Dobbins wins state high jump title as Wildcats medal in 13 events

Louisburg senior Mason Dobbins clears a height during the high jump competition Saturday at the Class 4A State Track and Field Championships at Wichita State. Dobbins recorded four state medals on the day, including a state title in the high jump.

WICHITA — Mason Dobbins reached new heights Saturday at the Class 4A Kansas State Track and Field Championship.

Ok, well maybe not literally.

Dobbins who broke a school record in the high jump earlier this year, didn’t reach that height at the state meet — but he didn’t need to. The Louisburg senior cleared 6 feet, 6 inches to win the Class 4A high jump title.

It was the first of four state medals that Dobbins would win on the day as he helped lead the Wildcats to the Class 4A state runner-up plaque.

Louisburg fell just short of its second state title in three years as the Wildcats lost to Andale by just a half-a-point, 87.5-87. The Wildcats scored points in all 13 events they competed.

“It meant everything to be a state champion and to be able to medal in all of my events this year since I didn’t last year,” Dobbins said. “Our team trains so hard, and to be able to be runner up by .5 points, is incredible.”

Dobbins had a battle on his hands in the high jump, as he didn’t miss one attempt all the way through 6-4. However, Augusta’s Isaiah Blackwell didn’t either.

Neither of the jumpers were able to clear 6-6 in their three attempts, so the competition went to a jump-off. Dobbins was able to get 6-6 on his fourth try and Blackwell missed.

“I have always wanted to be a state champion and to be able to accomplish it feels great,” Dobbins said. “I wasn’t nervous for the jump off since I had cleared 6’6 before.”

Dobbins nearly earned his second state title in the 110-meter hurdles as he found himself in a battle with Rose Hill’s Teagan Cobb. The two were stride-for-stride going into he final hurdle, but Cobb nipped Dobbins at the finish line.

Dobbins finished as the state runner-up for the second consecutive year as he ran a time of 14.70. Cobb won in 14.67.

“Teagan Cobb from Rose Hill is a great hurdler and was great competition for me,” Dobbins said. “The race honestly could’ve gone either way.”

Later on, he joined Caden Caplinger, Colyer Wingfield and Ethan Ptacek in the 4×100-meter relay and the team medaled third in 43.38 seconds. Ptacek had to run for Ashton Moore, who was injured during the preliminaries on Friday.

Then toward the end of the meet, Dobbins, who was sitting seventh in the 200-meter dash after the preliminaries, battled to keep his team in the state championship race and medaled third in 23.07.

Caplinger joined Dobbins on top of the state podium as he and teammate Cooper Wingfield finished 1-2 in the pole vault to score 18 points in the event. (More on that story can be found here.)

Louisburg senior Nathan Vincent got his team a lot of points in the throwing events as he medaled in the javelin, discus and shot put — with the latter being his best event of the weekend.

Vincent, who just started doing shot put this year, put together his best performance of the season. He recorded a personal best throw of 51-8 in the finals Saturday to take third overall.

“I certainly didn’t expect that event to be my highest finish of the three,” Vincent said. ‘”In the throws, it only takes one and any given day you can be on or off. I felt that one coming for awhile. After falling out of the 50s for the last three or four meets, I felt like I had a big one coming and no better place to do it than state. I was certainly happy when that one happened.”

Then came another personal best in the discus in his first event Friday. Vincent, recorded a throw of 149-8 in his final throw of the competition, to move him up from seventh to fifth.

“Even if it is only by two inches, a PR is a PR,” Vincent said. “I was happy with the outcome, and anyway we can get points to get on top of those Andale boys, I was happy about.”

Then came the javelin with Class 4A producing the best throwers of the state. The top six throwers threw more than 185 feet, which could have won many of the other classifications.

Also, with the events running behind, the competition finished after sundown, which made it difficult on some of the throwers. 

Still, Vincent recorded a throw of 185-5 to finish in sixth overall. Andale’s Riley Marx won the competition on his final throw with a mark of 206-11.

“It was certainly a strange one,” Vincent said. “It was dark, and everyone had to throw in it, so there is no excuse. It is hard when you can’t see your marks on the ground very well. It felt like it was coming out great, but it just wasn’t going through the air like I thought. I know I had more in me, and for me it was a disappointing outcome, but I competed and I did my best.

“I am glad it ended the way it did and that I ended on a positive note with shot put. I would have liked to finish higher in javelin, but I am happy with how I performed.”

Sophomore Jerynce Brings Plenty also came away with three state medals in the distance events, but none was more precious to him than the 3,200-meter run.

Brings Plenty broke the school record in the event Friday as he medaled third in 9 minutes and 49.41 seconds. He surpassed the old mark of 9:50.60 that was set by Jason Rose in 2007.

“I have worked all offseason and during the season to get to this point,” Brings Plenty said. “I came here last year and got 11th, so I wanted to obviously do better. Coming in I was a little nervous, but the main thing I wanted was that record after just missing it by a tenth-of-second at regionals. I honestly didn’t care about what place I got necessarily, I just wanted that record. But third place is pretty awesome too.

“I have kind of idolized Jason Rose for awhile. He set the record back in 2007, and that was the year I was born. I just thought how cool would it be if I was able to get it this year.”

Brings Plenty continued his medal streak for the Wildcats as he joined Hunter Heinrich, Blaise Vohs and Colton Blue to medal seventh Saturday in the 4×800-meter relay.

Later in the day, Brings Plenty competed in the 1,600 run and took sixth in 4:34.42.

Louisburg senior Nathan Apple left his final state meet with a pair of medals in both hurdle events. Apple finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.29 seconds on Saturday.

Apple also went on to take fourth in the 300 hurdles in 40.55 seconds as he ended his Wildcat track career on a positive note.

“I’m very happy to return from state with medals,” Apple said. “It showed me that the hard work and training that coach (Andy) Wright put us through paid off in the end, and I’m very glad that I had the opportunity to run for him. 

“In both of my races, the competition was incredibly fierce. I’m glad I got to run with Mason again in the 110s and I look forward to competing against him someday. I personally felt like I ran poorly in my races, but I am still proud of the placements that I received and the points that I was able to contribute to the team.”

The Wildcats ended the state meet with the 4×400-meter relay as the team of Heinrich, Vohs, Colyer Wingfield and Ptacek needed a third place finish or better to win the state title. Unfortunately, the Wildcats came up just short as they took fourth in 3:23.98.

Louisburg set a new personal record by three seconds and was .25 seconds away from tying the school record. The Wildcats also scored points in all three relay events.

“It is nice to have other kids get success who maybe aren’t able to qualify individually,” Louisburg coach Andy Wright said. “It is awesome to have someone in the race. It is great to see all the relays medal and the 4×8 will be back next year. The 4×1 has two back and 4×4 has two back. I’m excited to see what we can do next year, but I am so proud of the group this year. 

“This team did so many great things throughout the season and really competed, especially at the end of the year. They were just a lot of fun to watch.”

Louisburg had a pair of athletes that finished just outside medal contention.

Senior J.R. Rooney was one spot out of a medal as he took ninth in the shot put with a toss of 47-6.5. Senior Cade Gassman took 11th in the high jump after clearing 6 feet.

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