Track athletes deal with rain, wind — and a power outage

A power outage, caused by relentless winds that affected electric service throughout much of Allen County, did little to slow the goings-on at the Gene Farrow Invitational, a track meet hosted by Waverly High School at Iola's Riverside Park Tuesday.

April 17, 2024 - 2:33 PM

Crest High's Hanna Schmidt soars in the long jump Tuesday at the Gene Farrow Invitational, hosted by Waverly High School and held at Iola's Riverside Park. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

Organizers of the Gene Farrow Invitational Track Meet had to deal with all sorts of Mother Nature’s shenanigans Tuesday.

The meet, hosted by Waverly High School and held at Iola’s Riverside Park, featured a brief-but-intense rainstorm in the morning, and an ever-present south wind that caused an electrical outage for much of Allen County in the afternoon.

But the organizers adjusted on the fly, even without electrical service for a portion of the running events, which of course negated the electric timing and public address system. Organizers went old-school, using handheld stopwatches until electric service was restored.

Among the highlights:

Crest High’s Lady Lancers captured the team trophy, buoyed by gold-medal finishes from Peyton Schmidt in the 3200-meter run, Hanna Schmidt in the 100-meter hurdles, as well as second-place finishes from Josie Walter in both the 800- and 1600-meter runs.

Meanwhile, Marmaton Valley’s Janae Granere, still dealing with an ankle injury she suffered during basketball season, brought home the gold medal in the long jump.

On the boys’ side, Crest’s Gunner Ellington was tops in the 3200 as well.

The meet featured athletes from 25 schools, including Iola, Humboldt, Marmaton Valley, Crest and Southern Coffey County.

Of note, organizers have yet to announce the full results from the discus and shot put competitions. As of Wednesday, only the finalists’ marks were available. The full results from those events will be published when made available.

Crest High’s Gunner Ellington is surrounded by a pack of runners in the 1600-meter dash Tuesday at the Gene Farrow Invitational. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

Marmaton Valley High’s Cooper Scharff, right, races alongside Crest’s Brenton Edgerton in the 200-meter dash Tuesday at the Gene Farrow invitational. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

Iola High’s Cole Moyer runs in the 800 meters Tuesday at the Gene Farrow Invitational. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

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Gene Farrow Invitational

Boys

Team scores: 1. Lyndon, 106; 8. Crest, 31; 11. Marmaton Valley, 24; 14. Humboldt, 20; 17. Southern Coffey County, 13; 20. Iola, 5

100 meters — 5. Cooper Scharff, MV, 11.53; 7. Brenton Edgerton, Crest, 11.59; 9. Jerry Rodriguez, Crest, 11.47; 20. Griffin Westervelt, Iola, 12.25; 28. Kage Daniels, Humboldt, 12.76

200 meters — 6. Scharff, 24.76; 8. Edgerton, 25.20; 12. Brigg Shannon, Humboldt, 24.82; 13. Rodriguez, 25.21; 14. Xander Fuller, Crest, 25.47; 21. Daniels, 26.47; 22. Westervelt, 26.56

400 meters — 8. Edgerton, 57.99; 11. Shannon, 59.46; 19. Daniels, 1:01.79; 30. Adriel Pina, Iola, 1:04.22; 33. John Rolf, SCC, 1:06.27; 36. Caden Coltrane, Iola, 1:07.52; 37. Cyrus Nickel, SCC, 1:07.72; 39. Luke VanLeeuwen, Humboldt, 1:13.13; 41. Emilio Peon, MV, 1:13.99

800 meters — 7. Cole Moyer, Iola, 2:25.46; 10. Kreed Jones, Humboldt, 2:27.84; 17. Thatcher, Mueller, Humboldt, 2:46.02; 19. Nathan Swope, Humboldt, 2:52.55; 20. Alejandro Escalante, Iola, 2:57.48

1600 meters — 4. Gunner Ellington, Crest, 5:06.18; 15. James Hunt, Iola, 5:48.73; 16. Elijah Taylor, Crest, 5:49.89

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