By the midway point of her 100-meter hurdles final, Crest High speedster Hanna Schmidt came upon a realization, one that could have threatened her chance at victory.
“It felt good, but I realized I had kind of blurred out about halfway through,” Schmidt said with a laugh. “I thought, maybe I should focus on the hurdles.”
Focus she did.
Schmidt, a sophomore, cruised to victory, finishing in 15.88 seconds, well ahead of the second-place finisher, to win the 1A regional hurdles race.
With the victory, Schmidt headlines another hearty group of Lancer athletes to next week’s state track meet at Wichita State University’s Cessna Stadium.
She’s admittedly looking for a shot at redemption after last year’s state finals, in which she was in line for a top-three finish, but clipped the final hurdle and fell to the turf to take eighth.
“I’ve been using that as motivation,” Schmidt said. “It makes me want to come back even better. I want that this year.”
Schmidt also will focus on the long jump, where she qualified courtesy of her third-place leap of 16 feet, 6.25 inches.
Other Lancers to qualify include Xander Fuller and Gentry McGhee, who finished 2-3 in the boys long jump; Gunner Ellington, a third-place finisher in the 1600-meter run; Summer Valentine, who took third in the girls discus; and the boys 4×800-meter relay team of Ellington, Elijah Taylor, Lane Yocham and Luke Walter, who finished second.
“It was a big day for us,” Lancer head coach Kaitlyn Cummings said. “We’re definitely happy with how it turned out.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise was Valentine’s discus throw, a full 5 feet better than her previous personal best.
“To do that as a freshman was huge,” Cummings said. “I was also happy for Gunner, who didn’t get to go to state last year, but qualified in two events this time. And Xander and Gentry were great in the long jump.”
MARMATON VALLEY High’s Cooper Scharff also had a memorable day on the track. He qualified by placing third in the boys’ 100-meter dash, a notable achievement in that Scharff wasn’t sure if he’d be able to run at all this spring following a knee injury late in the football season.
“I really didn’t know what I could do,” Scharff said afterward. “I started out slowly, and just pushed hard to the end.”
Months of grueling physical therapy helped in the healing process, “and it worked me hard enough to get back into shape,” he noted.
It wasn’t until after last week’s Three Rivers League meet that Scharff allowed himself to even dream of vying for a state berth.
“It felt really good,” he said. “Physically, I’m 100%, but I’m still slow for not running for about seven months.”
