Wildcats face tough competition at Gardner

By Andy Brown
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Updated: May 6, 2015

Louisburg’s Andrew Goff flies through the air during an attempt in the triple jump Friday at the Trailblazer Invitational at Gardner. Goff set personal records in all three jump events.

GARDNER – Medals were at a premium for the Louisburg track and field teams, but the Wildcats still showed improvement even though they don’t have the hardware to show it.

During the Trailblazer Invitational on Friday in Gardner, the Wildcats won just one event but set numerous personal records in several others competing against bigger schools including Olathe East, Olathe Northwest and Mill Valley.

“I thought we did some good things,” Louisburg boys coach Gary Griffin said. “We are kind of banged up right now though. We have a lot of aches and pains.”

Louisburg senior Connor McMullen continued to tear through his discus competition as he won his third meet of the season. McMullen recorded a throw of 171 feet, 9 inches to win by almost 30 feet.

Junior Jarod Woodward and McMullen scored points in the shot put as well. Woodward came in third with a toss of 44-11 and McMullen was right behind him in fourth with a mark of 43-5.

Fellow senior Sean Dennis went up against some tough competition in the hurdles and both sprint races. Dennis ran a personal best time in the 200-meter dash in 23.14 seconds to take fourth. He went on to finish third in the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.3 and seventh in the 100 dash in 11.35.

“Sean had some tough competition,” Griffin said. “He ran his best 200 time, but did not run great in the hurdles and 100. He has been pretty consistent all year, so he will bounce back fine.”

Kyle Green put together his best performance in the 400-meter dash as he set a personal record of 52.94 seconds to finish third against some strong runners. Teammate Dawson Christy also ran a personal best 55.11 in the event.

“Kyle’s PR was good to see and I hope he continues to get better,” Griffin said. “The competition was good, but we are striving to get better at every meet, and I think overall we did that.”

Several jumpers had personal bests for the Wildcats. Andrew Goff had personal record marks in the high jump (5-6), triple jump (38-7) and long jump (18-8). Triple jumpers Will Ridley (35-6.5) and Kyle Allen (35-4.5) also had new highs.

Parker Cates cleared 11-6 in the pole vault, which is a new top mark for him, and Frankie Hurst cleared 10-6 to tie his personal best.

“I thought Andrew Goff had a great day,” Griffin said. “I think he had season PRs in all his events and the other triple jumpers had PRs as well. Parker and Frankie competed well also.”

The Lady Cats didn’t have the same type of success, but junior pole vaulter McKinley Mathews had another good outing. Mathews cleared 9 feet to finish fourth overall.