Lady Cats win four golds at Frontier League meet

Louisburg junior Emma Lohse recorded the fastest time in Class 4A in the 200-meter dash Thursday during the Frontier League Invitational. She won the league title in 25.79 seconds.

OTTAWA — The Louisburg girls were burning up the track Thursday at the Frontier League meet at Ottawa High School.

The Lady Cats earned four league titles overall, including two sprints and a relay that allowed them to finish fourth the league standings with 86 points. Eudora won the league crown with 121.5.

“In a very competitive league, we ran, jumped and threw great and are setting ourselves up for a strong regional meet,” Louisburg girls coach John Reece said.

Senior Delaney Wright won the league crown in the 400-meter dash and junior Emma Lohse won the 200 dash as the Lady Cats scored a bulk of their points in the sprints.

Another senior, Corinna McMullen, was the league champion in the discus. However, Louisburg might have saved its best performance for last.

The 4×400-meter relay of Mackenzie Rooney, Emma Vohs, Lohse and Wright shaved six seconds off their personal best time and found themselves in a dogfight with Baldwin.

The two teams were neck and neck through much of the race, and with Wright running the anchor, the Lady Cats edged out Baldwin in a photo finish in a time of 4 minutes and 12.33 seconds.

“The 4×4 was incredible,” Reece said. “The girls ran their best race to date and beat Baldwin in a photo finish. It is very exciting to see how we continue.”

While Lohse and Wright were helping each other in the relay, they were competitors in the 200-meter dash and they brought out the best in each other.

The sprinters recorded the two top times in Class 4A this season as Lohse won the league title with a time of 25.79 seconds. Wright was the league runner-up in 25.98.

Earlier in the day, Lohse was also a runner-up in the 100-meter dash in 12.68 seconds. Eudora’s Maya Pattison won it in 12.57.

“Emma is still on that learning curve for a first time high school track sprinter,” Reece said. “She pulled the field in the 100 but came up short and is still working on starting blocks. In the 200, she fired out of the blocks and never looked back to take the gold. She is going to do awesome as the season draws near.”

Wright put together a season-best performance in the 400-meter dash as she won the league crown in 59.93 seconds and nearly did the same in the long jump.

The Louisburg senior recorded a Frontier League record jump of 18 feet, 1 inch, only to have Paola’s Maggie Kauk eclipse it with a mark of 18-3.5 in the finals as Wright took second in the event.

Wright, who is still making her way back from a severe ankle injury, is starting to find her way in all three of her events.

“Delaney performed well at league,” Reece said. “She is in a great place physically and mentally to return to state and bring home some hardware.”

McMullen set a personal record in the discus on two different occasions — both coming in the prelims. Her second throw of 127-3 gave her the league title and momentum going into regionals later this week.

“Rinny has continued to work hard and that is really starting to show,” Reece said. “She had a huge PR at league and is poised to throw farther at regionals and then state.”

Vohs scored points for the Lady Cats in a pair of distance races. The Louisburg sophomore was third in the 1,600 meters in 5:45 and took sixth in the 800 in 2:29.

Junior Nova Ptacek was sixth in the 3,200 run in 14:31, while Ptacek joined Erin Apple, Aubryn Berck and Maddy Rhamy to take fifth in the 4×800 relay in 11:49.

Rooney also scored points on the track for the Lady Cats as she finished seventh in the 300 hurdles in 51.92 seconds.

In the field events, sophomore Maddy Carpenter-Ross was third in the pole vault after she cleared 9 feet. Senior Davis Guetterman scored points in the javelin as she took sixth with a throw of 110-3.

The Lady Cats will travel to Eudora this Friday for the Class 4A regional meet. Field events are set to begin at 1 p.m.

The top four finishers in each event qualify for the state meet next week in Wichita.

Other results are: 

100 dash: Delaney Wieland, 15th, 14.0

1,600 run: Maddy Rhamy, 10th, 6:18; Erin Apple, 13th, 7:13

100 hurdles: Kate Frederick, 10th, 18.34; Mackenzie Rooney, 11th, 18.68

300 hurdles: Frederick, 10th, 53.91

Long jump: Wieland, 11th, 14-4

Javelin: Katie Elpers, 8th, 99-7