Both Park Hill high schools competed in the Liberty North Invitational on Friday, April 13, and each one had at least one champion.
Park Hill South won a pair of championships on the boys side and three on the girls side. Park Hill, using only some of the top athletes, had a champion as well.
The Panthers girls won the 4x800-meter relay and one of the runners on that team was part of a 1-2 finish in the 1,600-meter run.
The 4x800 meter relay team of Olivia Roth, Keely Danielsen, Marti Heit and Maryann Ball ran 10:01.29, winning by seven seconds.
THOM HANRAHAN/Special to the Citizen
Park Hill South’s Ally Hammond, left, Dymeria Guillory, center, and Mara Andrews, right, compete in the 100-meter hurdles during the Liberty North Invitational. Guillory won the race, while Hammond was third and Andrews was fourth.
Senior Emma Roth won the 1,600 in 5:18.79, while Heit came in second.
The Panthers had a 1-3-4 finish in the 100-meter hurdles, with senior Dymeria Guillory winning in 17.52. Ally Hammon took third, while Mara Andrews was fourth. Staley’s Hailey Grime prevented the sweep for the Panthers.
In the field events, Alecia Westbrook was the runner-up in the high jump, losing a tiebreaker to Liberty’s Caroline Crawford. There were five athletes that jumped 5-foot-1.
Grace Dielman was third in the javelin for the Panthers.
Melvin Walker won the 100-meter dash for Park Hill South, running 11.80.
He was part of the Panthers 4x200-meter relay team of 1:31.94 along with Benjamin Owere, Connor McCauley and Chris DuPree. Walker placed in the third in the long jump.
Owere, McCauley, Charles Warren and Braeden Denney was the 4x100-meter relay team that placed second as well.
Park Hill South also placed in the 4x800-meter relay, finishing third. The team featured Eli Guzman, Christian Ludtke, Ethan Mick and Quentin Worley.
The other championship for Park Hill South came from junior Etinosa Reuben, who threw 45-4, winning by nearly a foot ahead of Liberty North’s Tommy Herron.
In the pole vault, Isaac Lee was part of a tie for second with a jump of 11-9 for Park Hill South.
Park Hill had most of its varsity compete Thursday, April 12, in the Gary Parker Invitational, so it sent a majority of underclassmen to this event.
The only medalist on the boys side was freshman Jake Higgs, who ran 56.93 to take second in the 400. Kolby Heinerikson was just shy of placing, taking fourth in the pole vault after a tie for second.
Sophomore LaShunda Tapp took first in the shot put with a throw of 39-2½, easily winning. Tapp didn’t compete in the Blue Spring meet, as the team was originally schedule to split the teams between there and Liberty North before the Blue Springs meet was moved up a day.