Park Hill had five first-place finishes on the girls side and cruised to the team title at the Jerry Crews Invitational on Thursday, April 5, at the North Kansas City District Athletic Complex at Staley High School.
The Trojans had 144 points, easily outdistancing second-place Liberty North, which had 116 ½ points.
The state champion 4x400-meter relay posted nearly a six-second victory finishing in 4:06.88. That team featured Teresa Thomas, Manuela Ngo Tonye Nyemeck, Caleia Johnson and Taiya Shelby.
Special to the Citizen/KCPrepReport.com
Mackenze Resch, left, and Kailey Wallace compete in the 1,600 meter run for the Trojans. Park Hill girls won the team title with 144 team points in the annual meet.
Three of those runners won individual races as well.
Thomas won the 100-meter dash, the start of a 1-2-3 finish for the Trojans with a time of 12.87. Johnson was second and Sephora Koudou was third. Koudou, a senior, was the runner-up in the 200.
Ngo Tonye Nyemeck won the 400 finals in 1:00.64, while Shelby took first in the 800 with a time of 2:18.12.
The Trojans had another 1-2-3 finish, this one coming in the high jump. Freshman Lauren Woelk won with a jump of 5 feet, winning a tiebreaker. Second place was a tie between Kristen Birmingham and Hannah Graves, also freshmen, both jumped 5 feet. Graves added a third in the 300-meter hurdles.
LaShunda Tapp was the runner-up in the shot put and Grace Fink was third in the 3,200
On the boys side, the Trojans took ninth with 44 points.
The lone championship for Park Hill went to Kolby Heinerikson, who threw 171-10 ½ in the javelin to win by more than 3 ½ feet. The junior was also part of a third-place finish in the boys 4x400 with teammates Michael Baker, Evan Sambroski and Antonio McCullough.
Jameel Burns added a third as well for Park Hill in the 110-meter hurdles.