Wellington girls come up big in day 1 of state track meet

May 27, 2022 Cueball

Wellington senior Ali Zeka gets third in long jump Friday.

By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington girls have set themselves up for what could be a potentially explosive Saturday after the first day of the Kansas State Track and Field Championship in Wichita.

Wellington senior Ali Zeka placed third in the long jump on Friday to give the Crusaders their first points of the two-day event. Her leap of 17’2.5″ was good enough to garner Wellington six points. Elsewhere, Wellington qualified in five running events in the preliminary races. With the 100-meter preliminary, Wellington has the potential of getting points in six races.

While Andale has a huge lead in the Class 4A girls, it will be interesting to see how Wellington will end up team-wise. It most certainly did not hurt itself today. Those who have qualified for Saturday are:

•The 4×100 meter girls placed third in the prelims with a school record-breaking 49.89 time. The team consisted of Zeka, Anna Cullens, Kami Reichenberger, and Ashlyn Gerten.

Anna Cullens finishes first in both the 100 and 300-meter hurdle preliminary races Friday.

•A. Cullens posted the best times of the day in Class 4A in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles with times of 14.85 and 45.08.

•Presley Metcalf, a freshman, qualified in the 400-meter finals with a 1:02.52 time, the seventh-best time in Class 4A.

•The 4×400 meter girls, consisting of Metcalf, Gerten, Reichenberger and Sadie Glover, finished seventh to qualify for the finals with a 4:14.19 time.

Here is the Wellington track scoreboard for day one:

Click to enlarge.

Elsewhere in outer Sumner County:

•Caldwell’s Keiodre Smith has qualified in the 110 and 300 hurdles with top-preliminary times in 1A.

•Belle Plaine’s Julan Ramirez has qualified in the 110-meter hurdles in 2A with a 15.64 time.

•Two Sumner County girls have reached the finals in the 2oo: Alyssa Bridges placing 4th for South Haven and Makhila Maupin of Oxford finishing seventh.

The schedule for tomorrow for Sumner County: