Warriors compete hard during week as Vondenkamp sets record
Sports reporter
In a week that allowed for young and experienced runners to compete for Marion High School, firsts were achieved and a record broken.
At Hillsboro April 11 the Warriors sent their younger runners to the Hillsboro Quint where the boys' and girls' teams took fourth place.
Freshman Luke Gordon took second place at Hillsboro in the high jump in his first ever track meet. Fellow freshman Mitchell Leppke continued his hot streak of setting a personal record in every event this year.
Senior Jeremy Vondenkamp set a school record Thursday in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.58 seconds, as the boys finished third and the girls took fourth at the Smoky Valley invitational.
"We had a great week of track and field," head coach Grant Thierolf said.
The boys' runners had an especially good week. At Hillsboro Adam Regnier and Matt Kirkpatrick placed in the 1600m run, but it was Thursday where the runners really shined.
Leading the way was Vondenkamp with his school record and first-place finish in the 110m hurdles. He also was a part of the 4x100 and 400m relay teams that both placed fourth.
Kyle Hett continued to run well taking fourth in the 200m dash and sixth in the 100m dash. MHS also had one runner place in each long distance event: Gavin Moore was fourth in the 3200m run, Justin Heidebrecht fourth in the 1600m run, and Jason Hett fifth in the 800m run.
"We are getting to the point where they will be able to compete in every race in which they run," Thierolf said of his athletes.
The Warrior leapers didn't disappoint either. Russell Ploutz placed in both the triple and long jump, Emmanuel Jackson placed fourth and set a personal record in the long jump, and Gordon was fifth in the high jump.
Shawn Britton and Adam Depler stayed consistent in the discus and shot put, once again placing in both events.
Overall the boys' scored 84 points, finishing third out of 10 teams.
The girls' team always finds itself in a hole because of low numbers, but found a way to crawl out of it Thursday.
They placed in 11 of 13 events at Smoky Valley, giving them a total of 66 points and a fourth-place finish.
"That is a great improvement from past years," Thierolf said.
Junior Erin Carr was her usual self, placing fifth in the triple jump, second in the 100m dash, and first in the 200m dash.
Senior and former state-qualifier Toni Gordon threw well, taking second in the discus. Emalee Versch placed in both the shot put and the javelin. Erin Richmond and Adrienne Chamberland placed in the event as well, giving the Warriors three of the top five throws. Kimber Hardey also placed as a thrower, taking fifth place in the shot put.
Kalaya Jackson was the only other Warrior besides Carr to compete in a jumping event, and she made the best of it, taking fifth in the long jump.
Long distance runners racked up points for the Warriors as well. Camille Christensen was fifth in the 1600m run, Danielle Cope fourth in the 3200m run, and the 4x800m relay team of Cope, Christensen, Katie Hett, and Amanda Richmond took fourth place.
The teams ran Tuesday at the Burrton CKTL, and will run Friday at the Halstead invitational. Vondenkamp and Gordon will compete Friday at the KU Relays in Lawrence.
