Wildcats win third straight meet with dominant performance at home

Senior Justin Collins edges out teammate Ben Wiedenmann for first place in the 100-meter dash Thursday during the Louisburg Invitational.

Winning never gets old — just ask the Louisburg boys track and field team.

For the third consecutive week, the Wildcats captured the team title, but this time it was at their home meet. Louisburg edged out Spring Hill to take first in the team standings as the Wildcats went on to win 11 of the 19 events at the Louisburg Invitational.

“The boys are really working hard in their individual events, but they also take a lot of pride in winning as a team” Louisburg boys coach Andy Wright said. “I am super excited to watch them continue to build individually and as a team.”

Senior Justin Collins and junior Tom Koontz racked up gold medals for the Wildcats as they each won four events — two individual and two relays.

Koontz set personal-best times in both of his hurdle races as he took first in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.65 seconds and later won the 300 hurdles in 41.19.

“Tom had a really good practice last week,” Wright said. “With it as cold as it was, he still is improving his times. I can’t wait to see what he will do when we get a good weather day on the track.”

Koontz also joined Collins, Ben Wiedenmann and Ethan Ptacek to win the 4×100-meter relay in 44.95. The same group also ended the meet with a win in the 4×400 in 3:35.

Collins had a big day in the sprints as he edged out Wiedenmann (12.01) in 11.72 seconds to win the 100-meter dash. He also won the 400 dash in 52.88 and Ptacek (53.11) finished second.

“Justin continues to be an excellent leader on the track,” Wright said. “He works hard, and competes hard. We are just waiting for the weather to warm up.   Everyone is competing, but we have not been getting the personal record times we want. This week the weather is going to be 30 degrees warmer, and hopefully we will start seeing our times get faster.”

Wiedenmann gave Louisburg the clean sweep in the sprints as he captured the 200 dash in 23.98. Teammate Cooper Hipp was fifth in 24.49.

The Wildcats also had a lot of success in the distance races. 

Junior Jaden Vohs won the 800 run in a new personal best time of 2:08, while teammates Carson Houchen (2:09) and Hayden Ross (2:19) finished third and fifth, respectively.

Cade Holtzen, Vohs, Ross and Houchen also won the 4×800-meter relay in 8:46.

Junior Ryan Rogers was second in the 3,200 run in 11:29 and sophomores Andrew Brown (11:43) and Leo Martin (11:45) took fourth and sixth, respectively.

Rogers also scored points in the 1,600 as he finished fifth in 5:11 and Sawyer Richardson was sixth in 5:24.

In the hurdles, sophomore Mason Dobbins finished second (15.90) and fourth (44.32) in the 110 and 300 hurdles and Nathan Apple was fifth in the 110 in 17.06. Dobbins also scored big points in the field events.

The Louisburg sophomore finished runner-up in the high jump after he cleared 6 feet, a new personal best, and took second overall.

“Mason just started high jumping this year, and every week he keeps improving his technique, so we keep seeing his heights go up,” Wright said. “Excited to see what he can do at the end of May.”

Senior Jay Scollin and sophomore Nathan Vincent put on a show in the javelin competition as the two teammates kept outdoing each other.

On his final throw of the day, Scollin threw a personal best 157 feet to lead the event – unfortunately for him it only lasted a few moments. On Vincent’s last throw, he followed it up with a personal best of his own of 158-6 to take the top spot.

“These two push each other every week, and they pass each other every week in throws,” Wright said. “It’s good to have teammates push you every week at practice and competition.”

Vincent also had a personal-best day in the discus as he recorded a throw of 126-8 to take second overall. Teammate Chase Pritchard was third with a personal best throw of his own at 125-7.

Sophomore J.R. Rooney was second in the shot put with a toss of 43-2 and Pritchard was fourth with a personal best mark of 41-2.5.

In the jumps, senior Luke Faulkner captured the pole vault title after he cleared 12-6 and freshman teammate Caden Caplinger was fourth at 11-0.

Junior Hayden Feikert (19-0.25) and Ptacek (18-9.75) were fourth and fifth in the long jump, while sophomore Isaiah Whitley took sixth in the high jump at 5-6.

Louisburg also took part in the throwers relay, and the team of Scollin, Rooney, Layne Ryals and Carson Wade were second in 58.32.

The Wildcats will hit the track again Friday when they travel to Basehor-Linwood.

Other results are:

100 dash: Gavin York, 7th, 12.54; Hayden Feikert, 12th, 12.88; Hunter Heinrich, 20th, 13.30

200 dash: York, 14th, 25.84; Dylan Armstrong, 15th, 25.95

400 dash: Armstrong, 7th, 56.76; Heinrich, 8th, 56.76; Cooper Hipp, 10th, 57.02; 

800 run: Ayden Deterding, 12th, 2:31

1,600 run: Noah Cotter, 7th, 5:29; Landan Henry, 10th, 5:38; Max LaJoie, 11th, 5:40

3,200 run: Nathan Parker, 10th, 12:14; Griffin Drew, 11th, 12:41

300 hurdles: Nathan Apple, 7th, 45.47

Pole vault: Caleb Shaughnessy, 7th, 10-0; Hipp, 8th, 9-6

Long jump: Isaiah Whitley, 9th, 18-5

Shot put: Reid Justesen 19th, 32-1; Terrance Foster, 24th, 29-5

Discus: Will Hutsell, 13th, 93-11; Layne Ryals, 16th, 90-10; Scott Thornton, 21st, 83-3; Foster, 26th, 55-10

Javelin: Ryals, 7th, 123-4; Thornton, 12th, 108-7; Carson Wade, 15th, 103-0

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