Wind doesn t stop Trojans at Marion Relays
Sports reporter
Despite wind blowing hard enough to knock an athlete over Friday, the Hillsboro Trojan track teams competed well in the annual Marion Relays.
The girls' team recorded 66 points finishing fourth, while the boys scored 45 points and took sixth.
Tim Funk and JuliAnne Chisholm set meet records in the 100-meter hurdles, and the 300m hurdles respectively.
Head coach Dennis Boldt couldn't believe the weather conditions.
"Track coaches in Kansas are used to early season weather not being conducive to great performances, but the wind today was just incredible," he said.
Boldt said some coaches told him they had never seen wind like that before. Still, the athletes had to go on.
The Trojan girls' team finished behind the trio of Smoky Valley, Sunrise Academy, and El Dorado who ran away with the competition. The fourth place finish was still something Boldt was pleased to see.
"We had some great performances on the track and field," he said.
One of those was by Chisholm who not only set a meet record in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.75 seconds, but her time of 49.01 in the 300m hurdles was five seconds ahead of second place finisher and teammate, Tina Frick. Boldt was glad to see Chisholm picking up where she left off last year after taking first at state in the event.
"Winning the race by over five seconds showed just how much power she has in this race," he said.
Chisholm also took first in the 100m hurdles, high jump, and was part of the 4x400m relay team of Carrie Schroeder, Frick, and Tiffany Rooker that took first.
Four other girls placed at the meet. Frick was second in both hurdles events, Anna Woelk was fourth in high jump, Chelsea Bebermeyer was fifth in discus, and Megan McCarty was fourth in javelin.
Funk led the boys' team with the meet record of 15.38 in the 110m hurdles, and took second in the high jump, going 5 feet, 10 inches in the air.
"I thought he demonstrated the finesse it takes to concentrate through each of the 10 hurdles as the wind gusted throughout the race," Boldt said.
Boldt also was impressed with Cody McMillen in the 3200m run. McMillen paced himself perfectly throughout the race, finishing behind only 2A cross country state champion Andrew Topham.
"Had he gone after the leader early he would have found himself running between him and the second pack," Boldt said of McMillen, "which would have depleted his energy throughout the race."
McMillen did grab a first place medal with Sean Leihy, Nate Holmes, and Josh Boese in the 4x800m relay, as the quad finished the race in nine minutes, and 6.55 seconds.
Holmes grabbed an individual medal in the 880m run, finishing fourth with a time of 2:22.95.
Two other Trojans secured medals at the meet. Grant Schneider was fourth in the 110m hurdles, and Tyler Kaufman finished sixth in the triple jump.
Overall, Boldt liked what he saw.
"Even though most of the performances today were limited by the conditions," he said. "The wind resistance today provided not only training for the athletes, but gave them something they can tell others about in the future."
HHS will travel Thursday to Lindsborg and compete at 4:30 p.m. in the Smoky Valley invitational.
