Lohse leads Lady Cats to second place finish at Paola

Emma Lohse crosses the finish line of the 100-meter dash Thursday at the Paola Invitational. Lohse won the 100 and 200 dashes and also helped the 4×100 relay to a gold medal finish.

PAOLA — Emma Lohse blazed the track for the Louisburg girls track and field team Thursday at the Paola Invitational. 

Lohse won three golds, including two individual events, as she led the Lady Cats to a second place team finish with 132 points. Spring Hill won the meet with 174.5 points.

“The girls team did awesome at Paola,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “Finishing second as a team was a great accomplishment. Emma has had a great start to the season. She is competing well and is relentless in her races.”

Lohse took the 100-meter dash crown as she won it in 13.19 seconds. She later won the 200 dash in 27.09 seconds.

Freshman teammate Suzanna Dansel also scored points in the sprints for Louisburg as she was second in the 100 dash in 13.34 and fifth in the 200 in 28.22 seconds.

Lohse, Dansel, Mackenzie Rooney and Kendall Crossley put together a strong performance in the 4×100-meter relay. The Lady Cat quartet won it in 50.75 seconds.

“The 4×1 is sneaking in on a school record,” Reece said. “They are getting their exchanges figured out and will continue to improve. Individually, they want to win their leg of the race which creates a very strong relay. Much like the record holding teams in the past, once the baton is in the anchor legs hand one of two things will happen, try to catch me or you are going to be caught.”

Later on the in the 400 dash, Crossley scored points in her second event as she was fourth in the 400 dash in 1:09.

The Lady Cats also scored point in both hurdle events. Rooney was second in the 300 hurdles in 52.58 seconds and Kate Frederick was eighth in 54.99.

In the 100 hurdles, Rooney finished fifth in 18.25 seconds and Frederick was sixth in 18.44.

Also on the track, junior Emma Vohs earned a first place finish in the distance races. Vohs ran a season-best time 13 minutes and 25 seconds to win the 3,200-meter run, while junior teammate Maddy Rhamy was second in 13:33.

Rhamy also went on to run a season-best time in the 1,600 run in 6:08 and senior Delanie Tally was eighth in 6:12.

“Emma Vohs and Maddy are racing well in the distance events,” Reece said. “As they continue with their training, we expect their times to drop and to be challenging for wins.” 

Vohs, Nova Ptacek, Tally and Erin Apple finished second in the 4×800 relay in 11:03. Apple was seventh in the 800 run in 2:48.

Senior Emma Prettyman continues to lead the Wildcat throwers as she scored points in all three events, including one victory. Prettyman won the javelin with a toss of 104 feet, 6 inches.

She later finished second in the discus with a season-best throw of 109-4 and was fourth in the shot put with another best of 35-1.

Freshman Kenna Lohse also scored points in a pair of throwing events. She was fifth in the shot put with a toss of 32-8 and eighth in the javelin with a throw of 85-1.

Junior Maddy Carpenter-Ross took second in the pole vault after she cleared 9-6.

Louisburg is back in action Thursday at the Anderson County Invitational, while some varsity members will be competing at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence this Friday and Saturday.

Other results are: 

200 dash: Kendall Crossley, 9th, 28.80

1,600 run: Nova Ptacek, 12th, 6:35

Long jump: Crossley, 9th, 14-7

Discus: Kenna Lohse, 9th, 84-9