Kansas high school girls track and field state meet recap

With individual titles in four events, the St. James Academy high school girls track and field team won the Kansas Class 5A team title recently at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium.

Senior Kelly McKee, who missed the state meet last season with stress fractures in her back, led the way for St. James with individual titles in the long jump and triple jump. Her long jump mark was 18 feet, 1.5 inches. Her triple jump distance was 39 feet, 3.5 inches. Emma Gossman added a state title in the 400-meter dash in 1 minute, .04 seconds. Jenna Gray won the javelin with a toss of 145 feet, 5 inches.

“Our team has a lot of good girls in every event,” McKee said. “We cover all of our bases, and then had some girls come out and shock us. It’s so much fun to watch all my teammates.”

Emily Downey lifted St. Thomas Aquinas to a second-place team finish by winning the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. The Saints also won the 3,200 relay.

Class 6A: Freshman in spotlight

Shawnee Mission Northwest freshman Molly Born could not have asked for much more from her first Kansas Class 6A track and field state meet.

On the meet’s first day, Born knocked off defending state champion Emily Venters of Lawrence Free State in the 3,200-meter run to win in 10:51.27. Then, she came back the following day and added a state title in the 1,600-meter run. She finished that race in 5:07.43.

“I’ve learned a lot in my first year of track and it is really exciting to be able to show what I’ve worked hard for in the state meet,” Born said.

The state meet concluded a successful rookie campaign for Born, who placed fifth in the Kansas cross country state meet in the fall and won both distance events recently at the Sunflower League meet.

Class 2A: Maranatha Christian wins

As her wildly successful career at Maranatha Christian came to a close, Lauren Harrell was determined to make her last state meet one to remember.

She won the 3,200-meter run on Friday, then added three more state titles on Saturday in the 1,600-meter run, 1,600 relay and 3,200 relay to help secure Maranatha Christian’s fourth consecutive team state title.

“It was really awesome,” Harrell said. “I’m so proud of my whole team and seeing the hard work paying off.”

Maranatha Christian’s Brooke Brownlee added a pair of state titles in the 100- and 200-meter dash races and teammate Hope Manning won the 800-meter run.

Other state champions

Olathe South’s Jacque Darby won the Class 6A 100- and 200-meter dash races.

Blue Valley North’s Wumi Omare won the Class 6A 400-meter run.

SM West’s Riley Kaiser won the Class 6A 800-meter run.

SM North’s Jazmin Williams won the 300-meter hurdles.

Olathe East won the Class 6A 3,200-meter relay.

Blue Valley Northwest’s Hannah VanBuskirk defended her state title in the Class 6A high jump.

Olathe Northwest’s Deanna Dougherty won the Class 6A triple jump.

Blue Valley West’s Christina LeMunyon broke a state meet record and won the Class 5A pole vault.

De Soto’s Jannell Clampitt defended her Class 4A state title in the pole vault.

This story was originally published June 12, 2015 at 11:47 AM with the headline "Kansas high school girls track and field state meet recap."