) takes the baton from Cole Schaffer for the second leg of the Class 2A boys' finals of the 4x100-meter relay at the Kansas State Track and Field Championships in Wichita Saturday. The Eagles earned a seventh-place medal in the event. (Scott Nuzum/Tribune)

WICHITA -- Uniontown athletes continued competition at the Kansas State Track and Field Championships here Saturday with four events on the agenda.

Uniontown's boys 4x100-meter relay team competed in the finals mindway through the afternoon and won a seventh-place medal as the team of senior Cole Schafer and juniors Tommy Joles, Josh Wisely and John Reed turned in a time of 46.50 seconds. Plainville successfully defended it's title in 44.85 with two sophomores and a freshman on it's four-man team.

Sophomore Shalina Harper finished in 13th place in the Class 2A 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:54.18. Defending champion Lauren Harrell, a senior from Shawnee Maranatha Academy, bilstered the field despite the unusually-chilly weather, winning in 5:09.59, a bit more than eight seconds ahead of the runner up, Bennington freshman Halle Johnson.

Harper ran in the 800 meters later in the day, finishing in 15th place with a time of 2:35.09. Hope Manning of Maranatha, a senior, was the winner in 2:19.18.

At the same time as Harper ran the 1,600, junior Zach Schwalm was outside the stadium competing in Class 2A discus. He was sixth in his flight with a best effort of 118 feet, 11 inches on his second throw. He fouled on his third attempt. Once finals were completed, Schwalm placed 14th. The winner was senior Jake Peters of Montezuma-South Gray, who was runner-up last season, with a mark of 162' 5", almost 16 feet farther than this year's runner-up, senior Eli Lohrmeyer of Ellis.

NOTES -- Maranatha Academy's girls won their fourth consecutive team title with 109 points. Meade was a distant second with 70. Smith Center won the boys' team championship with 71.5 points, just 1 1/2 better than runner-up Washington County. It's the fourth team title for the Redmen but their first since winning 2A in 2005....