Platte County senior Nathan Straubel started his final track season with a school record. The standout long distance runner won the Class 4 and 5 3,200-meter run Monday, March 23 at the University of Central Missouri Indoor meet in Warrensburg, Mo. He finished in 9 minutes, 39.8 seconds.
Straubel set Platte County’s state course record in cross country this past fall while finishing fifth in the Missouri State Cross Country Championships. He placed sixth in the 3,200 during last spring’s Class 3 Missouri State and Track Field Championships but bettered the mark from that finish by nearly 8 seconds in his first meet of this season.
Platte County’s Nolan Orf finished third in Monday’s 3,200, coming in 40 seconds behind runner-up Cody Berry of Blue Springs (9:42.7). Orf finished in 10:22.3. Straubel then teamed up with Evan Edwards, Nicholas Bjustrom and David Fulk to finish fourth in the distance medley relay (12:03.23).
Platte County also had a strong showing in the girls 3200 with freshmen Erin Straubel and Rebekah Geddes finishing in third and fourth place, respectively.
Devin Perry, Lloyd Lockett, Aaron Brown and Aliek Reed claimed silver in the 4x220 yard relay (1:37.15) narrowly missing out on the gold to Lee’s Summit North (1:37.01). Reed — also sixth in the high jump (5-feet 10-inches) — ran the anchor leg of the 4x440 relay (Lockett, Brown and Keith Spencer) that placed seventh (3:48.60).
Brown scored a seventh-place finish in the long jump (20-10.5).
Melissa Ditter placed fourth in the high jump at 4-8, and she ran a leg on the seventh-place 4x440 relay with Rachel Gilbert, Sara Wyss and Rylie Collins.