Athletes Do Well in State Competition
Kinen Earns State Championship in 300 Hurdles
St. Francis athletes competed very well in the Kansas State High School Track and Field Championships held at Cesna Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University this past weekend. Several athletes set personal bests during the competition.
Trent Kinen earned a state championship in the 300 m hurdles. Trent ran 40.26 in the preliminaries to break his own school record, and then capped the weekend with a 39.77 time in the finals to win the event.
Trent also competed in the 110 high hurdles. Trent qualified with a 15.08 time at regional meet. Trent ran 15.17 in the prelims and then placed 2nd in the event with a clocking of 15.60 in the finals. Sam Sowers also competed in the 110 m hurdles. Sam ran 15.70 in the preliminaries, but his time did not qualify for the finals in the event.
Elizabeth Gienger had a time of 1:01.27 in the prelims of the 400 m dash. The time was good enough to qualify her for the finals. Beth improved her performance to 1:00.67 in the finals and earned a 4th place medal.
The boys 4 X 100 meter relay team consisting of Trent Kinen, Trent Raile, Matt Raile and Drew Zweygardt also earned a medal. Their time of 45.09 in the preliminaries qualified them for the finals where they ran 44.80 to win 5th place.
The girls 4 X 400 m relay team consisting of Jenna Hill, Ashlynn Lambert, Mikaela Grace, and Elizabeth Gienger ran 4:20.18 in the preliminaries to qualify for the finals in the event. Their final time of 4:17.88 gave the Lady Indians a 7th place finish.
Matt Raile placed 8th in the 100 m dash. Matt ran 11.74 in the prelims and 11.68 in the finals.
Several other athletes qualified and performed well but did not score points in the state meet. Ashlynn Lambert ran 5:41.76 in the 1600 m run to place 10th in the event. Sidnee Crabtree threw 33' 7" in the shot put. Elizabeth Gienger had a clocking of 27.83 in the 200 m prelims, but the time was not good enough to qualify for the finals. The boys 4 X 400 m relay team consisting of Trent Kinen, Trent Raile, Matt Raile, and Drew Zweygardt ran a time of 3:37.45 and did not qualify for the finals. Trent Raile competed in the 400m dash running 53.64 and the long jump (no distance). Trent did not qualify for the finals in either event. Shawn Warren threw the shot put 40' 6 1/2".
Congratulations to all the athletes who represented St. Francis so well in the state meet!
Another track note.......Sonny Lee of West Elk ran 47.94 in the boys 400m to set a new state record. The previous record of 48.53 was held by Chad Wolfe of St. Francis (set in 1992).
