Jayhawk track team has best state meet in school history

The Jayhawk-Linn High School track team prepares to head to the state track meet in Wichita. (Jayhawk USD 346 Facebook)

WICHITA – The Jayhawk-Linn High School boys track team won an school-record seven medals at the Kansas State Track and Field Championships at Wichita on Friday and Saturday, May 24-25.

Those medals included two golds in the Class 2A hurdle events: one for 110-meter champion Gus Grote, and one for 300-meter champ Ryan Broyles.

The performance by other members of the boys team gave the Jayhawks a seventh-place team finish at the state meet. That included third- and sixth-place medals in the pole vault.

It was a fitting way for triple-sport senior Grote to finish out his career at Jayhawk-Linn. However, Jayhawks placing in all of the hurdle events could be an indication of things to come.

Class 2A state 110-meter hurdle champ Gus Grote stands atop the podium with state runner-up champ Trenton Broyles to his left. Ryan Broyles, far right, placed seventh in that event but went on to become 300-meter hurdle champ. (Jayhawk USD 346 Facebook)

In the 110-meter event, Grote finished with a time of 15.43 seconds, followed by junior Trenton Broyles, now runner-up state champ, with a time of 15.77, and a seventh-place finish by junior Ryan Broyles with a time of 16.37.

Ryan Broyles finished the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.61, just three-tenths of a second ahead of the second place finisher.

Junior Gabe Springer earned a third-place medal for clearing the bar at 12 feet 6 inches in the pole vault. Sophomore Truman Schneider wasn’t far behind, tying for sixth place with a vault of 11’6”.

Other results for the boys included junior Cooper Johnson taking eighth place in the high jump with a leap of 6’0”. The 4x800-meter relay team of Dillon Champlin, Simon Shillito, Louis Shillito and Reed Krull finished in ninth place with a time of 8:39.71.

The 4x100-meter relay team of Grote, Brayden Johnson, Cooper Johnson, and Trenton Broyles qualified for the finals but were disqualified at the start of the final race.

While the Jayhawk girls team did not bring home any medals, nine members qualified for the state meet.

Sophomore Brea Dawson, the school record-holder in the 100-meter hurdles, placed ninth in the preliminaries event with a time of 49.022. She also placed 10th in the long jump with a leap of 14’10.5”.

Senior Karsyn Kempinger threw the javelin for 104’10”, good enough for 13th place, and Brilyn Bogan cleared the bar at 4’8” to take 11th place in the high jump.

The Jayhawk girls 4x400-meter relay team of Dawson, Kiera McGrew, Coralynn Bukkila, and Adeline Randall placed 15th in the preliminaries with a time of 4:25.548. The 4x800-meter team of McGrew, Bukkila, Randall, and Jordyn Marrs also placed 15th in the preliminaries with a time of 11:05.885.

Randall placed 14th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:37.67.