West Platte swept the titles at the Mid-Buchanan Early Bird track meet on Thursday, March 22 to kick off the season.
The Bluejays scored 184½ points on the girls side, edging Mid-Buchanan by 20 points. The boys cruised to the win by nearly 50 over rivals North Platte, 173-127.
West Platte boys took home nine event wins, six individual and three of four relay events. Cole Vandel took home three of the wins in the 110 hurdles (18.62), pole vault (9-6) and triple jump (40-2). Max Davies won the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs (5:05.64 and 11:22.35, respectively). Davies led a sweep of the podium in the 1-mile race with seniors Justin Howard (5:16.38) and Andrew Cicha (5:18.93) coming in right behind the junior distance specialist.
Matik Heskin claimed the other individual win for the Bluejays, coming in the 300 meter hurdles (48.47) he also claimed a second place finish in the 110 hurdles, just behind Vandel (18.72).
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
West Platte’s Ciara Davies, second from left, and North Platte’s Maddie O’Neill compete in the 200-meter dash at the Mid-Buchanan Early Bird meet held on Thursday, March 22, in Faucett.
The boys also took the win in the 4x800 (9:23.46), 4x400 (3:55.12) and 4x200 (1:39.13) relays. East Buchanan prevented a relay sweep, claiming the 4x100 win by .6 seconds.
North Platte won two events on the boys side, Corbin Green led a North Platte sweep of the podium in the 400 dash (54.43). Caleb Crumley (57.38) and Ty French (57.46) finished second and third, respectively. Joseph DeMarcus, split the pole vault crown with Vandel after the pair both vaulted 9-6 with an equal number of misses.
On the girls side West Platte claimed three event wins but scored valuable points with multiple entries in each of the relay events. Emily Norman won the 100 meter hurdles (17.57) and freshman Mikenna Peters took second (17.61). North Platte senior Bailee Romaker (17.63) grabbed the final podium spot. Peters and Norman flipped spots in the 300 hurdles with the freshman taking the top spot (52.63), Norman came in more than a sdcond behind to take second (53.87) and junior Lindsay Goodwin made it a Bluejays sweep with a third-place effort (54.25). Lexi Elmore won the 3,200 run in 13:05.57 to round out the West Platte wins.
Senior McKenna Fulton and freshman Maddie O’Neill claimed wins for North Platte. Fulton won the 400 meter dash (1:05.58) and O’Neill claimed the 200 (27.65).
CODY THORN/Citizen Photo
West Platte’s Drake Stelljes clears the bar in the high jump event at the Mid-Buchanan Early Bird meet on Thursday, March 22, in Faucett.
Other medal stand finishes include: Trinity Wrightfield, North Platte, 100-meter dash (third, 13.90), Ciara Davies, West Platte, 200 (third, 28.03), Ty French, North Platte, 200 (third, 25.41), Zach Lee, North Platte, 3,200 (second, 12:01.85), Sikoya Richard, West Platte, 800 (second, 2:46.93), Rachel Heili, West Platte, 800 (third, 2:46.93), Zach Howerton, West Platte, 800 (third, 2:24.00), Amanda Lowell, West Platte, discus (second, 92-4) and shot put (second, 31-9), Miranda Daniel, North Platte, discus (third, 85-2) and shot put (third, 31-3.5), Nelson McCracken, North Platte, discus (third, 111-10), Faith Stevens West Platte, high jump (second, 4-8) and triple jump (third, 31-3.5), Lexie Smither, West Platte, high jump (third, 4-6), Drake Stelljes, West Platte, high jump (second, 5-6), Lea Moose, West Platte, javelin (third, 94-4), Chase Chestnut, North Platte, javelin (third, 121-4), Gavin Raney, West Platte, long jump (second, 19-2), Tyler Meadows, North Platte, pole vault (third, 9-6), Gavin Raney, West Platte, pole vault (third, 9-6).
UCM Relays
West Platte had a strong showing in the distance events at the UCM Mule Indoor Relays on Wednesday, March 20 in Warrensburg.
The Bluejays won two events on the girls side in small school division that featured Class 1 and 2 schools.
Freshman Sophia Rush ran 12:58 in the 3,200-meter, edging teammate Lexi Elmore by four seconds to win.
The two joined Lea Moose and Rachel Heili in winning the girls medley relay in 14:40.91, winning by four seconds ahead of KC Lutheran.
West Platte took second and third in two other relays.
The 4x400 team of Lindsay Goodwin, Sikoya Richard, Gretchen Raney and Ciara Davies was second, behind fellow KCI school Lathrop. The 4x200 team of Raney, Davies, Emily Norman and Tori Norman took third, behind Lathrop and King City.
Goodwin and Heili finished third and fourth, respectively in the 800. In the 60 hurdles, Emily Norman was fourth, two spots ahead of MiKenna Peters. Amanda Lowell took fourth in the shot put for West Platte.
The boys 3,200 meter relay team of Andrew Cicha, Justin Howard, Sam Davis and Max Davies was second, running 12:40.21, coming in behind KC Lutheran.
Davies added a runner-up finish in the 3,200.
The 4x400 team of Dylan Lock, Drake Stelljes, Aidan Sullivan and Gavin Raney took fourth.