Thursday was a great day to be a Lamar Tiger.
Both the boys’ and girls’ track teams dominated in the Big 8 conference meet at East Newton High School’s Don Johnston Stadium.
The Lamar boys scored a total of 190 points, and the girls scored 144.
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Nicholas Ray is really, really fast.
The senior ran 9:39.10 in the 3200 to knock 13 seconds off his personal record and set a new conference record – one that hadn’t been broken since 1988 – that’s going to be hard to beat.
“I’m pretty stoked,” Ray said. “That last lap I was just trying to haul it because coach said I needed 2:21 in the last 800. I felt good and I love running at night.”
He added, “Last year we had Caden Overstreet. He was one of my main guys who I ran with all the time. He had our two mile record and always told me I couldn’t get it, so I’ve been trying this year. This is my second time I’ve run it. I just want to push myself to see how good I can be.”
Ray also topped the 800 (2:02.30), 1600 (4:47.20) and helped the 4×800 relay team to a first-place finish.
Also key to Lamar’s victory was Luke Hardman.
Hardman found himself up against rival Weston Wendt of Carl Junction three times Thursday afternoon.
Wendt bested Hardman by a tenth of a second in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes to beat both conference records, set in 1999 and 2000, respectively.
The two were also on the 4×100 relay teams, which again resulted in a Carl Junction victory.
“We’re actually really good friends. I didn’t know him until this year but with all the meets we’ve been to I’ve become pretty good friends with him,” Hardman said.
Hardman did win the 300 meter hurdles event with a time of 42.70.
But coming in .40 seconds behind Hardman was Lamar's biggest contributor to the triumph.
In addition to getting runner up in the 300, Trey Mooney picked up two golds in the 110 meter hurdles (15.60) and high jump (6-04.00). The junior also placed third in long jump, ultimately giving Lamar a total of 34 points.
Lamar also earned points with first-place wins from Thomas Ayers in the javelin throw (153-00) and Cooper Lucas in discus (150-07.50).
Head coach Rodney Baldridge said, “I’m real happy. I think we performed well. We competed well. We set goals for how many points we’d like for each event and pretty much reached every one of them. There were very few where we fell short.”
Ray said, “I love every one of these guys. They push every day, make each other better. It’s a blessing, honestly, to be a part of this team and all of the success we’ve had the last five years.”
After losing to Carl Junction in 2015, the Lamar girls were more than anxious to redeem themselves.
Kaelyn Sturgell immensely contributed to the Lady Tiger victory.
The senior placed first in both the 300 meter hurdles with a 46.60 (season PR) and triple jump (33-01.75). She was also runner up in the 100 meter hurdles with a 15.90 (overall PR) and long jump (16-04.25).
Sturgell said, “I brought more speed into the hurdles than I have all season, but I need to make sure I’m consistently low and in control.”
She added, “We won conference my sophomore year for the first time in school history, and we lost a lot of incoming sophomores because they just didn’t want to do it. We were so worried. We’ve never had distance. We’ve never had strong people to spread out field events. I’ve always had to kind of fill in gaps, but we have seven freshmen this year and they can high jump, triple jump, long jump and it’s nice to be a senior and have that. And it’s nice for our coach to have that.”
After placing first in the discus event in 2015, Lamar’s Kaitlyn Graves nabbed it again with a throw of 113-06.50. She also topped shot put with 32-11 to give 20 points to the Lamar team.
The girls’ 4×200 meter relay team of Madison Baldwin, Haley Landrum and Grace and Lauren Compton also took first-place with a time of 1:49.20 to set a new conference record.
Head coach Brett Pettibon said, “All the seniors stepped up. They (Baldwin and Grace) both scored more than they were set to coming in.”
And to Pettibon’s surprise, Dacy Crocket also had an impressive day as she topped the high jump at 5-00.
“She wasn’t expected to do that at all,” he said. “She came out of nowhere and that was really huge. She’s a sophomore, but it’s her first year ever to run track. She’s had a really good season.”
Pettibon added, “This feels really good, especially with the seniors that I have. I’ve actually coached them for six years. So there’s a really big group and it’s really special to me that they were able to win it their senior year.”
In her senior year, East Newton’s Emily Sorrell is hoping to break the school’s 800 meter run record.
Thursday, she was just two seconds off with a time of 2:24.60. Coming in right behind her in both the 800 and 1600 was longtime competitor and friend Jelynn Tatum of Carl Junction.
“They get after it,” Sorrell said of the Bulldogs. “They like to push. And we’re also good friends, so it’s kind of a little healthy competition.”
Sorrell can usually be found running alongside her younger sister Kinsey, which she will miss after her final track season comes to an end. The two finished merely seconds apart in the 1600.
“She’s actually faster than I was at her age,” Sorrell said. “We’re totally different but we’re the same in a lot of ways. I kind of stress out and I plan and plan. She kind of just goes with the flow. She’s relaxed. Nothing really scares her. So it’s good for me to see that because she kind of helps calm me down and I remind her we’ve got to keep working. We have fun. We usually run side-by-side together. She’s somewhere near me. I’m somewhere near her. It’s fun to feed off each other. I always have a training partner.”
The sisters also led East Newton to second place to Carl Junction in Thursday’s 4×400.
Last year, the girls placed tenth in the 4×400, second in the 1600, were state champions in the 4×800 and ended up with third overall.
“We have a cool banner in our gym,” she smiled.
Despite coming in second, Carl Junction set five new conference records, including Wendt’s.
Lily Pyle broke 2004s pole vault record with a height of 9-foot-4.
The boys’ 4×100 and 2×200 meter relay teams also set new records that were previously set in 2015 and 2001, respectively.
