The Prairie View women's track teams celebrates winning the Class 3A team trophy for the State Track and Field Championships in Wichita on Saturday. (Photos by Aubin Skipper/Special to the Journal)
We want to thank photographer Aubin Skipper from Simply...by Aubin for providing photos from the state track meet. To see hundreds of photos from the meet, click on this link or go to https://simplybyaubin.pixieset.com/kansasstatetrack/2023day2.
WICHITA – The Kansas State Track and Feld Championship track meet on Friday and Saturday, May 26-27, was one for the history books for the women’s program at Prairie View High School.
Despite fielding a state team with only a few members, the Buffalo women mounted the podium and then celebrated a Class 3A state championship trophy on Saturday after the competition was complete. It took every effort of the women’s team to earn enough points to beat out tied-for-second-place teams Phillipsburg and Smoky Valley by only one-half point, 41.5 to 41 points.
Leading up to the state title, the women also won the Pioneer League championshio and regional championshio trophies.
A little more than a year ago, PV distance runner Bree Allen, then a freshman, entered the 800-meter race at the Jayhawk-Linn Invitational track meet in Mound City.
Prairie View distance runner Bree Allen stretches her lead in one of three races where she would win gold at the state track meet.
A standout, state runner-up cross country runner who easily adapted her endurance on the trail to long-distance races on the oval track, Allen had not run the 800 as a competitor at the high school level. Placed in the slower heat because she didn’t have a time from a previous competition, Allen won the heat by nearly 100 meters and went on to easily win the event.
After that, 800 meters became part of her rotation along with longer distance races including the 3200-meter and 1600-meter runs.
And this year with fellow Prairie View distance-running sophomores Wylie Teagarden and Kallie Stroup and senior Kelsey Konitzer, the Buffalos have racked up school record-breaking times in the 4x800 relay.
On Saturday, though, Allen became the Class 3A state champion in the 800. That same day she won the 1600, adding those championship medals to the one she won the day before in the 3200. In each of those three events, Allen set personal records, and won the 3200 by nearly 40 seconds. She will add those medals to the state Class 3A cross country championship she won last fall.
Members of the 3A champion women's track team include, from left, Delanie Fox, Kally Stroup, Amaris Murillo, Mary Jane Britz, Maddie Baker, Kelsey Konitzer, Wylie Teagarden and Bree Allen.
Also on Saturday, the women’s 4x800 relay team broke their own school record set earlier in the season to place eighth in that event.
Elated with the team championship trophy, Prairie View head track coach Kyle Littrell said that the relay team struggled through the early part of this season. But the women came into their own by the end of the season, and at the league, regional and state meets they were in top form.
He said the women came to practice every day and put in the work to become stronger and better.
Littrell said that going into the season, the decision was made to focus on the 4x800 relay over the 4x400. Much of that decision came down to more consistent results with the 4x800. The longer distances made sense for the team, all of whom had distance running credentials on the school’s cross country team.
Senior Maddie Baker crosses the finish line in the 100-meter hurdles at the state track meet.
That along with strong performances by Prairie View women, including medals for senior Maddie Baker, was enough to give the women’s team that state 3A championship trophy.
Baker, who took gold in 100-meter and 330-meter hurdles and the high jump in several meets including regional and league, placed fourth in high jump with a leap of 5’0” and third in the 100-meter hurdles with a Kansas top-50 time of 15.85.
She placed 11th in 300 hurdles with a time of 49.25 during the preliminary heat and did not qualify for the finals.
Headed to MIdAmerica Nazarene University in the fall, Baker will likely be a multi-event track athlete at the collegiate level, Littrell said.
The state meet also proved to be good experience for younger women who might not have made the podium at the state meet but won valuable experience by qualifying for the big show at the regional meet.
Mary Jane Britz, a sophomore who has developed power as a thrower, took 10th place in the shot put with a throw of 34’8”, a personal record. She placed third at regionals with a put of 34’4”.
Freshman Delanie Fox placed second in the 400-meter dash at the regional meet with a time of 1:02.22. She was eliminated in the preliminaries of the state meet with a time of 1:04.34, good enough for 15th place.
Amaris Murillo, also a freshman, ran the 800- and 1600- races for the Buffalos during the season. She was tapped as the alternate runner for the 4x800 team in case one of those runners could not compete.
Sophomore Kally Stroup hurls the javelin at the state track meet.
Finally, Stroup, a sophomore who was part of the freshman cross-country threesome with Allen and Teagarden in the fall of 2021, has shifted into middle distance running and this year picked up the javelin. She placed fourth at regionals with a throw of 116’4”, good enough for a trip to state.
While she placed 14th with a throw of 102’11” at state, Littrell said she has added points to the team score throughout the season. He looks for her to continue to grow in that event.
“She will only get better,” he said.
Littrell is confident that the success of this year’s women’s team will keep the team competitive next year. The willingness to continue to work hard is exemplified by the Buffalos’ premier distance runner.
Showing no sign of slacking off after her trifecta of solo championships at the state meet, Allen told a reporter in Wichita that she plans to work throughout the summer for her next goal: repeating as state 3A cross country women’s champion this fall.