Wildcats finish third in season opener at Leavenworth

Louisburg’s Justin Collins (right) and Charlie Koontz (middle) battle it out in the 100-meter dash Monday during the Leavenworth Invitational. Collins took fifth overall and Koontz helped the 4×100 relay to a first place finish.

LEAVENWORTH – It was the start the
Louisburg boys track and field team was looking for Monday in its season opener
at the Leavenworth Invitational.

The Wildcats won two events, and
medaled in several others, as Louisburg finished third in the team standings
with 70 points at Leavenworth High School. Leavenworth won the meet going away
with 166 points and St. James Academy was second with 120, but it was good
first step for the Wildcats this season.

“We were just happy to get the season started,” Louisburg boys
coach Andy Wright said. “We have had to face a lot of adversity as a track
team, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how the kids came out and
competed.  We found out we have some room for improvement, but overall I
was ecstatic with the start.”

Sophomore Luke Faulkner got it started for the Wildcats in the
pole vault as he came close to matching his personal record in his first time
out. Faulkner took the gold medal in the event as he cleared 12 feet and won by
six inches.

“Luke came close to tying his PR from
last year, so that is a great starting point for the first meet of the year,”
Wright said. “With our jump pits unavailable for practice, we have had to get
creative with getting kids reps and borrowing time on other tracks. Now
that we should be able to start practicing on our track, we look to really
start getting practice time in to improve the marks.”

Sophomore Luke Faulkner clears a height in the pole vault Monday in Leavenworth.

The Wildcat 4×100-meter relay team also
struck gold with a nice performance. The team of Charlie Koontz, Blue
Caplinger, Ben Wiedenmann and Brandon Cooper edged out Sumner Academy and
Leavenworth for first in 44.63 seconds.

“Of course a win is always good to start the season with, but we
aren’t satisfied with that,” Wright said. “We want to continue to build from
this meet.”

Louisburg also brought home several other medals, including three runner-up performances.

Junior Michael Waldron had a strong first throw in the javelin
with mark of 158 feet, 11.5 inches to finish second and was less than three
feet out of first.

“Michael is going to surprise a few
schools this year,” Wright said. “This is only his second year throwing the javelin,
and we are very excited with what the future holds for him.”

On the track, Caplinger earned two more medals, including one
individual and one on another relay. Caplinger ran a time of 23.80 to finish
second in the 200-meter dash.

To end the meet, Caplinger joined Chris Williams, Justin Collins and Wiedenmann and took second in the 4×400 relay in 3 minutes and 33 seconds.

Freshman Tom Koontz clears a hurdle Monday in Leavenworth. Koontz took third in the 110 hurdles and fourth in the 300 hurdles.

Williams was a two-time medalist for the Wildcats as he also took third in the 400 dash in 52.54. Freshman Tom Koontz had a strong day in the hurdles for Louisburg as he finished third in the 110-meter hurdles in 17.87 and fourth in the 300 hurdles in 45.83.

In the field events, freshman A.J. Reed
came in fourth in the pole vault after he cleared 9-6. Sophomore Jay Scollin
also scored points for the Wildcats in the javelin with a fifth-place finish
with a mark of 139-9.

On the track, Collins (12.08) and
Wiedenmann (24.07) scored more points for Louisburg as they finished fifth in the
100 and 200 dash, respectively.

A few of the Wildcat throwers also got to
have a little fun as they took part in the throwers relay. Austin Moore, Kiefer
Tucker, Michael Waldron and Jonathan DePriest won with ease in a time of 48.49
seconds.

Louisburg will get back on the track
today when it travels to the Paola Invitational. Events are set to begin at
3:30 p.m.

Other results from Leavenworth are:

Pole vault: Tom Koontz, eighth, 8-0

High jump: Indy Strumillo, eighth, 5-4;
Weston Guetterman, ninth, 5-0

Long jump: Will Finestead, 12th,
17-10.5; W. Guetterman, 14th, 17-4.5; Dylan Armstrong, 19th,
16-9; Strumillo, 19th, 16-9; Isaac Guetterman, 21st, 16-0

Discus: Kiefer Tucker, seventh, 129-5;
Jonathan DePriest, 12th, 111-1; Brayden White, 14th,
107-8; Chase Pritchard, 22nd, 69-9

Shot put: Tucker, seventh, 41-11; White,
13th, 40-0; Cole Evans, 17th, 35-10.5; DePriest, 18th,
35-0; Will Patterson, 19th, 33-7.5

Javelin: A.J. Reed, ninth, 134-5; Austin
Moore, 13th, 126-9; Remington Rice, 24th, 78-6

100 dash: Brandon Cooper, eighth, 12.19; Ben
Wiedenmann, 10th, 12.25; Charlie Koontz, 11th, 12.30;
Finestead, 29th, 13.13

1,600 run: Anthony Davis, 13th,
5:19; Ryan Rodgers, 15th, 5:25; Caden Bradshaw, 18th,
5:34; Gareth Baus, 24th, 6:17

400 dash: Armstrong, 10th,
57.09; Finestead, 15th, 58.69; W. Guetterman, 19th, 1:00

800 run: Davis, 13th, 2:22;
Rodgers, 15th, 2:29; Bradshaw, 16th, 2:31; Sawyer
Richardson, 17th, 2:35; Baus, 20th, 2:52

200 dash: I. Guetterman, 26th,
27.09