2023 Wellington High School track team. (Photo by Katie Ford)

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Barring rainy weather, Wellington will host its annual high school track meet at the middle school facility on Friday.

The field events will begin at 3:15 p.m., with the running events starting at 5 p.m. The schools participating are Belle Plaine, Caldwell, Conway Springs, Mulvane, Oxford, Rose Hill, and South Haven. Project Prom will be in charge of the concession stand.

This marks the first season for head coach Tim Lira, a school short-distance record holder from the early 2000s – who held the state 100 and 200-meter records for years. He has over 70 athletes out this season. Several of those competing are also involved in other spring sports.

For the past month, Wellington has participated in five track meets, including the Clearwater Invitational last Friday, that may serve as the best indicator of the regional meet ahead. In that meet, Wellington finished sixth for the girls and fifth for the boys.

In 2022, Wellington had the benefit of not having Andale in its regional and had a tremendous number of state participants because of it. The track team isn’t as fortunate this year.

Wellington will be going to Circle High School on Thursday, May 18. The other teams participating are: Andale, Augusta, Clearwater, El Dorado, Mulvane, Rose Hill, Circle and Winfield.

Andale, Augusta, Rose Hill, Winfield, Clearwater, Circle and Wellington were all in last week’s Clearwater meet. The team scores were as follows:

Boys: 1. Andale 163, Garden Plain 92, Augusta 66, Rose Hill 60, Wellington 43, Winfield 40.50, Clearwater 40, Chaparral 37, Circle 24.5, Mulvane 19, Wichita Homeschool Warriors 14.

Girls: 1. Andale 185.5, 2. Clearwater 89, 3. Rose Hill 72, 4. Garden Plain 70.5, 5. Winfield 62, 6. Wellington 55, 7. Circle 43, 8. Augusta 17, 9. Mulvane 6, 10. Wichita Defenders 1, Chaparral 1.

The Wellington individual results from Clearwater are here.

There were notable performances. Whitney Zeka won the high jump with a 5-1 leap. Montel Tate also finished first in the 200-meter dash with a 22.76 time.

Lira listed those athletes who have a good shot of finishing in the top four at the regional meet which would qualify them for the Class 4A state track and field championships in Wichita. Some of these athletes were not in Clearwater last Friday so the point totals may not indicate possible regional results.

Here’s that list which includes the predicted finish based on the athlete(s) best times compared to the other teams in the regional. Please note this list was made 10 days ago and is subject to change.

Girls:

•4 x 100 relay – third (Tatum Edwards, Kami Reichenberger, Bri Walker, Ashlyn Gerten). This team is currently eighth in 4A.

•4 x 400 relay – third. (Presley Metcalf, Edwards, Reichenberger, Gerten).

•300 hurdles – Reichenberger, fourth. She is ranked sixth in 4A currently.

•400 – Metcalf, fourth; Edwards, fifth.

•100 – Gerten, sixth.

•200 – Walker, sixth.

•Discus – Kylan Gregory, Kadence Westmoreland, Aurora Young are within six feet from fourth place.

•High jump – Whitney Zeka, fifth.

•Long jump – Zeka, ninth.

•Triple jump – Isabelle Cullens, second.

•Shot put – Natalie Burnett, eighth; Mikalya Ybarra, ninth.

•110 hurdles – Bri Walker, Cullins, sixth.

•Triple jump – Addy Schnelle, ninth.

Boys:

•4 x 100 relay – fifth (Cooper Hatfield, Montel Tate and mix of people).

•4 x 400 relay – third (Morice Ayers, Kei, Hatfield, Branam.

•100 – Tate, sixth, Branam, ninth.

•200 – Tate, fourth.

•Long Jump – Tate, second; Branam, sixth.

•800 – Kaleb Hamilton, sixth.

•1600 – Hunter Lough, sixth.

•3200 – Lough, sixth.

•4 x 800 relay – third (Hamilton, Jaxon Irey, Ryan Bacon, Lough).

•Discus – Milo Elder, Andrew Helpingstine – top 12.

•400 – Hatfield – ninth.

•High jump – Ayers, fifth. Brown, sixth.

Follow us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter.