Third consecutive year for now-graduate to medal

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Centre High School graduate Theo Kassebaum earned a sixth-place medal Saturday in the finals of the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.42 seconds. She won her heat in the preliminaries with a career-best of 16.24.

This is the third consecutive year that she has won a state medal. She placed eighth as a sophomore and seventh as a junior.

She placed first in the 100 hurdles in eight of the nine meets of the season prior to the state meet.

Kassebaum also competed in the 300 hurdles, finishing 14th with a season-best time of 52.75. She was the leading scorer for the CHS track team in each of her four years of high school.

“Theo’s leadership and scoring ability will be missed next year,” coach Alan Stahlecker said.

He was pleased with the performance of all nine CHS athletes who competed at state. Kassebaum was the only one who had ever competed at the state level.

Freshman Shelby Makovec had her best performance this season in the 1,600, finishing in 12th place. She finished 13th in the 3,200.

The girls’ 4x100 relay team finished in 13th place. Each of the members — Cacey Simons, Ellie Miller, Kassebaum, and Brenna Shields — finished with a career-best time.

The boys’ 4x100 relay team of Grant Srajer, Justin Deines, Conner Montgomery, and Houston Svoboda finished in 16th place in the team’s second-best time of the season.

Svoboda placed 15th in the 100 with his best time ever.

“It will be great to have eight athletes with state experience and 10 letterwinners returning next year to lead our team,” Stahlecker said.