Faulkner, Wildcat 4×100 relay win league titles, team takes second

Senior Luke Faulkner clears a height in the pole vault Thursday during the Frontier League Invitational at Tonganoxie High School. Faulkner won the league title at 14 feet.

TONGANOXIE —  Senior Luke Faulkner soared to new heights Thursday at the Frontier League Invitational and the Louisburg 4×100-relay team tied a personal best time.

Those two events led to Frontier League championships for both at Tonganoxie High School.

In all, the Wildcats finished among the best in the Frontier League as they took runner-up with 117.5 points and Eudora won the team title with 129 points.

“They came out and did what was expected,” Louisburg boys coach Andy Wright said of his team. “We fell just short of first place, but anytime you can be up there at the top feels pretty good in such a tough league.” 

Faulkner cleared a personal best 14 feet to win the league title in the pole vault and is among one of the top vaulters in Class 4A.

“Luke had a great week of practice,” Wright said. “I knew coming into the league meet that he was going to hit a 14 or 14-6. It is so good to see him excel this time in the season.  He has worked very hard and he currently has the second best jump in 4A and in the top 10 in the state. I am excited for him.”

The Wildcat 4×100 relay of Justin Collins, Tom Koontz, Ben Wiedenmann and Ethan Ptacek put together a strong performance of their own as they won the league title in 43.73 seconds.

“The 4×1 tied their PR, and we still have room to improve,” Wright said. “I think we have yet to see a race where everything went perfect, but we are getting there.”

Collins had a strong performance in the 100-meter dash as well as he took second in 11.4 seconds. Wiedenmann was second in the 200 dash in 23.5 and senior teammate Dylan Armstrong ran a personal record of 24.1 seconds to take fifth.

Collins (52.12) and Ptacek (52.16) took fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 400 dash. Wiedenmann, Ptacek, Koontz and Jaden Vohs went on take third in the 4×400 relay in 3:33.

In the hurdles, Koontz set a new personal best time in the 300-meter hurdles in 40.56 seconds and came in second. Teammate Mason Dobbins was fourth in 42.37.

Koontz also took second in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.38 seconds. Dobbins was right behind him in third in 15.77, while Nathan Apple took seventh in 16.95.

The Wildcats also racked up points in the distance events.

Louisburg’s 4×800 relay of Carson Houchen, Cade Holtzen, Hayden Ross and Vohs set a personal best time of 8:34 to take runner-up in league.

Vohs and Houchen also ran a strong 800-meter run. Vohs was second with a time of 2:04 and Houchen was third in 2:05. Ross also scored points as he took seventh in 2:11

Senior Ryan Rogers finished fifth in the 1,600-meter run in 4:56.

“The distance runners are really having an impact on our team scores, and continuing to find individual success,” Wright said. “When we line up in races, it is so awesome to know we have a guy that can win it or score points, and this year we have that in about every single race. It sure makes the meets exciting.”

In the field events, sophomore Nathan Vincent was fourth in the javelin with a toss of 163-2 and teammate Jay Scollin was seventh at 147-5.

Junior Hayden Feikert was fifth in the long jump at 18-10.5 and Dobbins was fifth in the high jump after he cleared 5-10. Freshman Caden Caplinger was sixth in the pole vault at 12-0.

Now the Wildcats will focus on the postseason as they will compete at the Class 4A regional meet Friday in Paola. The top four in each event will qualify for the state meet next week in Wichita.

“We are excited to get to what we have been training for all season,” Wright said. “The athletes are ready, and I know I am ready to see them put their best foot forward and I have no doubt they will leave it all on the track at the end of the day.

“Not only are we hopeful to end the day with a lot of individuals and relays qualifying for state, but we also have a chance if we perform to end up with a regional championship as a team, and that is very exciting.”

Other results are:

100 dash: Hayden Feikert, 16th, 12.52

1,600 run: Cade Holtzen, 10th, 5:07

3,200 run: Ryan Rogers, 9th, 11:04; Andrew Brown, 11th, 11:24

300 hurdles: Nathan Apple, 8th, 43.75

Pole vault: Caleb Shaughnessy, 11th, 11-0

Long jump: Ethan Ptacek, 10th, 18-3.75; Isaiah Whitley, 12th, 18-1.25

Shot put: J.R. Rooney, 10th, 42-1; Chase Pritchard, 16th, 38-8

Discus: Layne Ryals, 11th, 112-7; Nathan Vincent, 12th, 112-4; Pritchard, 22nd, 92-9

Javelin: Ryals, 11th, 125-9

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