by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Kansas State Track and Field Championships will be held this next weekend at Wichita State University Cessna Stadium (Sumner County state qualifiers listed below). The Wellington High School girls could be a big player in the big show.

After finishing second place at the Class 4A Regional in Andale on Friday (see story here), Wellington has 10 girls entries in state. Of those 10, six of those are seeded in the top eight with a real chance of placing.

What does that mean? Wellington as a team could rack up a lot of points, putting the team in elite status at state. 

And then there is WHS senior Megan Campbell, who could bring home two individual state championships and help the relay teams place at well.

Today state track seedings were released by the Kansas State High School Activities Association. Campbell is seated first in Class 4A in both the 100 and 200 meter dash.

In Andale, Campbell ran 12.38 for the best regional 100 time in the state. Cosper of Coffeyville ran a 12.40 and Davis of Kansas City Piper ran a 12.51 in other regionals. The 100 meter has been an interesting race all season. All three have intermittently had the top times in the state at one point during the season.

Cosper has the top time in Class 4A for the season, having turned in a 11.94 time in a track meet earlier this year.

Campbell also had the top 200 time. Her chances of winning this race may be even more significant. She ran 25.62 on Friday. The next girl was Jost of Hesston, who ran in 26.03.

Campbell currently has the top marked time in the 200 for the season at 25.52.

Then there are the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams. Wellington had the fourth best regional times in the state for both races.

The 400 relay team of Micah Rogers, Campbell, Dietra Sober and Holly Wright ran a 50.01time in Andale. Andale, Baldwin and Coffeyville all turned in faster times. Interestingly, though, the times of all four teams were less than .4 seconds apart. That’s about an eye blink folks.

The 1600 relay team of Cabriel Roe, Nelson, Sober and Campbell marked a 4:07.01 time Friday – a school record which has been broken twice this season.

That team is seeded fourth behind Baldwin, Paola and Hesston.

Then there is junior Holly Wright. Not only is she in four events — 100 hurdles, high jump, 200, and 4×100 relay — but she is seeded in the top four of three of those events.

Her hurdles time of 16.06 was the fourth best on Friday of the four regionals. She also had the third highest leap in the high jump with a 5-2 mark.

Those who have never been to the state track meet will realize it runs like a well oiled machine. Teams from Class 6A to Class 1A will be at Cessna Stadium. The events are scheduled at a specific time and, by golly, it gets run at that exact time. No dilly or dallying. See schedule here:

Campbell being in four events will be a busy girl on Saturday. The two relays and 200 meters will have preliminaries on Friday. Assuming the two relay teams qualify on Friday as well as the 200, Campbell could be running not only four races on Saturday but the 100 meter preliminaries at 8:30 a.m. She could possibly participate in the first race and the last race on Saturday. The 4×400 meter relay finals won’t start until 6:30 p.m.

Wright will have a little more leeway. She will have the high jump at 3 p.m. on Friday. Preliminaries for the running events will all be on Friday.

It could be a big weekend for the Wellington track program. Not since 2003, when Tim Lira was breaking all sorts of speed records for the Crusaders will Wellington have such an impact at the state meet.

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Sumner County track qualifiers:

The following is a list of other state qualifiers from Sumner County and their seed:

Belle Plaine (3A):

Boys 400 relay – 45.84, seeded 13th.

Boys high jump – Gann, 6-2, fourth

Boys pole vault – Pickens, 11-0, 13th.

Girls 3200 – Smith, 12:24.51, eighth.

Conway Springs (3A):

Boys shot put – Wood, 52-11, second.

Girls long jump – Ebenkamp, 16-6, seventh.

Girls shot put – Hilger, 35-1.5, eighth.

Girls discus – Echelberry, 95-1, 14th.

Oxford (2A):

Boys 3200 – Sutton, 10:24.92, second.

Boys shot put – Burkes, 45-0.25, 13th.

Caldwell (1A): 

Boys 100 – Kendrick, 11.69, 10th.

Boys 200 – Kendrick, 24.17, 14th.

Boys 1600 – Denner, 4:43.60, 10th.

Boys 3200 – Denner, 10:58.63, 13th.

Boys 3200 relay – 9:02.06, 14th.

Boys discus – Stuewe, 116-1, 16th.

Boys javelin – Whaley, 162-0, sixth.

Girls 100 – Isaacs, 13.81, 14th.

Girls 200 – Isaacs, 28.32, 14th.

Girls 400 relay – 54.94, 16th.

Girls 3200 relay – 11:17.41, 15th.

Girls high jump: Arnold, 5-2, fourth. Isaacs, 5-2, sixth.

South Haven (1A): 

Boys 400 – Ray, 53.01, 13th.

Boys 110 hurdles – Moreland, 16.37, 11th.

Boys 400 relay – 45.88, 13th.

Boys 1600 relay – 3:39.66, 15th.

Boys high jump – Showman, 6-0, fifth.

Boys triple jump – Ray, 40-5, 15th.

Boys pole vault – Blaylock, 10-6, 13th.

Argonia (1A): 

Boys long jump – Dickerson, 19-3, 14th.

Girls long jump, Gaddie, 15-3, 16th.

Girls javelin – Allen, 111-4, 9th.

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