Ferguson breaks 6A meet records in SP/DT

State Meet Highlights

 
In Kansas, all six classifications vie for titles on the campus of Wichita State University. This is a state with a long and storied history in track and field and the records are some of the most difficult in the entire country. This was a banner year for throws and Kord Ferguson was among the top throwers in the nation.

Top Performances:

 
- Kord Ferguson of Ottawa broke Class 4A meet records in the shot put (64-7.50) and the discus (206-2) on his future home track. He would go on to Great Southwest titles in both events and earned a spot on the U.S. World Juniors team in the discus.

 
- Alexa Harmon-Thomas of Lawrence Free State, a University of Texas heptathlon recruit, won the 6A 100 hurdles in 14.67 and the 300 hurdles in 43.69.

 
- DeRon Thompson of Wichita Northwest was the 6A sprint king, with 10.74 and 21.99.

 
- The Olathe East boys ran 3:17.07 to break the Class 6A meet record in the 4x400 relay. They came within a tenth of a second of breaking the all-time state best of 3:17.0 set by Wichita West in 1987.

 
- Sophomore Breanna Eckels of Wichita Southeast won the 6A long jump with 19-1.

- Junior Keiryn Swenson of Maize won the 6A javelin with 148-4.

- Caelan Neal of Olathe East won the 6A triple jump with 48-8.25.

- Joseph Reagan, a junior at Topeka Seaman, ran 10.69 to win the Class 5A 100 and 21.58 to take the 200. He was also on the second place 4x400 relay team.

- Ian Jones of Lenexa-St. James won the 5A 400 meters with 48.55 and also placed second in the 800.

- Trenton Hammond of Liberal ran 37.50 in the 300 hurdles to win the 5A title.

- The Wichita Heights girls ran 48.26 to break the Class 5A record in the 4x100 relay.

- Andrew Henn of Paola threw 202-3 to win the 4A javelin, good for US#20.

- Doug Kueser of Osawatomie doubled in the 400 (49.40) and 800 (1:54.84) in the Class 4A meet.

- Colin Coleman of Perry-Lecompton broke a 4A meet record with 21.87 in the 200 meters. He also helped his team secure the 4x400 relay title.

- Courtney Lies from Andale jumped 38-9 to win the 4A triple jump.

- Alexia Stein of Baldwin put together a throws double in Class 4A, of 44-3.75 in the shot put and 139-4 in the discus.

- Ryan Schadler of Hesston was a standout in the 3A meet with victories in the 400 (49.36) and long jump (22-7.25) to go with a second place finish in the 200 and third in the 100.

- Taylor Needham won the girls 100 (12.65), 200 (25.81) and the 300 hurdles (45.33) and also ran on the second-place 4x400 relay for Cheney in Class 3A.

- Freshman Jewel Bolden of Collegiate won both the 100 hurdles (15.12) and the long jump (17-5.75) in Class 3A.

- Dylan Hodgson of Washington County was a triple winner in Class 2A with victories in the 800 (1:59.55), the 1600 (4:22.73) and the 3200 (9:20.76).

- Allison Zerbe of Mission Valley threw 151-1 to win the Class 2A javelin. That mark was also US#12.

- Aaron True of Southern Coffey County pumped out a winning javelin mark of 202-0 in Class 1A, which was US#21 .

- Kole Konrade of Ashland cleared 6-8.25 in the 1A high jump and was the state leader.

Top Teams:

The Lawrence Free State girls won the 6A state championship for the second year in a row, this time with a whopping 97 points. The Olathe East boys won the 6A boys title with 85 points.

In Class 5A, Wichita Bishop Carroll won the boys title and OP-St. Thomas Aquinas won the girls championship. In Class 4A, Andale's boys won their second straight championship and the Baldwin girls won for the fourth time in five years.

Top Competition: The 1A girls high jump between Katie Murray of Rolla and Morgan Coffman of Marais de Cygnes Valley High School turned out to be more competitive than any of the five bigger classifications. Both girls cleared 5-6 and Murray won the title on few misses at earlier heights. The high jump is one of those events that seems to be unaffected by school size. Murray's high school has just 124 students, Coffman's 108.

Record-breaker: Ferguson nailed down the 6A meet records in the shot put and discus but the overall state records continued to elude him despite a fantastic season. The Kansas records were both set by Clint Johnson of Shawnee Mission South in 1980. He threw the shot 69-1.50 and the discus 213-6.

Results