Wildcat boys win Paola Invite; Lohse wins pair of events to lead Lady Cats

Louisburg freshman Jerynce Brings Plenty runs the 3,200-meter run during a meet earlier this season. Brings Plenty won the 3,200 run Thursday in Paola and recorded a personal best time in the process.

PAOLA — Bone-chilling temperatures. Forty-plus mile-per-hour wind gusts. Not exactly the ideal conditions for a track and field meet.

Despite that, Louisburg traveled to the Paola Invitational on Thursday and the cold, windy temperatures didn’t seem to bother the Wildcats much.

The Louisburg boys won the team title with 198 points — 50 points ahead of runner-up Spring Hill. The Lady Cats also finished strong as they won four events and finished fourth overall with 86 points.

In all, the Wildcat boys won eight events, including a sweep of the distance races and hurdles.

“The conditions were not the greatest, all we asked from them to do was to complete and they did.,” Louisburg boys coach Andy Wright said. “We actually had a few personal bests from the meet. So, I was really proud of all of them.”

On the track, the Wildcats took first in all three distance races, led by Jaden Vohs. The Louisburg senior won the 800-meter run in 2:13 and the 1,600 run in 4:53.

Freshman Jerynce Brings Plenty recorded a season-best time in the 3,200 run, despite the conditions, and took first in 10:33.

Vohs, Brings Plenty, Hayden Ross and Andrew Brown also took second in the 4×800 relay in 9:09.

“With the weather they were all about running a smart race,” Wright said. “Both were mentally prepared to run the conditions. It wasn’t his best time, but Jaden did what was needed to win both races. Jerynce actually ran his personal best time of the season, which was impressive due to the wind, cold and being a half a lap ahead of everyone.”

In the hurdles, senior Tom Koontz continued his success in both the 110 and the 300. Koontz recorded a time of 15.10 seconds and finished first in the 110, and later won the 300 hurdles in 42.17.

Junior Nathan Apple ran a personal best time of 15.74 seconds in the 100 hurdles to finish third, and he later took sixth in the 300 hurdles in 45.87.

Koontz won three events on the day as helped Mason Dobbins, Caden Caplinger and Ethan Ptacek to a win in the 4×100 really in 45.36. Koontz, along with Hunter Heinrich, Colyer Wingfield and Ptacek took runner-up in the 4×400 in 3:44.

Also on the track, senior Cooper Hipp finished third in the 200 dash in 24.58 and sophomore J’Lee Collins was seventh in 25.14. 

Ptacek (55.45) and Heinrich (56.24) took third and fourth, respectively, in the 400 dash.

In the field events, junior Nathan Vincent won a pair of events for the second straight week. Vincent won the javelin with a throw of 141-1 and took first in the discus with a toss of 134-5.

Junior Layne Ryals was fifth in the javelin at 128 feet and sophomore Scott Thornton was sixth at 126-1. Ryals also finished sixth in the discus at 109-7.

Another junior, J.R. Rooney, took third in the shot at 42-9.5, while sophomores Connor Lee and Jaymes Melton each had personal-best throws. Lee (40-2) and Melton (40-0), were sixth and seventh, respectively. 

Wingfield got the Wildcats a lot of points in the jumps as he was second in the triple at 39-8 and runner-up in the long jump with a personal-best mark of 20-1.5.

Hayden Feikert finished fifth in the long jump at 19-8. Trey Myers and Elias Pugh finished seventh and eighth, respectively, at 36-3 and 34-9.

“Colyer is starting to figure out the jumps,” Wright said. “In the triple jump, Colyer and another jumper were going back and forth for the first place spot. He came up short for first place in triple jump, but it was fun seeing him compete and go for it. It is still early in the season, we have some technique to work on, so I only see him becoming more exciting as the season moves forward.  

“It also helps having two teammates (Isaiah Whitley, Hayden Feikert) that are right behind him in long jump. It’s going to be exciting to watch these three compete with each other this season.”

In the high jump, junior Isaiah Whitley cleared 6 feet, which was a personal best mark, and took second overall. Junior teammate Mason Dobbins took fourth at 5-10 and Myers finished sixth at 5-6.

Caplinger led the Wildcats in the pole vault as he took second at 12-6 and senior teammate Remington Rice was sixth after he cleared 9 feet.

On the girls side, Emma Lohse gave the Lady Cats a big boost in the sprints as she recorded a pair of first place finishes.

Lohse won the 100-meter dash in 12.98 seconds, after being seeded fifth coming into the race. The Louisburg junior later went on to win the 200 dash in 27.46 and held off Eudora’s Madison Karten (27.89) for the win.

At the end of the meet, Lohse went on to team up with Mackenzie Rooney, Delaney Wieland and Emma Vohs to take third in the 4×400 relay in 4:38.

“The girls overall competed well,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “In the cold, wet, windy conditions, it is more about controlling what you can control and be your best on the day. By looking at how they competed, that is exactly what they did. Times and distance do not show their effort.

“Emma ran very well and what some may not realize is how she held off the second place sprinter in the 200. She is a competitor.”

In the field events, senior Corinna McMullen won the discus for the second week in a row as she took first with a throw of 102-11 and junior Emma Prettyman was eighth at 86-8. Prettyman also took seventh in the shot put at 32 feet.

Sophomore Maddy Carpenter-Ross won the pole vault based on number of misses after she tied with Prairie View’s Jane Hough and Fort Scott’s Ellie Trim at 8 feet.

Senior Davis Guetterman was runner-up in the javelin with a toss of 111 feet and sophomore Katie Elpers’ throw of 95-5 was good for eighth.

The Lady Cats also scored points in the distance races as sophomore Emma Vohs was third in the 800 run in 2:37. Sophomore Maddy Rhamy took third in the 3,200 run in 13:25 and fellow sophomore Erin Apple was sixth at 15:18.

Rhamy, Vohs, Aubryn Berck and Ashley Branine also finished runner-up in the 4×800 relay in 11:38.

Freshman Mackenzie Rooney scored points in the hurdles for Louisburg as she took fourth in the 300 hurdles in 56 seconds.

Louisburg is back in action Thursday when it travels to Garnett for the Anderson County Invitational. Events are set to begin at 3:30 p.m.

Other results are: 

GIRLS

100 dash: Delaney Wieland, 12th, 14.13

800 run: Aubryn Berck, 9th, 2:59

1,600 run: Erin Apple, 9th, 6:31; Nova Ptacek, 10th, 6:53

100 hurdles: Mackenzie Rooney, 9th, 19.85

Long jump: Wieland, 9th, 13-8.5

Javelin: Aspen Coulter, 21st, 71-9

BOYS

100 dash: J’Lee Collins, 9th, 12.01; Hayden Feikert, 13th, 12.23; Toby Espina-Roca, 15th, 12.35

200 dash: Hunter Heinrich, 9th, 25.22

400 dash: Cooper Hipp, 13th, 1:04

800 run: Hayden Ross, 12th, 2:27; Andrew Brown, 15th, 2:36

1,600 run: Noah Cotter, 10th, 5:31; Leo Martin, 12th, 5:38

3,200 run: Martin, 11th, 12:07

110 hurdles: Mason Dobbins, 10th, 29.91

300 hurdles: Dobbins, 9th, 48.53

Long jump: Isaiah Whitley, 10th, 19-3