Piper’s Pollard sweeps the hurdles and Clark wins the javelin as WYCO schools collect four state titles

With the Class 5A girls’ 4×100-meter relay final minutes away, the Bonner Springs relay team was in a panic. The team tore through the equipment bag and scoured the stadium but came up empty. The lucky black baton was missing.

“We’re really strict about our batons, if you know Bonner Springs,” said leadoff runner and group spokesman Nya Anderson.

They ran with the back-up silver baton, and they won anyway.

Anderson and fellow senior Emily Morton, junior Lelia King, and sophomore Crystal Lopez Hernandez crossed the line in 48.88 seconds Saturday at Wichita State University’s Cessna Stadium, the fastest time in the event across both days of the KSHSAA state track and field meet. The group has stuck together for two seasons, placing placed fifth at state a year ago.

The meet, contested Friday and Saturday by all six classes, sent 78 athletes from eight Wyandotte County schools to Wichita. Senior Shinji Pollard swept the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles and senior Max Clark won the boys’ javelin, giving the Pirates three individual gold medals.

Relay success built on chemistry

The Bonner Springs girls are exacting about their batons. They carry a specific black one for luck on meet day, with a routine to match. That routine hit a snag minutes before the final.

“Right before we ran the race, we have a lucky baton, black baton. It was missing from our bag, so we had no clue,” Anderson said. “We ended up running with the silver baton.”

Having been through two seasons together, the group succeeds on its camaraderie and its precision teamwork, handoffs honed to perfection.

“We don’t have the four fastest girls. We have a couple of good ones, but they just work so well as a team, it’s fun to see them succeed,” relays coach Steve Bartlow said. “We just work our butts off on our handoffs.”

Anderson, who is headed to Iowa Central Community College to play basketball, said she leaves the relay in good hands. “As a senior with my babies, it feels great,” she said of running alongside King and Lopez Hernandez. “I’m excited to see what these two do next year. I’m so proud of us.”

Morton, who will run at Fort Scott Community College, came away impressed with her younger teammates. “I believe that they can, I don’t know, with our freshmen this year, I think they can win back to back,” she said.

The two returners know the standard. “We’re just going to have to continue being a team and hyping each other up and knowing that we can keep going,” King said. Lopez Hernandez added, “We’re going to miss [Anderson and Morton]. They really made us get where we are today.”

Two of the four legs return next spring, and Bartlow will have options for the rest. “We’ve got some girls that have been bucking to be on that relay all year, and so I’m sure they’re going to be competing for it next year,” he said. “We’ve got two or three really good freshmen coming up, and a really good sophomore that we can plug in. It’s going to be a challenge to figure out who’s going to be on it.” Freshman Kyla Hunter, who reached state in the 100-meter dash this season, is among the sprinters likely to push for a spot.

Pollard sweeps the hurdles

Pollard arrived as the top seed in both hurdle events and delivered, winning the 110-meter hurdles in 13.69 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles in 37.16. He credited the leap from last year’s runner-up finish in the 110 to a change in his off-season routine.

“Usually I took the route of running in indoor, going from outdoor to indoor season, but this year I’ve just been in the weight room a whole lot,” Pollard said. “It’s a big sacrifice. You’re going to risk either being sore or un-mobile, not as flexible as you used to be, but honestly, it gave me more muscle, more power, and really gave me the speed I needed to win these races.”

The 300 was the one he expected to test him most, and not because of the field.

“It’s a mindset to myself, like mentally, do I want to go run a 37? No. Is it going to hurt? Yes. But I still want to go get it,” he said.

Pollard’s path to the top of the podium runs through the program that raised him. As a freshman in 2023, he placed third in the 300-meter hurdles and seventh in the 110, both times just behind Piper star hurdler Jayden Henry, who won the 110 title that day as a junior. Henry mentored the younger hurdler, and Pollard made a point of crediting him.

“I’ve just never been so proud of myself and the hard work that came along with training with those athletes,” Pollard said. “I want to thank Jayden Henry as well, and all the teammates I had before that. They’re the reason I got here, honestly.”

Pollard, also a standout on Piper’s football team, said track is now his clear path forward. He is weighing his options, with Minnesota State at the top of his list, and hopes to study cybersecurity while continuing to hurdle in college. Piper has consistently developed state-caliber hurdlers, and Pollard is already thinking about the underclassmen who will follow.

