Meet records were falling all over at the 2018 SBU High School Track Invitational. More than 50 schools and 2,000 total entries were scheduled to take place in one of the state’s biggest track meets. Read up on some of the highlights below.
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Central’s Roeder breaks through in pole vault
Central senior Elaina Roeder has been waiting a long time to finally break through the 12-foot barrier in pole vault. On Tuesday, everything fell into place for the Wake Forest signee as she set personal bests on back-to-back jumps and cleared 12-feet-six-inches.
“I knew coming into this meet that this is the best facility I jump at. It is the only raised runway I see all year, so I definitely knew coming in there was going to be a chance,” Roeder said.
She made it look easy as she didn’t miss on a single jump until failing to clear 13-feet. Clearing the bar so easily at both 12’03 and 12’06 came as a bit of a surprise to Roeder.
“I was shocked, but I knew deep down I could do it. I PR’ed at 12-foot-3 also, so I was already ecstatic about that. A double PR (personal best) just almost seems unreal,” Roeder said.
Her final height of 12’06 not only establish a new personal best for Roeder but also a new SBU Meet record and Central High School record. Roeder previously held both records with a height of 12-feet.
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Part of her success at SBU can be attributed to a new pole that she was able to break out for the first time on Tuesday.
“I got it a couple weeks ago. I haven’t had enough adrenalin to get on it in practice and I haven’t had the conditions with a tailwind really all year I have had crosswinds,” Roeder said. “With each of my poles I can hold a little higher, so the higher I hold, the closer I am to the bar. I almost feel like there is more time when I hold a little higher. I have more time to get myself upside down.”
Now she will focus on chasing that 13-foot barrier, which she believes will be within her grasp.
“My second attempt at 13, if I would have had the standards a little closer, I think I would have gotten it,” Roeder said. “My coach showed me the video and I had about a foot (of clearance) but it was three inches in front of the bar. If I can just get on this pole more at meets and put it all together, I think 13 is very possible.”
Wendt wins four golds with a heavy heart
Carl Junction’s star sprinter Weston Wendt had a lot more than track on his mind coming into the SBU High School Invitational.
“I went out and ran for my dad. He passed away two days ago. I was just trying to make him proud doing what I do best and hopefully things pan out the way that I want to,” Wendt said.
Wendt did his best at the meet and a little more by winning four gold medals with a sweep of the 100 and 200 dashes individually while running legs on the champion 400 and 800-meter relays.
The 100 was his first event of the day and the most mentally taxing of the events he contested on Tuesday.
He came out of the 100-meter prelims with the second-fastest time to Republic’s Destin Owen.
In the finals, Owen would false start, which disqualified him. After getting reset, a second false start forced the remaining sprinters back to the line one more time.
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“That was very mental because the first start I felt really good. The second one I got another good start and was thinking ‘ok, we are rolling right now’, and then they blow it again. That kind of sent me over,” Wendt said. “Then I hear coach say relax, calm down and just listen. I just relaxed, took a deep breath, said a little prayer and went ahead and went. It worked out really well.”
Wendt ran a strong race with a finish time of 10.91, which made him the only sprinter to break 11.10 in the finals. Running without immediate competition is something the senior sprinter has been working on.
“One of my biggest weaknesses is when there is nobody by me I don’t know how fast I am running. I have been working on that at practice trying to run by myself. I just can’t gauge how fast I am going I don’t know what it is,” Wendt said. “It is definitely a mental game.”
Wendt and the Carl Junction sprinters weren’t done there. He combined with Sam Repsher, Lucas Berliew and Lance Ward to win the 800-meter relay in a meet record time of 1:28.45. Those same four would win the 400-meter relay just a couple of events later in 42.73.
He capped off his day with his best run by posting a blistering 22.08 in the 200-meter dash to lower the meet record from 22.35.
Teammate Lance Ward also set a meet record in the 200 as he finished second at 22.35. The Carl Junction sophomore brought home an individual gold medal in the 400-meter dash with a meet-winning time of 50.8, which was a full second better than any other runner in the 57-athlete field.
Berry back to form for Lebanon after football injury
Lebanon’s John Berry wasn’t sure if he would be able to compete in his senior track season.
Back on Nov. 11, the star running back for the Yellowjackets tore the AC joint in his shoulder in the first quarter of the state quarterfinal football game against Ft. Zumwalt North. It would require surgery and a four-month recovery time.
“They told me that I would have a long recovery period of about three to four months,” Berry said. “I did a lot of shoulder workouts mainly because I had to work the range of motion back into it because I lost my range of motion.”
He was able to come back and start throwing earlier this track season, but was unsure in those first days if it was something he wanted to pursue.
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“The first time I did it I didn’t know if I wanted to do it for a little bit because I just got done getting stitches out and I tried to work into it slowly. The first week or two I was throwing and it was hurting a little bit but it has worked out,” Berry said.
