St. James Academy girls use depth to win Kansas Class 5A high school track championship

When a pair of stress fractures in her back ended her junior campaign early, St. James Academy’s Kelly McKee came back feeling grateful and even more motivated.

Her year of patient recovery paid off with a pair of individual titles as she helped the Thunder knock off defending Kansas Class 5A track and field champion St. Thomas Aquinas at the state meet at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium on Saturday.

“It taught me to not take things for granted,” McKee said. “You only have so many chances to be here so I’m trying to soak it in.”

McKee won the triple jump with a leap of 39 feet, 3 1/2 inches and the long jump with a mark of 18-1 1/2 on Friday and then placed second and third in the 300 and 100 meter runs.

Emma Gossman won the 400 meter run in 1 minute, 0.04 seceonds which sealed the victory against Aquinas.

Olathe East boys repeat as champs

Even though the Olathe East boys came into the year as defending champions in Class 6A, senior AJ Stephens was skeptical about their chances to continue the trend.

The team had lost its triple jump champion and three key members of the record-setting 1,600 meter relay, but with Stephens’ help the Hawks made it happen. He repeated as state champion in the 110 meter hurdles in 14.33 seconds and took second in the 300 meter hurdles.

“We really stepped it up the last couple weeks,” Stephens said. “Everybody stepped up and proved that we should be back-to-back state champions.”

Murad Baheyadeen, Jake Gartenberg, Steven Davis and Nathan Matters added a title in the 3,200 meter relay, finishing in 8:07.46.

The Olathe East girls won the 3,200 meter relay as well.

Field champions lift Leavenworth

After his sophomore season, Leavenworth’s Jared Belardo felt himself plateauing in his jumping events.

With a slightly different approach to his run, though, he left the Class 5A meet with a pair of state titles and a new meet record in the long jump. He repeated in triple jump on Friday with a leap of 48 feet, 8 inches and set the record at 24 feet, 2 1/2 inches in long jump on Saturday.

“I think everything just clicked,” Belardo said. “A lot of jumping has to do with the runway, and I think I really improved a lot on that during the year. It carried me through and helped me get better.”

His performance, along with that of throwing champion William Morrison and the 400 meter relay team, lifted the Pioneers to a second-place finish as a team.

On the girls side, Aarika Lister won the 100 (12.04) and 200 (25.04) meter dashes.

Mill Valley placed third, which was the highest finish in school history. The Jaguars won the 3,200 meter relay in 8:06.53, and Kurtis Loevenstein won a pair of titles in the 1,600 (4:25.17) and 800 (1:55.13) meter runs.

Four straight for Maranatha

Led by decorated senior Lauren Harrell, the Maranatha girls won its fourth consecutive Class 2A title.

Harrell won the 3,200 meter run on Friday and then turned around and won the 1,600 and contributed to the 1,600 and 3,200 meter relays on Saturday. Caroline Bingham, Hope Manning, Brooke Brownlee and Ashlyn Crews joined her for the relays. Brownlee was an individual champion in the 100 (12.42) and 200 (25.53) dashes. Manning won the 800 meter run in 2:19.88.

The 3,200 meter relay set a new state meet record finishing in 9:39.02. They also set a record for the 1,600 meter relay in preliminaries at 4:02.89 and won with a slightly slower time of 4:02.33.

Hall of Famer

Former Lansing track and field and cross country coach Errol Logue was inducted into the Kansas State High school Activities Association Hall of Fame on Saturday. During his 40 years at the helm, Lansing won 31 league, 14 regional and three state championships in cross country, and he coached 19 individual champions in track and field.

Other notables

▪ The Lawrence girls won the 1,600 meter relay (3:55.55) and a Class 6A team title.

▪ Osawatomie’s Jacoby Greenwood swept both Class 4A hurdle events and added a title in the 200 meter relay as well.

▪ De Soto’s Jannell Clampitt defended her Class 4A pole vault title with a mark of 11-6 and Travis Hodge won the 800 meter run in 1:55.39.

▪ Olathe Northwest's Deanna Dougherty won the KS Class 6A triple jump title with a leap of 38-6 3/4.

▪ BV North’s Wumi Omare won the Class 6A 400 meter run in 56.66 seconds.

▪ Olathe South’s Jacque Darby defended her Class 6A 200 meter dash title in 25.03 seconds and won the 100 in 12.09. Tanner Green won the 200 meters in 21.96 and contributed to the winning 1,600 meter relay.

▪ SM South’s Dalton Lewallen won the Class 6A shot put with a toss of 56 feet, 9 inches.

▪ The St. Thomas Aquinas girls won the 3,200 meter relay in 9:48.77, and Emily Downey won the 1,600 meter run in 5:13.54.

▪ Lawrence Free State’s Gabbi Dabney won the Class 6A 100 meter hurdles in 14.64 seconds, Ethan Donley won the 800 meter run in 1:56.59, Avin Lane won the 100 dash in 10.75 seconds and the boys won the 400 meter relay in 42.89 seconds.

▪ SM West’s Riley Kaiser won the Class 6A 800 meter run in 2:16.76.

▪ SM Northwest’s Molly Born won the Class 6A 1,600 meter run in 5:07.43.

▪ Bishop Miege’s Denvoir Griffin won the 100 meters in 10.88 seconds and contributed to the winning 400 meter relay (43.61 seconds).

▪ Turner’s Marcus Blake won the 400 meters in 49.96 seconds.

▪ SM North’s Jazmin Williams won the Class 6A 300 meter hurdles in 45.65 seconds.

▪ Louisburg’s Connor McMullen won the Class 4A discus with a toss of 173 feet, 1 inch.

This story was originally published May 30, 2015 at 10:00 PM with the headline "St. James Academy girls use depth to win Kansas Class 5A high school track championship."