Fort Scott's Jake Clements clears the bar during high jump at the Ottawa Class 4A Regional Meet Friday evening. Clements tied for third place and his teammate Alex Barner finished second. [Click to enlarge]

Herald-Tribune

OTTAWA, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School's track teams combined to send 11 entries to state, eight of them from the boys' team, out of the Ottawa Class 4A Regional Meet at Ottawa University Friday night.

Scott Nuzum/Herald-Tribune Fort Scott's Breianna Jones takes her turn in triple jump at the Ottawa Class 4A Regional Meet Friday evening. [Click to enlarge]

Final team scores have Fort Scott's boys fourth as a team behind champion Paola, DeSoto, then Louisburg. The girls' placed seventh with Baldwin winning the team title followed by Eudora and DeSoto.

The top four finishers in each event advance to the Kansas Class 4A State Meet at Wichita State University Friday and Saturday. The top six finishers at the Regional earned medals.

This Regional could well have been the toughest in Kansas 4A with teams like Baldwin, Paola, Louisburg, Chanute, Iola and Girard involved.

"I was very impressed with out kids," Fort Scott boys' head coach Don Epps said. "They battled hard and we accepted the challenge of a very, very tough Regional which had a lot of fine teams and a lot of fine athletes. I felt like our kids took up the challenge and when they really needed to, they got the times and marks they needed." Girls' head coach Tracey Bogina, whose team suffered a bit of hard luck, echoed those sentiments

"We felt good about the events we got in," Bogina said. "It was a really tough Regional. We had a few heartbreaks but that's the way it goes. We were fifth in a few events and we competed as well as we could. We couldn't squeeze in a few fourths but that's the way it goes." Fort Scott's boys were led by the winning 4x100-meter relay team. Lucas Halsey, Mitchell Stoughton, Chris Archie and Brandon Boyd combined to run a time of 44.61 seconds. Runner-up Eudora finished in 44.92

"We dropped about a second off our time," Epps said of the relay. "That's outstanding with the teams they had up here. I'm proud of those guys." Fort Scott also saw three medalists in high jump. Alex Barner finished second, clearing 6 feet, 4 inches while Jake Clements tied for third at 6 feet 4 inches (he needed more attempts to clear the height). Boyd finished tied for fifth, also at 6 feet, 4 inches.

Clint Lawrence finished second in javelin with a mark of 173 feet, 1inch while Grant Hartman was third at 170 feet, 6 inches. The winner of that event was Louisburg's Jake Darrington at 181 feet 1 inch.

Boyd qualified for State in the long jump as he cleared 21 feet, 10 1/2 inches for third place and took fourth in the 200 meters in 23.53. Andre Linzy of DeSoto was the winner in long jump at 22 feet, 7 1/2 inches. Antonio Smith of Paola was the winner in the 200 in 22.70.

Mitchell Stoughton qualified in the 100 meters, turning in a time of 11.62 seconds to finish fourth. Smith of Paola was the winner in this event as well in 11.22.

There were two more medalists: Josh Buller was fifth in the 1,600-meter run in 4:48.31 and the 4x400-meter relay team of Halsey, Buller, Clements and Stoughton took sixth in 3:41.33.

"We're pretty well balanced going to State," Epps said. "Overall, I feel like the marks here will go out to State and compare well. The kids are excited and they're going to work hard and go out to State and see how we do." Breianna Jones won three individual medals for the girls and qualified for State in two of those events. She won the triple jump with a mark of 34 feet, 11 1/2 inches. The closest finisher was Anderson County's Paige Rockers at 33 feet, 9 1/2 inches.

Jones was also second in the 400 meters in 59.71 seconds. Jodi Mundy of Carbondale-Santa Fe Trail was the winner in 59.61. Jones also finished fifth in the 200 in 27.36.

Jones was also the anchor of the 4x400-meter relay team which took second behind a comeback of sorts in the last two legs. Ashley Cavin and Jolee Sharp kept the Tigers in a tight race, which was tightly-packed from second to sixth when Kori Page Rienbolt took over for the third leg. By the time she got the baton to Jones, the Tigers were in second place to stay, turning in a time of 4:10.70, beating out Eudora by about 3/4ths of a second. Baldwin was the winner in 4:07.70.

"This relay is brand new, really," Bogina said. "We ran it first together at Burlington when we put Cavin and Jones on it. When we finalized it, we thought it would be a pretty good four-by-four. They've only run together three meets up to this point. They're just doing a great job. The first two legs are to get us out to good position and keep us close. Then we use our two closers with K.P. and Bri and they do their jobs. It's running really well right now." All of Fort Scott's remaining medals are fifth-place results. Catherine Sercer ran a 5:57.96 in the 1,600 meters; Cavin cleared 15 feet, 8 inches in long jump; Elizabeth Meech went 33 feet, 5 1/2 inches in shot put; and TIffnie Bradley went 110 feet, 5 inches in discus.

It may have been that Meech was affected most by being in such a tough regional. Kearsten Peoples, an Ottawa sophomore, broke the all-time Kansas state record in shot put in this very meet as she made a tremendous heave of 49 feet, 10 1/2 inches. That broke the old record, which had stood since 1982, of 49 feet, 3 1/2 inches that was owned by Pinkie Suggs of Manhattan. The next five throws in the Regional were within 6 1/2 inches of each other (33 feet, 11 inches to 33 feet, 4 1/2 inches).

A complete list of all Fort Scott finishes that were recorded by meet officials will be included in Tuesday's edition of The Fort Scott Tribune.