The Girls’ High Jump is back – Only nine times in the 41 years of the girls’ state track & field meet and not since 1998 had a girl high jumped 5’10” or better at the state meet, and only once (1981) did two girls clear that height during the same state meet, but while winning different classes. The two-athlete meet came when Kym Carter (Wichita East) won 6A and Lisa Volk (Kapaun-Mt Carmel) won 5A, both with jumps of 5’10”.
So if you were at the 2012 State Championships, you witnessed a never-before-done trio of girls jumping 5’10” or better in the same state meet. Jaylyn Agnew (Andover – FR) set the tone by winning the first high jump competition of the weekend (Class 5A) with a season best tying, and to that point state leading, jump of 5’10”.
Click here for the all-timebest marks in Kansas state history.
Then on Saturday, Grace Pickell (SM East – JR) cleared 5’10 ½” to win Saturday’s opening session, Class 6A event and take over the state best leadership. Shannon Parr (Rossville – SR) then followed in the next high jump competition, winning the Class 3A event with a jump of 5’10”. Both Pickell’s and Parr’s clearances set new state meet records for their respective classes. Pickell’s jump also knocked Agnew out of a tie for the #3 spot on the 2012 nationally prep list for the best jump and into a tie for #4, a position Parr then equaled.
Click here for the best marks of the 2012 season.
Multiple winners – Thirty-two athletes won two or three individual events at the 2012 State Championships, 17
boys and 15 girls, 15 seniors, 15 juniors, one sophomore (Heather Melton, Kiowa County) and one freshman (Joe Reagan, Seaman).
Mandy Wilson (Rossville) became just the fourth girl in State Meet history to win four straight 400-meter titles joining Emily Bloss (Wellsville, 1994-97), Trisa Nickoley (Shawnee Heights, 2001-04), and Lauren Pickens (Peabody, 2008-11). Pickens’ four-year sweep of the 400 came as part of her 12 gold medal, four-year sweep of all three short sprints, the 100, 200, and 400 meters while Nickoley’s four-year 400-meter sweep was part of a 12 gold medal, four-year sweep of the 400, 800, and 1600 meters.
Mackenze Klaver (Norwich) sandwiched a 100-meter dash title between a sweep of the Class 1A 100m and 300m hurdles on Saturday. Klaver’s combination of wins marked the third time in state meet history a girl has won that particular threesome of events. Shawnee Call (Ellsworth, 1983) and Katie Gruvel (Burlington, 2006 and 2007) added 200-meter titles to Klaver’s combination while winning four individuals in a single state meet.
Emilea Finley (Colby) and Alli Cash (SM West) sweeping the 800, 1600, and 3200-meter titles marked the 20th and 21st time a girl has won this combination. Jackie Stiles (Claflin) added a triple jump crown (1994) and a 400-meter title (1996) to the distance trio for a pair of unique four-event state championship performances.
Lukas Koch (Centralia) and David Thor’s (Bishop Carroll) sweep of the 800, 1600, 3200 meters was the 16th and 17th times for that sweep in the boys’ division of the state championships and also marked a fourth straight year for an individual sweep of those events.
Osvaldo Granillo’s (Moscow) sweep of the three short sprints marked the 33rd such sweep in the 102 years of the boys’ State Championships. Two of those 100/200/400 sweeps came as part of sweeps when Jordy Nelson (Riley County, 2003) and Keith Blanding (Pike Valley, 2004) won four events in a single championship, both of whom added a long jump title to the three sprint wins.
