Wildcats run away with home meet crown

Louisburg freshman Brandon Cooper is all smiles after winning the 100-meter dash Thursday at the Louisburg Invitational at Wildcat Stadium. Cooper finished with four medals on the day and helped the Wildcat team to a first place finish. 

The Louisburg boys track and field team is filled with several young and inexperienced athletes, but that youth didn’t show during the Louisburg Invitational on Thursday.

Louisburg won its second meet of the season as it racked up 151 points to pull away from the rest of the competition. Blue Valley Southwest was second with 121 points and Prairie View was third with 96 points in the 8-team meet.

“It was a good all-around meet as a team,” Louisburg coach Gary Griffin said. “We got good performances in all areas and most of the kids had personal records in at least one of their events.”

One of those personal records came in the shot put. Senior Jarod Woodward beat his personal record by almost three feet as he won the shot put with a toss of 53 feet, which ranks as one of the top 10 throws in the state.

“His throw of 53 feet is a big time throw,” Griffin said. “That puts him up there with the state leaders.”

Woodward was one of three Wildcats to win a field event Thursday.

Junior T.J. Dover won his first event of the season as he captured the discus title with a throw of 137 feet, 6 inches and he also took sixth in the shot put with a toss of 43-2.  Sophomore Garrett Lowry was third in the discus with a toss of 134-0 and junior Mason Koechner was fourth at 119-0.

Junior T.J. Dover finished sixth in the shot put Thursday at the Louisburg Invitational. Dover also won the discus with a throw of 137-6.

Sophomore Kristopher Light also had a big day as he won the high jump after he cleared 5-8 and Marshall Rooney came in fifth at 5-4. Freshman Ian Combs was fifth in the pole vault at 10-6.

“I really thought our throwers like Jarod, Garrett, T.J. and Mason all had a good day,” Griffin said. “Kris Light keeps scoring points in the high jump as well, which is great.”

Freshman Brandon Cooper won his first of four medals on the day in the triple jump with a mark of 37-3 and teammate Dalton Knipp was sixth at 36-3.

Cooper burned up the track in the sprints as he won the 100-meter dash in 11.19 seconds and later finished runner-up in the 200 dash in 23.81 seconds. He also helped Quinn Rigney, Ben Minster and Chris Williams to a gold in the 4×100 meter relay in 45.38 seconds.

Williams, another freshman, came up big for the Wildcats as he won three gold medals. Williams won the 400-meter dash with a season-best time of 52.23 seconds.

He also helped the 4×400 team of Michael Minster, Ben Minster and Rigney to a first place finish in 3:36. Williams also took fifth in the 200 dash in 24.28 seconds.

Rigney also scored points in the sprints as he took third in the 200 dash (23.91) and fourth in the 100 dash (11.69).

Freshman Ian Combs clears a height in the pole vault Thursday. Combs finished fifth in the event.

In the hurdles, freshman Jonathan Ventre had two strong races as well. Ventre was runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles in 43.72 seconds and third in the 100 hurdles in 17.42.

“Our freshmen continue to perform well,” Griffin said. “Brandon and Chris kind of dominated the sprints, along with Quinn. Jonathan keeps bringing his time down in the 300 hurdles and is figuring some things out in the high hurdles as well.”

The Wildcats’ 4×800-meter relay team of Wyatt Reece, Ben Hupp, Michael Minster and Tanner Belcher ran a solid time of 9:03 to finish second overall and several other distance runners scored points for Louisburg.

Michael Minster was third in the 800-meter run in 2:12, Tim Smith came in fourth in the 3,200-meter run in 11:11 and Reece was fifth in the 1,600-meter run in 5:09.

Louisburg will compete in two different meets later this week, as part of the team will travel to the Prairie View Invitational on Thursday, while other will go to the Gardner Relays on Friday.

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