He is not showing any ill-effects from the injury as he won the shot put on Tuesday with a throw of 52-feet-one-inch. He was the only athlete in the 67-thrower field to throw over 49-feet.
“I am pretty satisfied with (my throws),” Berry said. “I didn’t think I would be able to throw this year and to be able to throw about what I was throwing last year; I feel pretty blessed to be doing that.”
Camdenton’s Basham impresses in the 400
Camdenton junior Natalie Basham is a 100-meter hurdle state champion and an all-state finisher in the 300-meter hurdles, so it takes some getting used to seeing her lineup for the open 400-meter dash which her and fellow state champion Kylie Meier have done several times this season.
“We (Basham and Meier) have run the 300 hurdles the last few years together. We are trying to change it up and try new things because we are super athletic. We are just trying to get more times in and see what we can do,” Basham said.
As she lined up for the race on Tuesday, Crane’s Madison Hicks was getting into the blocks in lane four to Basham’s left. Hicks came in as the favorite with a season-best of 58.63 in the event, which makes her one of the favorites to win the Class 2 state title next month.
The two battled throughout the race, but it was Basham who pulled away late to post a time of 59.59 and win the race just ahead of Hicks’ 60.16 time.
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“The feeling is amazing. I knew she (Hicks) was a good runner and I just wasn’t going to give up,” Basham said. “She was behind me and I saw her gaining on me and cutting that gap off, so I just knew that I needed to kick in and get to that finish line first.”
Basham isn’t sure what the postseason plans for the 400-meter dash will be, but admits she doesn’t see much difference in difficulty between her natural 300-meter hurdles and the quarter-mile.
“They (the 400 & 300 hurdles) are kind of even with those hurdles in there. It makes it tough, so I feel like they are a pretty even race because the extra 100 meters evens out with hurdles in the (300’s),” Basham said.
Basham also finished third overall in the 100-meter hurdles behind Kickapoo’s Jaden Wiley and teammate Kylie Meier. Shortly after Basham’s 400-meter dash win, Meier picked up a statement win in the 300-meter hurdles with a meet-record and area-leading time of 43.32. Wiley, who won the 300 hurdles at the KU Relays this past weekend, also set a meet record in the race with a time of 44.63.
Meier and Basham combined with Grace Wormek and Clare Holmes to take down yet another meet record in the 1600-meter relay. The Lady Lakers ran 4:04.23 to smash the record the same four girls set last year at 4:09.08. Kickapoo (4:05.44) and Ozark (4:08.04) also were under the meet record from last year.
Lynch takes down Steeplechase record
Kickapoo’s William Lynch knew he had a shot at the SBU HS Invitational meet record coming into the event on Tuesday.
“Last week at KU Relays when I ran it (steeplechase), I ran three seconds faster than what the meet record was here,” Lynch said.
The atmosphere is a little different for the event at SBU. Each year competitors from almost every school stop what they are doing and camp out around the water jump,
“There are 50 schools here and a lot of great competition and the fans crowding the water barrier certainly help the motivation,” Lynch said. “It is crazy knowing that there is at least about 100 people cheering for you hoping that you will cannonball into the steeple pit.”
Lynch did appease the crowd with a cannonball, but he did walk away with a win and a meet record time of 6:36.06 despite suffering a bit from an aggressive early pace.
“I took out at a 60 (second lap), which is incredibly fast. It is like four-minute (mile) pace, which is not right,” Lynch said. “So I slept in the middle three laps. When the last lap came I decided to actually kick it up.”
Aurentz continues strong junior campaign
Kickapoo’s Kennedy Aurentz has an uphill climb to win a shot put state title, but she gained some confidence over the weekend at the KU Relays where she finished runner-up to nationally ranked Lee’s Summit West senior Makayla Kelby.
“(It showed) I am right on her heels. I am going to try and catch her and I think I can do it,” Aurentz said.
She had an early call on Tuesday with the first event of the day at 9:30 am with the shot put. She won the meet with a meet record performance of 43-feet-six-inches. Even with the meet record, she was a bit disappointed with the throw because it fell short of her season-best of 45’07.5
“I am still kind of recovering from the KU trip. I need to focus,” Aurentz said. “I think that was my problem today. Early in the morning I wasn’t as focused as a I should have been.”
While Aurentz often is off chasing individual glory in throwing rings well away from the starter’s pistol on the track, her teammates are never far from her mind, as another state team trophy in Class 5 could be in the cards again this season.
“I definitely know that every time I throw it is for my team as a whole and not just myself,” Aurentz said. “I always go out there and try to win for them too.”
Aurentz also competed in one of the last events of the day in the discus where she finished fourth overall with a throw of 109’01.
