Northern Heights’ track and field star Jacquelynne Leffler pulled the hat trick Thursday at the Flint Hills League championship meet in Council Grove, winning the girls shot put, discus and javelin events to help the Northern Heights girls squad to the team title over Council Grove.
On the boys side, Osage City ran away with the team title with 154 points, thanks to the two-title outing by Tyler Bartee.
Two of Leffler’s titles broke meet records that she previously set last year. In the discus, she uncorked a toss of 148 feet, 3 inches to surpass the old mark of 140 feet, while in the javelin, she demolished her previous distance of 114-3 with a heave of 128-7.
The two-time Class 3A State champion in both the discus and the shot put, Leffler’s final victory came in the shot, where she finished with a final throw of 42-5 1/2, just 4 1/2 inches shy of the league record, which she also owns.
All told, Leffler’s victories racked up 30 points for Northern Heights, which won the team title with 160 points, just three points ahead of Council Grove (157).
As for Bartee, he nearly swept the sprint events on the boys side by taking first in both the 200-meter dash (23.92 seconds) and the 400-meter dash (53.17 seconds) while coming in second in the 100-meter dash (11.55 seconds) behind Mission Valley’s Caleb Hastings (11.48 seconds).
The Northern Heights girls picked up three other individual titles, as Ashley Siess won the triple jump with a league record leap of 33-5, Amy Lee won the 3,200-meter run in a time of 13 minutes, 19.93 seconds and Sky Linsey won the 1,600-meter run in a time of 5:51.08. The Lady Wildcats’ final event title came when the 4x800 relay team took first in a time of 10:56.34.
Runner-up Council Grove had three individual event winners starting with Kailea Hayes in the 400-meter dash (1:00.58), which broke the league record. Abby Switzer won the 800 in a time of 2:30.85, breaking her previous Flint Hills League record of 2:32.35, which she set two years ago, and Darrah Miller won the high jump (5-2). The final event championship for Council Grove came in the 4x400 relay (4:20.32), which set a new meet record.
Pomona’s Stephanie Nitcher won the 100 in a meet-record time of 12.45 seconds and the 200 in a time of 26.77 seconds. Christina Brooks in the 100-meter hurdles (17.79 seconds) and Rose Griffin in the 300-meter hurdles (49.95 seconds) — a new meet record — also won titles for Pomona.
Mission Valley’s Abilgail Browning won the pole vault with a final clearance of 8 feet, while Mission Valley’s 4x100 relay team took first in a time of 54.15 seconds.
Herington’s Savanah Gaudin won the long jump (15-2 1/4) to close out the girls champions.
Elsewhere on the boys side, Northern Heights’ Pete Symmonds won the 800-meter run (2:09.52) and the 1,600-meter run (4:46.65), while David Hanks won the shot put (46-7 1/2) to help the Wildcats to a second-place finish as a team (111 points).
League champion Osage City also got titles from Tanner Bartee in the discus with a meet-record throw of 145-1, Colton Rinzler in the 3,200-meter run (10:44.46), Blake Stoppel in the high jump (5-8) and by its 4x400 relay (3:41.45) and 4x800 relay (8:44.40, meet record) teams.
The Council Grove boys saw three individuals earn league titles, as Brett Siegle won three events — the triple jump (44-2), the long jump (20-7 3/4) and the 110-meter hurdles (15.56 seconds, meet record) — while Jared Johnson set a new league record in the pole vault with a height of 12-7 1/2, and Justin Fuqua won the javelin with a meet-record throw of 162-4, which bested the previous record by nearly 13 feet.
Herington’s Kris Mueller set a new meet record in the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 42.81 seconds, while Mission Valley’s 4x100 relay team set a new record with a time of 45.78 seconds.
Council Grove takes
Flint Hills golf title
Council Grove ran away with the Flint Hills League golf championship on Thursday, carding a team score of 349 to finish ahead of second-place Herington (374) by 25 shots.
Council Grove’s Tyler Kepler and Jake Smith finished first and second respectively to lead the Braves, as Kepler shot a 77 while Smith carded an 81.
Pomona’s Cody Campfield (85) and Chad Cunningham (88) placed third and fourth respectively, while an 88 by Northern Heights’ Ethank Jenkins rounded out the top-5 individuals.
The rest of the medalists were: Osage City’s Derek Michael (89), Herington’s Mike Darwin (92), Herington’s Lucas Hart (92), Council Grove’s Scott Heilman (93), Herington’s Chris Barnes (94), Osage City’s Neil Holloway (95) and Herington’s Zach Kickhaefer (96).