WICHITA — How did Uniontown High senior Abbie Smith soar higher and farther than the rest?
“I’m stronger this year. I got in the weight room and worked hard,” Smith said after winning the 2010 Kansas Class 2A 100-meter high hurdle and long jump championships.
This is what all the hard work for four years was all about for Smith.
On Saturday morning, the wind made officials run the hurdle finals south to north instead of the normal direction. That put the finish line right at the long jump pit area where Smith’s father, Tracy and other sister Kaity were working the state track meet.
Kaity Smith won the 100-meter high hurdles in 2007.
“It was all set up for me all I had to do was go get it,” Smith said.
She got it. She got it good with a school record time of 15.46 seconds.
“This is awesome,” she said after receiving a big hug from her father and her sister at the finish line. The Smith sisters couldn’t stop smiling on the walk to the awards stand.
“It’s unbelievable this feeling. I was very nervous at the start because a girl in the race before me hit a hurdle in her warmup in my lane,” Smith said. “Once I got over the first hurdle, I settled in and ran my race.”
Smith had lost only one high hurdle race all season to Taylor Shell of Burlington at Burlington.
Smith was handed her gold medal by her sister, who like many other former state champions were on hand to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Kansas high school track and field last weekend.
Later on Saturday afternoon came the long jump, an event Smith has placed second twice and third once. She had the best jump coming into the Class 2A long jump competition.
“I knew I had to get a big one right off the bat and stay focused. The Ell Saline girl (Mariah Jones) came up with a 17 foot jump last year to beat me,” Smith said.
Not in 2010. Not in her senior season.
She went 17 feet, 4 inches on her first jump. That made everyone else reach for her. No one got close.
Smith captured her second state championship of the day with a school record leap of 17’9 1/2”.
“I really was going after an 18-foot jump at state but I’ll take this,” Smith said. “I just stayed focused. This was all I wanted and more in my final state high school track meet.”
Smith had qualified for state in the 300-meter low hurdles. She ran 50.18 seconds in the preliminaries on Friday but did not qualify for the finals.
“It worked out for the best. Without the 300s to worry about I could concentrate on the long jump,” Smith said.
Smith was the only medal winner among area athletes in Class 2A competition.
Uniontown High’s Ben Dixon, another senior, missed the finals of the boys’ long jump by a half of an inch. He finished ninth at 19’10 3/4”.
Trenton Miller was 14th in the boys’ discus for Uniontown. He had a throw of 123’7”,
Also for Uniontown, Jacy Ermel placed 12th in the girls’ shot put at 33’11” and 15th in the discus at 92’4”.
Humboldt High junior Raquel Hill was 10th in the 2A girls’ 3200-meter run in 13 minutes, 7.47 seconds Friday evening.
Marmaton Valley High’s Kurtis LaRue ran the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 42.39 seconds in the prelinaries. Tanner McNutt was seventh in his heat race of the 400-meter dash in 52.21 seconds.
The Wildcat 4×400-meter relay team of LaRue, Shawn Storrer, Daylen Houk and Carlos Gonzelas was eighth in their heat in 3:49.25. McNutt tied for 12th in the boys’ high jump at 5’8”.
On Saturday, Zack Louk finished 14th in the 1600-meter run in 4:56.80.
Smith is 2A high hurdle, long jump champ
