Wildcats win three league titles, Gassman breaks record again

By Andy Brown
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Updated: May 16, 2018

Submitted Photo

Louisburg junior Chris Williams won the 400-meter dash Thursday at the Frontier League meet in Ottawa. Williams ran a season best time of 50.60 seconds.

OTTAWA – It was another week and another record broken for Louisburg sophomore Carlee Gassman.

For the second time in as many weeks, Gassman eclipsed her own record in the 300-meter hurdles Thursday at the Frontier League meet at Ottawa High School. She won a league title with a time of 45.78 seconds, which shattered her old mark of 47.07.

“Carlee is a competitor,” Louisburg girls coach John Reece said. “It is no surprise that she has continued to improve her 300 hurdle time. Yes, she made a big jump in her time, but she also ran a great race and was rewarded for her effort. Keeping fingers crossed, but I think state is going to be fun for her.”

Gassman wasn’t the only Wildcat to find success at Ottawa as two other Wildcats also came home with league titles.

Senior Kailtyn Urban put together one of her best performances in the triple jump this season as she won with a leap of 33 feet, 9 inches. She captured the gold medal after winning the competition by almost foot.

“Kaitlyn won a well-deserved league title,” Reece said. “She works hard and is always up for even more when we push her at practice. She has competed at high level meets and is always up for a challenge and she rose to the top this meet. I expect the same at regionals.”

On the boys’ side, junior Chris Williams ran his best time of the season in the 400-meter dash and it was good enough for a league title. He recorded a time of 50.60 seconds as he edged out De Soto’s Graham Hudelson, who ran a 50.63.

As a team, the Louisburg girls finished fifth overall in the Frontier League standings with 65 points and Paola won the league crown with 188.5 points. The Wildcat boys took sixth with 53 points and De Soto won the league title with 134 points.

The Lady Cats finished in the top three in a number of different competitions, including a pair of field events.

Kaitlyn Urban stretches out in her attempt in the triple jump Thursday in Ottawa. Urban won the league title with a leap of 33-9.

Gassman picked up her second league medal in the long jump with a mark of 16-8, which tied league champion Carly Lindenmeyer from Baldwin, but lost the tiebreaker to finish second.

In the pole vault, senior Isabelle Holtzen continued her strong strings of vaults as she cleared 10-11 to take second, while sophomore teammate Avery Graham also earned points for the Lady Cats as she finished fourth after clearing 8-11. Paola’s Samantha VanHoecke broke the league record to win the event at 12-8.

Sophomore Sydni Keagle had another good performance in the 100-meter hurdles as she took third in 16.51 seconds.

Keagle also joined Gassman, Holtzen and Urban in the 4×100 relay and came in fourth in 51.69 seconds, while Gassman, Holtzen, Urban and Mikayla Quinn ran a season best time of 4:17 in the 4×400 relay to also take fourth.

“It was good to see that 4×400 team run their best time of the season,” Reece said. “They ran against great competition at league and they will have to bring it at regionals to qualify for state. The same goes for the 4×100 team. They will need to post a great race to punch their ticket to Wichita.”

Quinn scored points in the 400-meter dash in 1:07 and finished fourth, while junior Eileen Benne had a personal best mark in the high jump after she cleared 5-1 to also take fourth. Keagle finished seventh in the long jump at 15-3.

The Louisburg boys also had three runner-up finishers in their respective events.

Senior Wyatt Reece had one of his best performances of the season in the 3,200-meter run as he took second in 10:32. Reece also scored points in the 1,600-meter run as he finished sixth in 4:52.

Senior Wyatt Reece leads a pack of runners Thursday at the Frontier League meet in Ottawa.

Ben Wiedenmann, Blue Caplinger, Justin Collins and Charlie Koontz helped the 4×100-meter relay team to a second place finish in 44.25 seconds, while Caplinger also finished fourth in the 200-meter dash in 23.22 seconds.

Freshman Luke Faulkner continued his steady climb in the pole vault as he tied a personal-best 12-6 to take second in league and senior teammate Frankie Hurst was fifth at 12 feet.

In the 4×400 relay, the team of Williams, Wiedenmann, Caplinger and Collins finished fourth overall in 3:31.

Sophomore Michael Waldron scored points in the javelin as he took fifth with a throw of 147-7, while junior Kiefer Tucker was sixth in the discus with a throw of 134-2.

The season will wind down for several athletes Friday when Louisburg competes in the Class 4A regional meet at Eudora High School. Field events will get underway at 1 p.m. with the running events to follow.

The top four in each event will qualify for the state meet next weekend in Wichita.

“As I have emphasized since the start of the season, you go to every meet with the intention to better yourself and good things will happen,” coach Reece said. “Regardless of being top 4 at regionals, we go there to compete and to set personal records for ourselves. If we do that, we will have a successful last meet of the season and many of the girls will be going to state. We have put in the time and now it is time for us to show it.”

Other results from league are:

GIRLS

100 dash: Jordon Leach, 13^th, 13.70

200 dash: Leach, 10^th, 28.40

800 run: Shaylor Whitham, 10^th, 2:47; Payton Shaffer, 11^th, 2:53; Kennady Wilkerson, 13^th, 3:14

100 hurdles: Kristen Bell, 9^th, 19.37; Shelby Grandon, 11^th, 20.79

300 hurdles: Sydni Keagle, 8^th, 54.69; Grandon, 12^th, 58.76

4×800 relay: Sixth, 12:00

High jump: Grandon, 8^th, 4-8

Triple jump: Eileen Benne, 10^th, 29-7

Shot put: Shea O’Hara, 15^th, 26-9; Melia Rice, 16^th, 23-11; Lexie Reece, 17^th, 21-10

Discus: Lexie Reece, 8^th, 104-0; Kody Lowry, 14^th, 80-4; Rice, 15^th, 76-2