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Buffaloes rumble to NWKL top two
ST. FRANCIS, Kan. -- Rawlins County came away with a girls runner-up finish in Thursday’s Northwest Kansas League Track and Field Meet in St. Francis, Kan.
The Lady Buffs won five events and scored 100 team points. They were headlined by sophomores Kristen Beckman and Brea Lankas.
Beckman won both the shot put and discus with throws of 36 feet, 4.5 inches and 114 feet, 9 inches, respectively. Her discus toss was a new personal best.
In addition, Beckman was part of Rawlins County’s winning 4x100 relay team, which ran a 53.43.
Lankas joined Beckman (and Libby Mosley and Angie Singhateh) in the 4x100 relay and also won the long jump with a personal-best mark of 16 feet, 6 inches.
Lankas took second in the triple jump (33 feet, 0 inches) and was on the 4x400 relay team that ran a second-place time of 4:27.37.
Fellow sophomore Kelsi Heim had the fifth gold medal for Rawlins County when she won the 100m hurdles in 16.73 seconds.
Other top-three performances for Rawlins County included freshman Porsha Binning in the one mile (third place, 6:13.65 time) and Mosley in the triple jump (32-07).
Decatur Community placed third in the girls team standings with 75 points.
The Lady Red Devils had two gold medalists in Maddie Johnson and Brittney Wesley.
Johnson won the high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 0 inches and Wesley placed first in the 100m with a time of 13.02 seconds.
Decatur Community also had four silver medalists: Kaitlyn Howland in the 300m hurdles (54.47), the 4x100 relay team of Melody Koerperich-Alyssa VanVleet-Howland-Wesley (53.99), VanVleet in high jump (4-10) and Skyler Brown in pole vault (7-06).
Hoxie won the girls’ conference title with 133.5 points.
On the boys’ side, Decatur Community and Rawlins County finished towards the bottom of the team standings with 36 and 25 points, respectively.
The Red Devils finished sixth and had their best performance come from Tyler McHugh in the 400m.
The junior took third with a time of 55.45 seconds.
McHugh finished fourth in the 200m and was also part of the 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay teams that also placed fourth.
Other fourth-place finishers for Decatur Community were freshman Kelby Garrett in the 110m hurdles (19.19), junior Reegon Witt in shot put (37-02.5) and junior Isaiah Mason in triple jump (37-10.25).
Rawlins County was led by Nick Withington’s two gold medals in the high jump and javelin. His javelin toss of 157-03 was a new personal best and is currently the sixth-best mark in Kansas’ 1A division.
St. Francis ran away with the team title with 209 points. Dighton was a distant second with 100.
Decatur Community and Rawlins County will now gear up for regional meets this Friday.
Decatur Community is in the 2A-19 Regional at Smith Center, Kan. Field events start at 2 p.m.
Rawlins County is in the 1A-22 Regional at Colby, Kan. Field events are scheduled for a 1 p.m. start time.
Girls team scores
1, Hoxie, 133.5; 2, Rawlins County, 100; 3, Decatur Community, 75; 4, Wallace County, 71; 5, Quinter, 67.5; 6, St. Francis, 55; 7, Greeley County, 43; 8, Dighton, 12.
Boys team scores
1, St. Francis, 209; 2, Dighton 100; 3, Hoxie, 66; 4, Greeley County, 54; 5, Wallace County, 49; 6, Decatur Community, 36; 7, Rawlins County, 25; 8, Quinter, 13.