Fort Scott sees three win medals on first day of Kansas track finals

Monday, May 26, 2008
Josh Lawrence/HERALD-TRIBUNE Fort Scott Senior Clint Lawrence takes second place at the Kansas state track meet, with a javelin throw of 180 feet, 2 inches. This was only the fourth competition in which Lawrence has thrown javelin.

By Scott Nuzum

Herald-Tribune

WICHITA, Kan. -- Fort Scott seniors Clint Lawrence and Brandon Boyd and sophomore Breianna Jones have won State medals on the first day of the Kansas Class 4A State Track and Field Championships at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium.

Josh Lawrence/Herald-Tribune Fort Scott junior Brandon Boyd makes a 22 feet, 1 3/4 inch long jump landing him in fourth at state.

Lawrence took second place in the javelin, an event he wasn't even competing in until earlier this month. He recorded his best throw of 180 feet, 2 inches, on his second throw of the preliminary round. Dustin Weissbeck, a Topeka Hayden senior, also had his winning mark, 184' 7", in the prelims. Those both held up as no one could get closer than 179' 1" in the finals, that by Cheney senior Jason Krenzel as the third-place mark . Teammate Grant Hartman was unable to advance to the finals after finishing 12th in the preliminary round with a best of 159 feet even.

Jones set a personal record in triple jump as she went 36 feet, 2 1/2 inches to finish in third place. This was accomplished on her final jump of the preliminary round, just after she had established a new high of 35' 10 1/2" on her first jump. Whitney Sorrell, a senior from Concordia, had three jumps over 37 feet in the preliminaries, including her winning mark of 37' 8 1/2" on her third attempt. She jumped only once in the finals and then passed up her final two attempts as she felt confident no one could better her marks. Second place went to Wellington junior Jlynn Ledesma, who recorded a jump of 36' 9 1/2". Fourth place went to Buhler junior Tanya Freisen, who trailed Jones by only 1/4 of an inch.

Boyd was fourth in the long jump, medaling for the third consecutive year after placing third in Class 2A in 2007 and sixth in 2006 for Uniontown. Boyd's mark of 22' 1 3/4" was achieved on his final jump of the preliminaries. That put him in third place at the time but Mulvane senior Jarid Nesmith passed him on the first jump of finals with a 22' 3 1/4" that held up through the rest of the jumps. Paola junior Joe Stephens took the lead away from DeSoto's Andre Lindzy on the first jump of finals with a mark of 23' 1 3/4". Lindzy went 23' 0 3/4" on his first jump of prelims and couldn't retake the lead once Stephens passed him, settling for second.

Most of the preliminary events in sprints were also held Friday but the only Fort Scott entry to advance to finals was the boys' 4x100-meter relay team of senior Luke Halsey, Boyd, junior Mitchell Stoughton and sophomore Chris Archie, which ran the seventh-best time in prelims of 44.55 seconds. Andale had the best time, 43.36, followed by Atchison at 44.08 and Mulvane at 44.16. The 4x100 finals will take place at approximately 3:20 p.m. this afternoon.

Boyd was 11th in preliminaries of the 200-meter dash in 23.96 seconds and did not advance to finals. Only the top eight finishers in a preliminary advance. The best time was turned in by Logan Cares of Parsons, 22.68.

Jones also ran in the girls' 400-meter preliminaries and just missed a berth in the finals, finishing ninth with a time of 1:01.83. The eighth-best time was 1:01.09. Tiffany Bias of Andover Central had the best time of 57.73.

The girls' 4x100-meter relay team of Ashley Cavin, Kori Page Rienbolt, Jolee Sharp and Jones was 11th in the prelims in 4:15.01. Andover Central was best in 4:00.10.

There are no other girls' events remaining for Fort Scott but the Tigers have two other boys' events today in addition to the 4x1 relay finals. Stoughton will run his 100-meter dash preliminary at 9 a.m. and, if he qualifies, run finals later in the day. Senior Jake Clements and junior Alex Barner will compete in high jump at 11:30 a.m.