Class 1A Boys – Osvaldo Granillo (Moscow, SR) – 100, 200, 400 [Repeat of 100 and 200 from 2011]
Lukas Koch (Centralia, JR) – 800, 1600, 3200 [Repeat of 1600 and 3200 from 2011]
Blake Wilkey (South Haven, SR) – 110 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles [Repeat of 2011]
Class 2A Boys – Dylan Barber (Herington, SR) – 100, 200
Nick Borth (Meade, SR) – 110 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles
Class 3A Boys – Drew Diederich (Sacred Heart, JR) – 100, 200 [Won this double in 2A in 2011]
Cory Donley (Sacred Heart, JR) – 1600, 3200
Sean Newlan (Phillipsburg, JR) – 110 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles [Repeat of 2011 110H win]
Class 4A Boys – Nick Deterding (Smoky Valley, SR) – 200, 400
Angel Vasquez (DeSoto, JR) – 1600, 3200
Dayton Valentine (Baldwin, JR) – Shot, Discus
Class 5A Boys – Joe Reagan (Seaman, FR) – 100, 200
David Thor (Bishop Carroll, SR) – 800, 1600, 3200 [Repeat of 1600 and 3200 from 2011]
Adam Deterding (Hays, JR) – 110 Hurdles, High Jump [Repeat of 110H win from 2011]
Cade Sharp (Hays, JR) – Shot, Discus [Repeat of Shot win from 2011]
Class 6A Boys – Steven Calloway (Wichita Southeast, SR) – 200, 400
Jonathan Duvall (Garden City, JR) – 110 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles
Class 1A Girls – Mackenzie Klaver (Norwich, JR) – 100, 100 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles
Kennedy Schneider (Greeley County, SR) – 1600, 3200 [Repeat of 2011]
Anna Linton (Thunder Ridge, SR) – Shot, Discus
Class 2A Girls – Jenna Farris (Lincoln, JR) – 1600, 3200 [Third state 3200 title; 1A 2010, 2A 2011-12]
Heather Melton (Kiowa County, SO) – 100 Hurdles, High Jump [Repeat of 100H from 2011]
Breanna Blackwell (Herington, JR) – 300 Hurdles, Triple Jump [Repeat of 300H from 2011]
Class 3A Girls – Mandy Wilson (Rossville, SR) – 100, 400 [Fourth straight 400 title and fourth individual]
Heather Ruder (TMP-Marian, JR) – 800, 1600 [Third straight 800 and 1600]
Shannon Parr (Rossville, SR) – 100 Hurdles, High Jump [Repeat of 2009 and 2010 wins]
Elizabeth Herrs (Rock Creek, SR) – Discus, Javelin [Repeat of 2011 javelin win]
Class 4A Girls – Emilea Finley (Colby, SR) – 800, 1600, 3200 [Repeat of 800 and 1600 from 2011]
Class 5A Girls – Oasis Hernandez (Emporia, JR) – 200, Triple Jump [Repeat of 200 from 2011]
Meagan Williams (Valley Center, JR) – Shot, Javelin
Class 6A Girls – Alli Cash (SM West, JR) – 800, 1600, 3200 [Repeat of 800 and 1600 from 2011]
Alyssa Kelly (Blue Valley West, SR) – Long Jump, Triple Jump [Third straight for Long Jump, repeat of Triple Jump from 2011]
Mary Jo Massanet (Manhattan, SR) – Shot, Discus
Team Champions and Coaches –
Class 1A Boys – LaCrosse - 1st team championship (Jon Webster - 1st)
Class 2A Boys – Plainville - 1st team championship (Norma Finnesy - 1st)
Class 3A Boys – Sacred Heart-Salina - 2nd team championship [1984] (Arnold Schmidtberger - 1st)
Class 4A Boys – Buhler - 2nd team championship [2004] (Willie Adkins - 2nd)
Class 5A Boys – Hays - 5th team championship [1951t, 1959, 2010, 2011] (Ryan Cornelsen - 3rd)
Class 6A Boys – SM Northwest - 4th team championship [1982, 2002, 2011] (Mike Cooper -3rd)
Class 1A Girls – Pike Valley-Scandia - 1st team championship (Gary Loring - 1st)
Class 2A Girls – Maranatha Academy-Shawnee - 1st team championship (Nick Knight - 1st)
Class 3A Girls – Rossville - 3rd straight team championship [2010, 2011] (Jason Broaddus - 3rd)
Class 4A Girls – Paola - 1st team championship (Mike Smith - 1st)
Class 5A Girls – St Thomas-Aquinas - 3rd team championship [1981, 2006, 2008] (Craig Moss - 3rd)
Class 6A Girls – Olathe East - 5th straight team championship [2008t, 2009, 2010, 2011] (Mike Wallace - 5th)
Who to feel worse for? – Garrett Griffin who never got to participate or Alexa Harmon-Thomas who did.
You had to feel bad for Griffin (Louisburg – SR), the two-time defending champion, who missed his last opportunity to compete in the state meet after having an emergency appendectomy surgery earlier in the week. It isn’t every day that a young athlete is ranked among the nation’s top ten in his/her event and then gets sidelined by such a health issue just prior to the State Meet.
Harmon-Thomas (Free State – SO), defending high jump and 300m hurdle champion, entered the State Meet as the state’s top girl short hurdler and appeared to be on her way to easily qualifying for a spot in the 6A 100-meter high hurdle finals only to wipe-out with the finish line seemingly within reach. While her competitive plate was full for the weekend, it appeared that fall and its accompanying disappointment may have worked on her psych a little the remainder of the weekend as she finished second in the 300 hurdles and high jump and third in the long jump with only one legal attempt, events she entered as the #2 or #3 Class 6A entrant.
