Holtzen breaks school record, Wildcats sweep team titles

By Andy Brown
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Updated: May 3, 2017

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg junior Isabelle Holtzen slaps hands with jump coach Andy Wright after she cleared the 10 foot mark in the pole vault earlier this season. Holtzen broke the school record in the event Thursday after she cleared 11 feet, 1 inch at the Prairie View Invitational.

LA CYGNE – Once Isabelle Holtzen cleared 10 feet in the pole vault during the Prairie View Invitational on Thursday, she went over to jump coach Andy Wright to look at the video.

Holtzen was surprised by what she saw.

The Louisburg junior cleared, what was her personal best, by a wide margin and it gave her all the confidence she needed as she tried for a new personal record. She had no idea it would turn into a school record as well.

“When I saw that video, it just really boosted my confidence a lot,” Holtzen said. “Coach Wright just told me to just jump like I know I can.”

Holtzen cleared 10 feet, 6 inches and then went on to vault over the 11-1 mark, which broke a 15-year-old school record. She surpassed Laura Gjerde’s 11-0 mark that was set in 2002.

“Once I cleared 10-6, I was so excited, but I knew I had one more jump left in me,” Holtzen said. “So I took all my excitement and energy into my last jump and approached it like it was 10 feet and it was something I knew I could do. After I cleared 11-1 and found out I got the school record, I just exploded with excitement.

“I was extremely blessed to be able to share that moment with all my teammates, coach and family and it was really exciting for all of us because they were all a huge part of my success.”

The pole vault wasn’t the only success the Louisburg track and field teams experienced at Prairie View. For the second consecutive week, both the boys and girls squads won the team title.

The Lady Cats captured the team crown with 114 points and Prairie View finished runner-up with 78 points in the 13-team meet.

“What was nice was to see was how the girls competed,” Louisburg girls coach Greg Darrington said. “We won the meet by girls placing in the top seven and earning points for the team. Overall we didn’t win as many events as the week before, but earned points in about every event.”

Louisburg also found a lot of success on the boys side as the Wildcats racked up 104.5 points and Jayhawk-Linn was second with 90.

“Overall, I thought we did a good job,” Louisburg boys coach Gary Griffin said. “We had several personal records even though the weather was not great. We scored points in most of the events were in.”

Along with Holtzen’s school record in the pole vault, the Lady Cats won two other jumping events. Junior Kaitlyn Urban edged out teammate Chloe Renner to win the triple jump with a mark of 33-2 and Renner was second at 32-6.5

Renner picked up her gold in the long jump with a leap of 15-3.5 to earn her second medal of the day. Freshman Haley Cain cleared 4-8 in the high jump to medal in third. Fellow freshman Avery Graham also medaled in the pole vault after she cleared 8-6.

The Lady Cats also found success on the track, especially in the relays.

Jordon Leach, Urban, Sydni Keagle and Cain won the 4×100-meter relay in 54.28 seconds, while the 4×400 relay of Kaitlyn Gaza, Mikayla Quinn, Holtzen and Urban won in a time of 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

“The relays are getting better each week,” Darrington said. “I was really proud of the 4×100 and 4×400 teams as each of them came into the meet sitting with the second best time and both rose to the occasion and took first. I think our team is taking the right steps and improving each week.”

Leach also picked up a pair of medals in the sprints she finished third in the 100 dash (13.93) and 200 dash (28.57). Quinn also finished third in the 400 dash in 1:06.

On the boys side, junior Quinn Rigney also earned pair of medals in the sprints. For the second straight week, Rigney won the 100-meter dash in 11.42 seconds and finished third in the 200 dash in 23.86.

Wyatt Reece gets out to a big lead in a race earlier this season. On Thursday at Prairie View, Reece won the 3,200-meter run and finished second in the 1,600.

Fellow junior Wyatt Reece ran a season-best time in the 3,200-meter run to earn gold for Louisburg. Reece recorded a time of 10:41 to win the event by more than eight seconds. He also took second in the 1,600-meter run in 4:47.

“Wyatt continues to get more confidence each week,” Griffin said. “He is in great shape and I look for his times to continue to come down.

“Quinn is running really well too. The competition will be stronger in the next three weeks, and I am looking forward to see him run against some of the best guys in the state.”

All three relays also medaled for Louisburg. The 4×400 team of Chris Williams, Ben Hupp, Blue Caplinger and Rigney won gold in 3:38, which beat their old personal best by four seconds.

The 4×800 team of Hupp, Tanner Belcher, Williams and Jarod Rose beat their old personal record by two seconds to finish second in 8:40. Jackson Ewalt, Caplinger, Austin Moore and Rigney took third in the 4×100 relay in 46.42.

“To see the 4×400 PR by four seconds was great to see and they can improve even more,” Griffin said. “The 4×800 has one of the top times in the area, but they can still improve as well. The 4×100 really needs to work on handoffs to get to where they need to be.”

The Wildcats earned medals in the field events as well.

Junior Frankie Hurst and freshman Trent Martin each cleared 11-6 in the pole vault to finish second and third, respectively.

Senior T.J. Dover finished third in the discus (137-2.75) and shot put (45-11.75) to round out the Wildcat medalists.