Track and field athletes from 18 area schools competed on at Liberty High School in the Ron Ives Invitational on Friday, March 23.
The Platte County girls team finished third in their first event of the season as Libery took first and Liberty North took second. The Pirates were led by Addyson Schlake and Kelly Bullano both taking second in field events while the 4x200-meter relay team finished third alongside Addison Stone in the 200-meter dash and Adi Benninghoff in the 100-meter hurdles. Schlake took second with a 35.41-meter discus toss, finishing second to Liberty’s Alyssah Price.
Bullano threw the javelin 38.13 meters, finishing second to Madison Rust of Grain Valley. The 4x200 girls relay team finished fourth at 1 minute, 49.80 seconds while Stone ran 200 meters in 27.35 seconds and Benninghoff ran through 100-meter hurdles in 16.44 seconds.
Park Hill took sixth in girls while Park Hill South finished in eighth. Desi Holbrook took second for the Trojans in the 400m dash with a time of 1:01.75 while the 4x200m relay team was also second with 1:47.71. The Trojans’ 4x100m relay finished third in 50.68 seconds while Grace Hodge also took third with a 3.05m pole vault.
On the boys side, Platte County finished sixth and Park Hill finished seventh, followed by Park Hill South’s 11th-place finish.
For the Trojans, Braylon Agee took first in 100-meter hurdles at a time of 14.65 seconds while Landon Julsen leaped 1.88 meters for a first-place finish in the boys high jump. Park Hill’s relay teams also did well as the 4x400m team came in second after a 3:32.51 time while the 4x800m team came in third with a time of 8:28.29.
The Pirates had three first-place finishers, including a pair of relays and senior Joshua Fraker in the 400m dash. The Platte County 4x100m relay took first at 42.71 seconds while the sprint medley relay took first with a time of 3:33.90. Fraker’s 400m dash was completed in a time of 49.44 seconds.
Platte County junior Braiden Stevens’ 100m dash time of 10.92 narrowly missed first-place, finishing second to the 10.66 time that Staley’s Robert Collins sprinted.
Park Hill South’s lone first-place winner was Thomas Garrett, who finished first in the 1600m run with a time of 4:28.00. Cole James was a second-place finisher for the Panthers, running 800m in 2:03.30.
For the Park Hill South girls, Audrey Steitz finished second in triple jump with a 10.88 meter leap. Renae Masson’s 50.79 time in the 300m hurdles and Paige Farber’s 1:05.08 time in 400m dash was good enough for third. LaNicia Parker also finished third in long jump, leaping 5.14m while the Panthers’ 4x400m relay team also finished third with a time of 4:23.09.