“I feel like this [state title] will give them enough motivation to see how good Piper could thrive with hurdles,” he said. His own name and records will be on the wall in the Piper gym. “If I can go up there and look at that any time, that’s going to just leave a core memory in my heart and in my head that this sport made me truly happy.”

Clark claims top step in javelin

Max Clark, also a Piper senior, won the boys’ javelin with a throw of 193 feet, 7 inches. The title had been a year in the making.

“Last year taking second, it really put something in me that said I want to win this year, and I got it done this year,” Clark said. “Last year I just kind of was messing around, and I didn’t really take it seriously, and then once I got up here, I realized that I can do this.”

Clark pointed to work on his form and time in the weight room as the difference-makers. He battled through arm injuries as a sophomore and called this season a smooth one by comparison. He will continue his career at the University of Central Missouri.

Jones adds high jump silver for Bonner Springs

Bonner Springs sophomore Jaiden Jones cleared 6 feet, 6 inches to take second in the boys’ high jump, matching a height he had reached twice during the regular season. Jones, who also helped the Braves win a state basketball title this season, said the two sports reinforce each other.

He was blunt about his goal for next year. “I’m trying to get first next year. I really want it,” he said, naming flexibility as the thing he most needs to improve in the off-season.

Ti’Rell Clark takes triple jump silver for Turner

Turner senior Ti’Rell Clark, fifth in the 5A boys’ triple jump as a junior, climbed to second this year with a personal-record leap of 46 feet, 10 inches. Clark set the top mark in the preliminary round, and it held up until Aquinas’s Grady Richlin bested it in his final attempt.

“I came a long way. I got a new coach, so he’s been building me up to this point, and I’ve just been going with the flow,” Clark said. “[Personal record], so that’s a good thing.”

Clark has committed to Washburn University to continue in the triple jump. “He likes jumps, so he’s well with jumps, and also their indoor track is very good. He develops a lot of athletes,” Clark said of the Ichabods’ coach.

Turner freshman Marzay Pestock, the boys’ high jump regional champion at 6 feet, 2 inches, placed 11th at state at 6-0. His coach, Josh Reuting, framed the season as a starting point. “He’s only a freshman, so there’s just a long way to go up for him,” Reuting said. “He’s grown every single day of the week.”

Turney, Arenas pace Piper girls

Nora Turney, the defending 5A girls’ 100-meter hurdles champion and the top seed in both hurdle events this year, came away with a pair of silvers, running 14.89 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and 44.81 in the 300. Senior Elizabeth Arenas turned in three top-five finishes, taking third in the 800-meter run in 2:18.09, third in the 3200-meter run in 10:41.88, and fourth in the 1600-meter run in 5:04.99.

The Piper girls scored 45.50 points to finish fourth in Class 5A, the top public school in the standings behind Bishop Carroll, St. James Academy, and Kapaun Mount Carmel. The Piper boys placed fifth with 47 points.

Davis leads a strong Bishop Ward showing in 3A

Bishop Ward, competing in Class 3A, came home with a stack of medals behind Davontae Davis. The senior took silver in both sprints, running 10.89 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 21.84 in the 200. Teammate Micah Neely added a fourth in the 100 and a sixth in the 200, and the Cyclones’ 4×400-meter relay placed fourth in 3:29.20. Ricky Wells rounded out the haul with an eighth-place finish in the 800-meter run in 2:00.91. Ward’s 30 points placed the team fifth of 58 teams in the boys’ 3A meet.

Stallions, Sabres bring home hardware

Schlagle‘s Saniyah Sykes, the 5A regional champion in the girls’ 300-meter hurdles, placed fifth in that event in 46.54 seconds. She did not reach the final in the 100-meter hurdles.

Sumner‘s Zein Jackson, a regional double champion in the throws, placed fifth in the discus at 122 feet, 4 inches.

Harmon‘s Amaya Garcia, the regional runner-up in the 5A girls’ 100-meter dash, finished 12th at state. The Harmon graduate will study sports medicine and run at the University of St. Mary’s, said the trip carried meaning for her school. “It’s great to represent such a small community, and really bringing the light to schools that may not get that advantage,” she said.

Washington‘s Steven Regular Nichols, who set a school record to qualify in both hurdle events at the regional, finished 13th in both the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles.

For a complete listing of medalists and other results, see Dotte Sports Pix.