Girls set school 4x400 record

By ADAM STEWART

News editor

The Marion Warriors will have 14 entries in the state track meet Friday and Saturday at Cessna Stadium in Wichita. The Marion boys tied for second place with Southeast of Saline behind Sacred Heart on Friday at the regional meet at home. The girls placed sixth.

Junior James Jones won the triple jump with a jump of 43 feet, 6½ inches. He also placed second in long jump at 21-5½. Sophomore Kyle Palic won the javelin with a throw of 165-2 and placed third in discus at 148-3.

Senior Jordan Hett placed second in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 23.29 seconds. Sophomore Seth Snelling placed second in pole vault at 11-6.

The 4x800-meter relay team of sophomore Tyler Neufeld, seniors Brody Carroll and Patrick McCarty, and Hett placed third with a time of 8:40.04. After McCarty suffered an injury, Snelling filled in for him in the 4x400 relay. Neufeld, Snelling, Carroll, and Jones placed third with a time of 3:31.88.

Girls

Freshman Marshelle Mermis won the 400-meter dash in 1:00.43. Mermis also qualified for state in the 200 meters, placing second with a time of 27.53 seconds. Junior Katey Ehrlich placed fourth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 50 seconds.

Junior Alicia Maloney and freshman Kirsten Hansen took first and second place, respectively, in pole vault. Maloney vaulted 9-6. Hansen vaulted 9 feet. It will be Maloney’s third consecutive trip to state for pole vault. She placed 13th as a freshman and second as a sophomore.

“This year hopefully I’ll take No. 1,” she said.

Her best vault this year was 10-3. The winning vault at state last year was 9-6. Maloney said she is going to work with a stiffer pole to try to get more “throw” at state.

Maloney said having Hansen’s competition in practice has helped her this season.

Ehrlich, Hansen, junior Kelli Hess, and Mermis set a new school record in the 4x400 relay with a time of 4:11.33. Coach Grant Thierolf said that was three seconds better than the previous school record.

Events begin at 7:45 a.m. Friday. The full schedule of events is online at http://www.kshsaa.org.