Gassman medals in three events to lead Wildcat track at Wellsville

By Andy Brown
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Updated: May 8, 2019

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Carlee Gassman won the 300 hurdles, was second in the long jump and helped the Louisburg 4×100 relay to a first place finish Friday in Wellsville.

WELLSVILLE – The Louisburg track and field teams took part in one of its toughest meets of the season Friday in Wellsville.

Louisburg competed in the Red Bud Relays and both the boys and girls teams had a fair amount of success as they each took sixth in the team standings. The Lady Cats came in sixth with 45 points, while Baldwin won the meet with 91 and Paola was second with 79.

The Wildcat boys were also sixth with 43 points. Paola took first in the team standings with 124 points and Spring Hill was second with 104.5.

“The boys ran up against some good competition,” Louisburg boys coach Andy Wright said. “We had some athletes step up and compete. As a team, I would like to see us refocus our goals and get ready for league coming up.”

Carlee Gassman had a big meet for the Lady Cats on the girls side as she earned a pair of gold medals and was runner-up in another event as well.

Gassman won the 300-meter hurdles in 48.53 seconds to pull away from the rest of the field. Earlier in the day, Gassman, along with Jordon Leach, Rain Pugh and Sydni Keagle, put together a season-best time in the 4×100-meter relay in 50.99 seconds.

The Louisburg junior would also go on to finish second in the long jump with a mark of 15 feet and 6 inches.

Louisburg won one event on the boys side and that came thanks to the arm of Kiefer Tucker. The Louisburg senior captured the discus title for the second week in a row on a throw of 144-6.

“Kiefer really competed,” Wright said. “He lost the lead in the finals and I was proud of how he responded by putting his last throw out there to regain the lead and win it.”

Although it didn’t count in the team standings, Tucker also took part in the thrower’s relay with Austin Moore, Michael Waldron and Jonathan DePriest. The team took first in 48.37 seconds and their time is the fourth fastest in the nation according to milesplit.com

Two other relays also had season-best times as the 4×400-meter relay of Chris Williams, Justin Collins, Blue Caplinger and Ben Wiedenmann finished second in 3 minutes and 28 seconds to take second overall.

The 4×100 relay of Brandon Cooper, Caplinger, Wiedenmann and Collins found themselves in a competitive race, but came in fourth in 43.98 seconds.

“The 4×400 set a PR by two seconds and they ran a solid race, even without everyone running their best split,” Wright said. “When we get everyone’s best in the same race we are going to be right at the top of the mix in league and regionals.

“The 4×100 also got a PR, but we just have to keep improving every week. We are getting down to the end and we need to stay focused on improving with the races we have left.”

In the sprints, Cooper led the way in the 100-meter dash as he took third in 11.49 seconds and Caplinger was sixth in 11.70. Caplinger was also sixth in the 200 dash in 23.87.

Williams ran a 52.82 to take fourth overall in the 400 dash and freshman Tom Koontz was sixth in the 300 hurdles in 44 seconds to complete the point-getters on the track.

In the field events, Waldron earned a medal in the javelin with a throw of 152-5 to take third and sophomore Jay Scollin was fifth at 148-4.

On the girls side, Leach had a successful day as she was runner-up in the 200-meter dash in 27.50 and was fifth in the 100 dash in 13.54.

Keagle earned points for Louisburg in the 100 hurdles as she finished fifth in 17.06 seconds. Keagle, Pugh, Gassman and Shaylor Whitham was sixth in the 4×400 relay in 4:28.

The girls 4×100 thrower’s relay, although they didn’t earn points, took gold in 1:03.

A pair of throwers also placed for the Lady Cats. Sophomore Alyse Moore finished fifth with a toss of 104-4 and freshman Rinny McMullen was sixth in the discus at 93-1.

Senior Eileen Benne and sophomore Shelby Grandon tied for sixth in the high jump after clearing 4-6.

Louisburg will begin its postseason slate Friday when it travels to Paola for the Frontier League Invitational. Events are set to begin at 3:30 p.m.