SPSL Championships: Day One
The Jaguars made the most of their opportunities on day one of the SPSL Championships at Sunset Stadium in downtown Sumner. Action concludes on Saturday with the second half of the meet.
Our first qualifier came in the men’s discus where sophomore Jonah Mains had a throw of 128’2” to secure the sixth and final qualifying spot to the West Central District Championships next week. This six foot personal best moves him into the top-10 all-time at seventh and improves his sophomore school record. After Mains punched his ticket to districts, he was followed closely behind by senior Jarin Watson in the men’s hurdles, who surprised the field with a fast time in the first heat that only three could better in the faster of the two heats; Jarin secured fourth place and will represent the Jags next week at French Field.
Next came the women’s hurdles, where defending champion Karlee Stueckle retained her title with a season best of 14.51 in cold and windy conditions. Also in the women’s short sprints, fellow senior Mareonna Henderson took a break from qualifying in the high jump to run the 100 meter dash, where she finished fifth and secured a birth to districts, while in the high jump she cleared 5’ and finished third overall. Stueckle came back from the 100 hurdles to run a huge personal best of 56.75 to improve her own school record by over a second, and she was joined by sophomore Sophia Brown, who also had a district qualifier and personal best time in sixth place; freshman Carley Huber raced tough and is on the bubble; she will have to wait on scratches to see if she qualifies for districts in the women’s 400.
Freshman KJ Saunders made the final in the men’s long jump but couldn’t quite find his mark and settled for 9th place, a great showing for a freshman. He will have a chance to punch his ticket on Saturday in his specialty event, the high jump.
The women’s distance squad continued to demonstrate their strength and depth. Freshman Roz Slichko battled near the front of the women’s 1600 for four hard fought laps before ultimately finishing in third place with a lifetime best, #2 all-time mark, improved freshmen school record, and district qualifying spot with her time of 4:07.99. Slichko was joined by Emily Wells in seventh place, who narrowly missed qualifying with her eleven second personal best of 5:19, while Hannah Scheerer raced tough and narrowly defeated her teammate Sydney Colbern, who also had a personal best of 5:31. These four ladies, in addition to senior Emma Bates, represent 5 out of the top-10 1600 meter runners all-time in school history; they are a testament to the benefits of having good teammates, and even better friends, to push you every day in workouts and at meets.
We also had a few relay teams narrowly miss qualifying. With the top-6 in each event qualifying, we had two relays finish in 7th place! The girls 4x100 of Sammie McGinty, Haylie Garske, Taylor Willis, and Nicole Fleetwood finished in 7th place (and 8th in the 4x200), while the boys team of Xavier Willis, Skye Berbert, Jack Jindra, and Yahir Gonzalez accomplished the same 7th place finish. A narrow miss for a group made up entirely of underclassmen (only one junior total in the group).
Day two is Saturday at Sumner with field events kicking off at 9:30AM with Ellie Peterson in the discus and the running events get going at 1:30 with the women’s 3200, featuring four ER athletes.