Olathe North wins 6,400-meter relay at Kansas Relays

When all four members of a relay team are at their best, something special is bound to happen.

For the Olathe North boys 6,400-meter relay squad, Friday was that day and it led to a record-breaking first-place finish at the Kansas Relays at Rock Chalk Park. The Eagles finished in 17 minutes, 50.88 seconds.

“It’s a little more than we expected,” Nathan Wickeron said. “We knew we had a good shot and we raced so well. It worked out really nicely.”

Wickeron raced the final leg, which was set up by Easton Moore, Wyatt Heikes and Alex Finestead. All four runners set personal records.

“I think us as a team is really what helped us here,” Heikes said. “We have to rely on each other and we have been relying on each other for the last three years. It’s all these guys together that made this happen.”

Due to a string of injuries, the Lee’s Summit West girls who had been slated to run in the 6,400-meter relay at Friday’s Kansas Relays opted to give the distance medley relay a shot.

It worked. Annika Sisson, Jamie Newsome, Kourtney West and Elizabeth Nolke won in 12:27.29. Three of the four were also on the team that won the event last year with Sisson replacing Kennadee Williams.

“It was beautiful weather and we wanted to take advantage of it,” Sisson said. “We were all ready to race and wanted to defend our title. We were also bitter about not being able to run the four by (1,600) so we wanted to go out there and run really fast today.”

It may have been his first time at the Kansas Relays, but Liberty North’s Andrew Madison did not shy away from the opportunity.

He finished first in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 38.43 seconds.

“I was just feeling good,” Madison said. “The atmosphere, the pressure and the hype takes the pain away. You go numb and just have tons of fun running against these guys and the competition you don’t get to run against often.”

Madison placed fourth in both the 110- and 300-meter hurdle events at the Missouri Class 3 state meet last season.

Sam Guinn’s time may not have been good enough to win the 3,200-meter race on Friday, but the Blue Valley Northwest senior was happy nonetheless.

Guinn took fourth with a personal record of 9:12.07. The defending Kansas Class 6A state champion in the 1,600 meter run took a second off his previous time.

“To be here at this point in the season when we still have a month to go, I couldn’t be happier,” Guinn said.

Guinn, who also took third in at the Kansas Class 6A state cross country meet in the fall, is headed to Colorado State, where he will compete in both sports next year.

It was a historic day for the Lansing boys distance medley relay team.

In their first appearance at the Kansas Relays, they recorded a school record with their 17th place finish in 11:15.15.

“We were super excited,” Cole Hoing said. “We came out to have fun and see what happened, and we were very pleased with what happened.”

Hoing ran the first leg and was joined by Seneque Goldner, Briscoe Elliott and Matt Hanks.

This story was originally published April 18, 2014 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Olathe North wins 6,400-meter relay at Kansas Relays ."