Wildcat boys rewrite record book at league track meet

The Louisburg 4×400 team of (from left) Justin Collins, Blue Caplinger, Ben Wiedenmann and Chris Williams broke at 19-year-old school record with a time of 3:25.10 to win a league title Friday in Paola.

PAOLA – It was a record-breaking night for the Louisburg boys track and field team and the Wildcats picked a good time to do it.

At the Frontier League Invitational at Paola High School, the Wildcats broke a school record, tied another and finished with two league champions Friday. Most of it was on the track as both relay teams were a part of history.

The 4×400-meter relay team of Justin Collins, Blue Caplinger, Ben Wiedenmann and Chris Williams broke the school record with a time of 3 minutes and 25.10 seconds and earned a league title in the process. The old record of 3:25.60 was set in 2000 by the team of Sauber, Brittingham, Johns and Hoppe.

Louisburg beat runner-up Eudora by more than a second as the Wildcat quartet eased to a league championship in the event. Their new school record time is currently the top mark in Class 4A this season.

“They were on a mission and they wanted the school record,” Louisburg coach Andy Wright said. “They ran with a purpose and were determined to win. I don’t want them to be satisfied and I don’t think they are. They are all competitors and compete with that mentality. I can’t ask for more than that as a coach.”

The Wildcats’ 4×100 team of Charlie Koontz, Caplinger, Wiedenmann and Collins rose to the occasion as well. Louisburg tied a school record in the event with a time of 43.43 seconds as the Wildcats took third overall in a fast race that saw Piper win the league title at 43.20.

That mark of 43.43 tied the record set in 1996 by Hoppe, Burk, Jaccard and Antisdel.

“It was a well-deserved time,” Wright said. “This crew works hard every day in practice. They show up and do everything that is asked of them. They competed hard. All of the events, including the relays, were state-medalist caliber at this meet.”

Junior Trent Martin had the best day of his high school pole vaulting career as he won his first league crown. Martin cleared a personal best mark of 13 feet and 6 inches and nearly cleared 14 feet in his final attempt.

Martin tied Paola’s Preston Martin at 13-6, but Trent won based on number of misses. Louisburg sophomore Luke Faulkner cleared 12-6 and finished fourth.

“Trent had some great attempts on Friday,” Wright said. “It is nice to have him healthy and improving. He is working very hard this week and I know he will be ready for regionals.”

 As a team, the Wildcats finished fifth in the league standings with 55 points. Piper won the league championship with 122 points and Paola was second with 121.

On the track, Williams rounded out the Wildcat medalists as he was the league runner-up in the 400-meter dash with a time of 52 seconds.

Also in the sprints, Collins ran a time of 11.47 seconds to take fifth in the 100-meter dash. Caplinger was fifth in the 200 dash in 23.33.

Louisburg also scored points in the 300 hurdles as freshman Tom Koontz was sixth in 42.81.

The Wildcats also scored points in a few field events. Junior Michael Waldron recorded a throw of 156-6 to take fifth in the javelin.

Junior Carter Anglin was sixth in the discus with a toss of 131-5 and junior Indy Strumillo took sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 39-4.

“The Frontier League meet is, event for event, one of the toughest we will compete at,” Wright said. “In several events, the top finishers are the leading event leaders in the state. I was very proud of the way our team handled themselves and the level of competition. They didn’t back down.”

Louisburg will be back in action Friday when it travels back to Paola to compete in the Class 4A regional meet. The top four finishers in each event will travel to Wichita next week to compete at the state meet.

“Our regional is tough, and has some very tough competition,” Wright said. “The mark coming into the Paola regional are some of the best in 4A. I expect us to go out and give it our best, and if we compete like we can, we hope to qualify in several events. It should be very exciting on Friday.”

Other results are:

100 dash: Blue Caplinger, 8^th, 11.72; Charlie Koontz, 11^th, 11.91

200 dash: Ben Widenmann, 9^th, 23.41; Skylar Tinsley, 13^th, 24.31

400 dash: Dylan Armstrong, 12^th, 55.96; Weston Guetterman, 14^th, 56.92

800 run: Anthony Davis, 14^th, 2:19; Ryan Rogers, 17^th, 2:26; Caden Bradshaw, 18^th, 2:27

1,600 run: Davis, 7^th, 4:58; Rogers, 12^th, 5:12; Bradshaw, 13^th, 5:12

3,200 run: Gareth Baus, 18^th, 13:00

110 hurdles: Tom Koontz, 10^th, 17.84

Long jump: Will Finestead, 11^th, 18-4; Hayden Feikert, 12^th, 18-3; Guetterman, 18^th, 17-2

Triple jump: Isaac Guetterman, 8^th, 38-0.50; Finestead, 9^th, 37-6.5

Shot put: Kiefer Tucker, 10^th, 45-6; Brayden White, 17^th, 39-11; Jonathan DePriest, 22^nd, 37-6

Discus: Tucker, 16^th, 109-7; White, 18^th, 107-6

Javelin: Jay Scollin, 7^th, 142-2; Austin Moore, 9^th, 141-2

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