Dover leads Wildcat track with discus title in opener

By Andy Brown
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Updated: March 30, 2017

DE SOTO – It was a cold, wet and dreary start to the Louisburg track and field season, but the Wildcats were still able to find success despite the undesirable weather conditions.

Louisburg competed in the Leavenworth Invitational on Tuesday that was held at De Soto High School and the Wildcats left with seven top three finishes – five of which came on the boys side.

Senior T.J. Dover led the Wildcats as he won his first competition of the season. Dover finished first in the discus with a throw of 138 feet, 9 inches.

“Overall I was pleased with the effort,” Louisburg boys coach Gary Griffin said. “Competing one day after coming off of spring break is not ideal, and it was cold, but I thought we competed well. T.J. had some good marks for early in the year, and he will keep getting better and better.”

Dover continued his success in the throws as he finished third in the shot put with a toss of 46-1.25.

Also in the field events, freshman Trent Martin had a strong performance in the pole vault in his first varsity meet as he finished second after he cleared 10-6.

On the track, sophomore Chris Williams ran a strong time in the 400-meter dash and finished second in 53.74 seconds. Williams also helped the 4×800-meter relay of Tanner Belcher, Ben Hupp and Owen Staver to a third-place finish in 8 minutes and 51 seconds.

“Chris ran the 4×800, the 400 and 4×400, which is a lot early in the year and I thought he ran well,” Griffin said. “Trent did a nice job in the pole vault and I did not think being in his first varsity meet bothered him at all.”

Junior Isabelle Holtzen led the Lady Cats as she finished second in the pole vault after she cleared 7-6. The 4×800 team of Reilly Alexander, Shaylor Whitham, Alex Miller and Payton Shaffer was third in 12:01.

In the team standings, the Louisburg boys finished sixth with 49.5 points and the girls took sixth with 26.5 points.

“I feel the meet went well for us,” girls coach Greg Darrington said. “I know the girls are a little disappointed with the results, but we had some girls that were really competitive. We have some time and I know we will get much better as we get into shape. It was tough on the girls with only one practice after spring break. I am looking forward to Friday and can’t wait to see how we compete with a full squad after only taking 13 girls for this meet.”

Louisburg returns to action Friday when it travels to Belton (Mo.) for the Show-Me Showdown.

Other results from the meet are:

BOYS

100 dash: Quinn Rigney, 13^th, 12.10; Will Ridley, 14^th, 12.10; Jackson Ewalt, 18^th, 12.18; Austin Moore, 21^st, 12.52

200 dash: Rigney, ninth, 24.61; Ewalt, 15^th, 25.36; Moore, 18^th, 25.65; Ridley, 22^nd, 26.15

400 dash: Blue Caplinger, 13^th, 57.19

800 run: Tanner Belcher, fourth, 2:12; Owen Staver, ninth, 2:19

1,600 run: Wyatt Reece, seventh, 5:03; Tim Smith, ninth, 5:05; Jacob Benne, 15^th, 12:31