CHANUTE — Seven Mustangs gutted out Friday’s unseasonably cold weather to qualify for state at the 4A Class regional track and field meet in Chanute.
Jesse Taylor, Jessica Kroenke, Eli Adams, Karingten Hall, Rio Lohman, Mahailie Genoble and Jake Skahan finished in the top four in their running and field events to advance to this weekend’s state competition at Wichita State University.
Iola boys took seventh place as a team and the Iola girls placed eighth. Chanute’s boys earned first place while Labette County’s girls took first as a team.
“Every single person has improved their times this season,” Iola head coach Dana Daugharthy.
Taylor won first place in the boys 3200-meter run and Kroenke earned first place in the girls pole vault. Adams finished second in the 800-meter run.
“I’m a big believer that if you tell yourself you can do something, you can,” said Taylor. “I knew I needed to get myself in the right mood and told myself I could do it and to go for a regional championship. I can’t tell you what I was thinking but something kicked in at the end.”
Taylor’s time in the 3200-meter run was 10:37.02, beating out Paola’s Devin Trent at 10:37.22 and Ottawa’s Caul Jones at 10:48.75.
“Jesse’s had a really good career for us,” Daugharthy said. “The track stuff is good but he’s a really good person character wise. He deserves to go to state, he works hard, he puts in time when nobody else puts in time. I’ve seen him running in the winter when nobody else does.”
Kroenke earned her first place finish in the girls pole vault with a mark of 8 feet, 6 inches.
Eli Adams took second place in the boys 800-meter run with a time of 2:04.76.
Karingten Hall came in fourth place in the girls 200-meter dash with a time of 27.09 seconds.
“In the sprints sometimes it’s hard to PR just because you run so fast,” said Daugharthy. “We see improvements on sprinting mechanics that have shaved some time and then in all of our jumps and throws, it’s just improved mechanics. The practice there has really paid off.”
Rio Lohman took fourth place in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.23 seconds.
Mahailie Genoble was fourth in the girls 300-meter hurdles with a time of 51.90 seconds.
Jake Skahan earned fourth place in the boys javelin with a throw of 147 feet, 2 inches.
