by Brian Turrel
The Piper Pirates track and field team competed in the KSHSAA state track meet at Cessna Stadium in Wichita on Friday and Saturday.
Piper’s student-athletes brought home medals in 12 events, including first place awards in the boys’ 400-meter dash, girls’ pole vault, and boys’ 4×100-meter relay.
Senior Grant Lockwood set a meet record in the 5A boys’ 400-meter dash with his preliminary time of 47.86 seconds on Friday, and he matched that time in Saturday’s final to win the event. Lockwood was also on the 4×100-meter relay team and anchored the 4×400-meter relay team that took fifth place.
Senior Kaitlin Lindstrom won the girls’ pole vault with a height of 11-feet, 6-inches. Conditions were intermittently gusty, frustrating most of the vaulters and making it difficult for the event crew to even keep the crossbar on the standards.
Lindstrom passed on the early rounds until the bar reached 10 feet, and she needed only one attempt at each subsequent height. Reece Baker of Lansing, who beat Lindstrom at the regional meet, matched her vault for vault up to 11 feet, but Baker and two other competitors failed their three attempts to match the Piper vaulter at 11-feet, 6-inches.
Lindstrom tried for a personal record at 12-feet, 0-inches, but the unpredictable wind foiled her attempt to find the right approach and settings for the conditions.
The boys’ 4×100-meter relay team (Dominique Herrig-Brittian, Grant Lockwood, LaMar Lynch, Divante Herrig-Brittian) tied the meet record of 41.64 seconds in the preliminaries on Friday. Off their record pace on Saturday, they still took first place over half a second ahead of second-place De Soto in the finals.
As a team, Piper earned 6th place in the boys’ meet standings, and 7th place in the girls’.
Other Piper state medalists:
Divante Herrig-Brittian, 2nd, Boys’ 100-meter Dash
Grace Hanson, 2nd, Girls’ 1600-meter Run
Kylie Brockman, 2nd, Girls’ Javelin
Jayden Henry, 3rd, Boys’ 100-meter Hurdles
Grace Hanson, 4th Girls’ 3200-meter Run
Ryann Clark, 5th, Girls’ 400-meter Dash
Aaron Henson, 5th, Boys’ Shot Put
Boys’ 4×400-meter Relay (Jahnye Jamison, Jack Bakarich, JamarReiAir Jarrett, Grant Lockwood), 5th
TyJanae Hooks, 7th, Girls’ Shot Put
