Wildcats finish third in season opener at Leavenworth

Louisburg’s Justin Collins (right) and Charlie Koontz (middle) battle it out in the 100-meter dash Monday during the Leavenworth Invitational. Collins took fifth overall and Koontz helped the 4×100 relay to a first place finish.

LEAVENWORTH – It was the start the Louisburg boys track and field team was looking for Monday in its season opener at the Leavenworth Invitational.

The Wildcats won two events, and medaled in several others, as Louisburg finished third in the team standings with 70 points at Leavenworth High School. Leavenworth won the meet going away with 166 points and St. James Academy was second with 120, but it was good first step for the Wildcats this season.

“We were just happy to get the season started,” Louisburg boys coach Andy Wright said. “We have had to face a lot of adversity as a track team, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how the kids came out and competed.  We found out we have some room for improvement, but overall I was ecstatic with the start.”

Sophomore Luke Faulkner got it started for the Wildcats in the pole vault as he came close to matching his personal record in his first time out. Faulkner took the gold medal in the event as he cleared 12 feet and won by six inches.

“Luke came close to tying his PR from last year, so that is a great starting point for the first meet of the year,” Wright said. “With our jump pits unavailable for practice, we have had to get creative with getting kids reps and borrowing time on other tracks. Now that we should be able to start practicing on our track, we look to really start getting practice time in to improve the marks.”

The Wildcat 4×100-meter relay team also struck gold with a nice performance. The team of Charlie Koontz, Blue Caplinger, Ben Wiedenmann and Brandon Cooper edged out Sumner Academy and Leavenworth for first in 44.63 seconds.

“Of course a win is always good to start the season with, but we aren’t satisfied with that,” Wright said. “We want to continue to build from this meet.”

Louisburg also brought home several other medals, including three runner-up performances.

Junior Michael Waldron had a strong first throw in the javelin with mark of 158 feet, 11.5 inches to finish second and was less than three feet out of first.

“Michael is going to surprise a few schools this year,” Wright said. “This is only his second year throwing the javelin, and we are very excited with what the future holds for him.”

On the track, Caplinger earned two more medals, including one individual and one on another relay. Caplinger ran a time of 23.80 to finish second in the 200-meter dash.

To end the meet, Caplinger joined Chris Williams, Justin Collins and Wiedenmann and took second in the 4×400 relay in 3 minutes and 33 seconds.

Williams was a two-time medalist for the Wildcats as he also took third in the 400 dash in 52.54. Freshman Tom Koontz had a strong day in the hurdles for Louisburg as he finished third in the 110-meter hurdles in 17.87 and fourth in the 300 hurdles in 45.83.

In the field events, freshman A.J. Reed came in fourth in the pole vault after he cleared 9-6. Sophomore Jay Scollin also scored points for the Wildcats in the javelin with a fifth-place finish with a mark of 139-9.

On the track, Collins (12.08) and Wiedenmann (24.07) scored more points for Louisburg as they finished fifth in the 100 and 200 dash, respectively.

A few of the Wildcat throwers also got to have a little fun as they took part in the throwers relay. Austin Moore, Kiefer Tucker, Michael Waldron and Jonathan DePriest won with ease in a time of 48.49 seconds.

Louisburg will get back on the track today when it travels to the Paola Invitational. Events are set to begin at 3:30 p.m.

Other results from Leavenworth are:

Pole vault: Tom Koontz, eighth, 8-0

High jump: Indy Strumillo, eighth, 5-4; Weston Guetterman, ninth, 5-0

Long jump: Will Finestead, 12^th, 17-10.5; W. Guetterman, 14^th, 17-4.5; Dylan Armstrong, 19^th, 16-9; Strumillo, 19^th, 16-9; Isaac Guetterman, 21^st, 16-0

Discus: Kiefer Tucker, seventh, 129-5; Jonathan DePriest, 12^th, 111-1; Brayden White, 14^th, 107-8; Chase Pritchard, 22^nd, 69-9

Shot put: Tucker, seventh, 41-11; White, 13^th, 40-0; Cole Evans, 17^th, 35-10.5; DePriest, 18th, 35-0; Will Patterson, 19^th, 33-7.5

Javelin: A.J. Reed, ninth, 134-5; Austin Moore, 13^th, 126-9; Remington Rice, 24^th, 78-6

100 dash: Brandon Cooper, eighth, 12.19; Ben Wiedenmann, 10^th, 12.25; Charlie Koontz, 11^th, 12.30; Finestead, 29^th, 13.13

1,600 run: Anthony Davis, 13^th, 5:19; Ryan Rodgers, 15^th, 5:25; Caden Bradshaw, 18^th, 5:34; Gareth Baus, 24^th, 6:17

400 dash: Armstrong, 10^th, 57.09; Finestead, 15^th, 58.69; W. Guetterman, 19^th, 1:00

800 run: Davis, 13^th, 2:22; Rodgers, 15^th, 2:29; Bradshaw, 16^th, 2:31; Sawyer Richardson, 17^th, 2:35; Baus, 20^th, 2:52

200 dash: I. Guetterman, 26^th, 27.09

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