The Marion High School boys track team finished second and the girls team finished third Friday at The Warrior Invitational in Marion.
The Warriors faced stiff competition from 5A schools McPherson and El Dorado but showed they belonged in jumps, throws, and long distance events.
“We can hang with these guys. We need to see what it takes to get ready for state competition; that’s why we invite the big schools,” Marion Head Track and Field Coach Grant Thierolf said. “I’m very pleased.”
The Marion jumps team shined under the extra pressure. Julia Zeiner won the triple jump, leaping 37 feet, 6.5 inches, and the long jump, with a distance of 18-4. Both jumps were longer than her winning efforts April 6 in Marion.
“I always get more psyched up for Friday meets,” Zeiner said.
Zeiner also won the 300-meter hurdles, with a time of 47.59. She ran the anchor leg of the 4x400 meter relay — with a team that includes Whitney Gordon, Monica Spachek, and Kristen Steinborn — passing two runners, one in the front straight away and another near the finish line who finished second, 4:26.10.
“I don’t like to lose,” Zeiner said.
The other Marion athlete to win a first-place medal was Tylor Neil. He won the triple jump with a distance of 42-7.5, and placed second in the long jump, 20-3.5.
While Neil and Zeiner were the headliners for the Warrior jumps squad, Spachek placed third in the triple jump, “She’s doing really well as a freshman,” Zeiner said. Gordon also won a third-place medal in the high jump.
Thierolf offered a couple of different reasons why his jumps team performs at such a high level. While there is no doubt that the Marion jumpers are great athletes, the Warrior coaching staff analyzes the abilities of the athletes at a young age to recognize which athletes will make good leapers. This effort starts with Deanna Thierolf who begins working with Warrior jumpers in middle school and continues to work with them through their high school career.
“She’s as good a jumps coach as there is and I’m not saying that because I’m biased; we’ve had multiple state champions,” Grant Thierolf said of his wife Deanna. “It starts with great athletes. They’re coached well and compete hard.”
On Friday, Marion also had a triumvirate of second-place finishes among its boys throwing team. Parker Ash finished second in the shot put, with a throw of 46-1, and also placed fourth in the discus.
Nick Klenda was the mirror image of Ash, finishing second in the discus, 151-08, and fourth in the shot put.
“This week he had a throw good enough to win (the discus); he just threw it out of bounds,” Thierolf said of Klenda.
Sheldon Boone and Colton Johnson also finished second (158-4) and fourth respectively in the javelin.
Johnson also placed second in the pole vault just ahead of third-place teammate Randy Regnier.
Many of the Warriors younger athletes excelled in the long distance running events.
Freshman Jordan Hett finished second in the 1600-meter run, 4:57.08, and third in the 3200-meter run, 10.40.17. Thierolf was also pleased with the way Jacob Cope finished his 3200 run.
Both of the Marion 4x800-meter relay teams finished second — Bridget Lundy, Jaclyn DeForest, Erin Meierhoff, and Spachek on the girls side, 11:24.13; and Hett, Eric Vogel, Ryan Jones, and Patrick McCarty for the boys, 8:55.69.