by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The 2014-15 high school season came to an end this weekend with the Kansas State Track and Field Championships were held in Wichita, and various state baseball and softball tournaments.

Sumner County brought 37 entries to the Kansas State Track and Field Championships, but failed to bring home any individual state champions. Down the road, the young Oxford boys baseball team finished fourth place in the Class 2-1A State Tournament in Great Bend. The following is what we saw this weekend…

(See photo gallery of State Track meet and Oxford state trip here).

Kansas state track –

It’s hard to argue whether it be football or track that Wellington High School Colin Reichenberger had one of the most accolade filled athletic career in recent Crusader history.

Saturday, his high school career came to a close by securing two second place finishes in the 110 meter and 300 meter hurdles in Class 4A. Jacoby Greenwood of Osawatomie, a junior, crashed the party, eking past Reichenberger in both races. 

Throughout the spring, Greenwood and Reichenberger had exchanged the state’s best times in 4A on various websites while never actually performing against the other. And going into the state track meet, Reichenberger had the best regional times in both races. Then in the preliminaries on Friday, Greenwood had the best time in the 110, but had barely qualified in the 300 getting the eighth best time.

On Saturday, Greenwood was .13 faster than Reichenberger in the 110 meters finals on a windy and rather chilly morning.

 Reichenberger hoped to avenge the loss later in the afternoon in the 300. This time Greenwood would get the upper hand again by less than .5 seconds and kept Reichenberger from securing a state title. The finals times for both races were:

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Overall, Sumner County was shut out of a state championship for the first time in years.

Tyler Balsters of Belle Plaine came close in the 3200 meter run on Friday morning. He ran the race in 10:03.62 placing him second overall in Class 3A.

Some other notable performances in the state track meet:

Jaycee Schettler places fifth in the 100 meters.

•Wellington’s Jaycee Schettler, a sophomore, was a two-time state placer. She placed fifth in the 100 meters at 12.58 and sixth in the 200 meters in 4A at 26.27.

Timothy Shaffer finishes third in high jump.

•The Wellington 4×400 meter relay team was an over-achieving bunch coming into the state track meet with 4A’s 12th best time, yet finished sixth place with a 4:13.62 time. The team consisted of Leah Nelson, Joanna Tredway, Schettler and Taylor McGlothlin. Three of those girls are sophomores and freshman.

•Conway Springs had a couple of third place finishers. Timothy Shaffer finished third in the high jump at 6’2”. Sara Eckelberry placed third in the discus with a 123-10 time.

•Faith Gaddie was Argonia’s only track entrant boys or girls, but she made the best of it, placing sixth in the long jump and seventh in the triple jump.

Sara Eckelberry gets third place in discus for Conway Springs.

•Caldwell had three of the same runners — Colten Ward, Darren Ward and Kaden Halling — in all three of their relay teams, the 4×100, 4×400, and 4×800. The 3200 meter team, which also included Justin Brown, was the one who placed with a 8:45.92 time.

•Belle Plaine’s Jessica Heidel finished third in the long jump at 17-02.25 and seventh in the triple jump at 34-5.75.

The full Sumner County results are as follows:

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Oxford’s fourth place finish

Oxford Kyle Green speaks to his players during semifinal game against Medicine Lodge.

There was no doubt, the surprise of the spring was the Oxford boys baseball team, which finished fourth in the Class 2-1A state tournament in Great Bend Friday evening.

After that wild and crazy Thursday first-round state tournament game, the Wildcats lost to Medicine Lodge 16-6 on Saturday afternoon and 14-1 in the third place game to Salina’s Sacred Heart. It was a strange scenario where the third place game was played after the state championship game because tournament officials worried about rain and wanted to crown a champion as soon as possible.

For the first four innings of the state semifinal game, Oxford was most certainly holding its own against the Indians.

After a scoreless first two innings, Medicine Lodge scored three runs in the top of the third. But in the bottom half of the inning, Oxford made its move.

The Wildcats loaded the bases and two came home on a Neil Terry 2RBI single. Dakota Mitchell then would hit in two more runners giving Oxford a 4-3 lead going into the fourth inning.

From that point forward, the Wildcats let the game get away from them. Medicine Lodge would score eight runs to take a 11-4 lead. While Oxford scored two runs to narrow the lead to 11-6, the Indians would score five runs in the top of the sixth to end the game in a run-rule.

Oxford used four pitchers in the game.

With the third place loss Oxford finished the season at 12-12. Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan would go on to beat Medicine Lodge in three innings 15-0 to win the state championship game.

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