Blue Valley Southwest’s Noah Green wins title in hurdles at Kansas state track meet

Noah Green remembers his last fall well. As a freshman in 2015 he took a tumble over a hurdle in the Kansas 5A state 110-meter race, and didn’t make it out of preliminaries.

On Saturday, he stumbled again. But Green, a Blue Valley Southwest sophomore, recovered quickly enough to set his second state meet record of the weekend and win a state championship.

“Last year was very disappointing, so I just wanted to come back and do better,” he said. “I just told myself, ‘Just keep your form and run through. Just keep going.’”

He did, and finished the 110-meter hurdles in 14.02 seconds Saturday — slightly slower than his 13.98 time from Friday’s preliminaries. Both times broke the previous state record of 14.04.

Green also won the 300-meter hurdles in 37.14 seconds.

Gray breaks 5A javelin record, wins second state title

Jenna Gray has no sense of distance, she says. So when the St. James senior launched her javelin at the Kansas 5A state championships, it didn’t feel like a historical throw.

“It really didn’t feel that good coming out,” Gray said. “I got up to the lines and was like, ‘Oh, that is pretty far.’ At practice we don’t have lines. I don’t know how far I was throwing coming into state, so it was a shot in the dark.”

That shot landed 162 feet in front of Gray, and set a new Kansas 5A state meet record, nearly 11 feet farther than the previous standard. It also gave Gray her second state title.

De Soto senior breaks 1,600-meter, 800-meter records

De Soto senior Travis Hodge felt the hot sun beating down on him, but knew he was close to breaking the 4A state meet record in the 1,600-meter race. He powered through the afternoon heat and finished in 4 minutes, 16.34 seconds, just ahead of the previous record of 4:17.86.

“To be a good miler you need 800 speed, and I used to excel at that distance more,” he said. “This year I was able to work on my strength so I could hold my speed longer and give it a good kick at the end.”

Hodge also set a new state record in the 800 meters (1:53.06).

Sophomore Born with another record

Shawnee Mission Northwest sophomore Molly Born set her second state meet record of the weekend on Saturday. After setting a new Kansas standard in the 3,200 Friday, she broke the 1,600-meter record as well, in 4:51.11.

Other notes

▪ Osawatomie’s Jacoby Greenwood set state records in the Kansas 4A 110-meter hurdles (14.06) and 300-meter hurdles (37.93).

Olathe South senior Jacqueline Darby took home her second straight Kansas 6A state title in the 100 meters, this one in 12.03 seconds. She also won the 200 (24.96) and anchored Olathe South’s winning 400 team.

▪ St. Thomas Aquinas’ Duron Lowe won both the 100 meters (11.16) and long jump (21 feet, 10.5 inches) in class 5A.

More winners

▪ Bishop Miege’s Jafar Armstrong won the 4A 100-meter (10.83) and 200-meter (22.13) dashes.

▪ Shawnee Mission North’s Jazmin Williams won the 6A 300-meter hurdles (44.72).

▪ Jessie Stindt won the 6A girls triple jump for Shawnee Mission East (38-09).

▪ Cameron Waldo of Olathe South won the boys 6A 400 meters (48.68).

▪ Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Ian McCabe took the 6A 200-meter dash (22.00).

▪ Local winning 3,200 relay teams were: Shawnee Mission North in 6A boys (7:57.64), Blue Valley Southwest in 5A boys (7:58:11), Mill Valley in 5A girls (9:39.66) and Olathe East in 6A girls (9:35.87).

▪ Winning 400 relay teams: Piper in 4A girls (50.07), Bishop Miege in 4A boys (42.70), Leavenworth in 5A boys (42.35), Olathe North in 6A boys (42.23).

▪ In the 5A girls high jump, Mill Valley’s Megan Eckman won with a 5 foot, 6 inches jump.

▪ Paola’s Justin Criddle won the 4A long jump (21-11  1/2 ).

▪ Sumner Academy’s Demitra Carter won the 4A 300-meter hurdles (45.55) and the 200-meter dash (25.44).

▪ Schlagle’s Byron Gardner won the 5A 200 meters (22.14).

This story was originally published May 28, 2016 at 8:52 PM with the headline "Blue Valley Southwest’s Noah Green wins title in hurdles at Kansas state track meet."