The Hoisington High School track and field team is led by returning Class 3A state champion Savannah Rose.
The only senior on the girls team, Rose took first place in the triple jump last year at the state track and field championships, as well as second place in the long jump.
“I expect her to do well in the open quarter, too,” Hoisington head coach Mike Richter said. “She could place in the 200, the 100.
“She might be the best track athlete that I’ve ever coached.”
Rose leads a young girls team that has nine athletes total — four freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors.
The boys’ team has a large roster.
“We have about 30 boys out,” Richter said. “We have great depth. We have Austin Stout, who competed at state last year. Brannon Donovan is a senior. He’s our sprinter.
“Chance Demel is probably our top distance runner. He runs the 800. Overall, we’re pretty deep.”

Macksville graduates
two state competitors
Macksville had a boys’ 4x400 relay, and four individuals qualify for the Class 1A state meet last season.
Derek Bevan, who competed in the discus and shot put, and Dakota Alison, who competed in the javelin, graduated.
The Mustangs returns Adam Oak, who competed in the hurdles events at state last year, and Seth Filbert, who competed in the mile run.
“We have all of our points scorers back from the state meet last year,” Macksville head coach Jennifer Gillespie said. “We’ll be fairly deep. Our key to success is staying healthy.”
The girls team is dominated by underclassmen.
“We’re extremely young,” Gillespie said. “We took our freshmen and sophomores to the Larned meet, and the girls won. We’re going to be strong in the distance and mid-distance races. We’re strong in the throws.”
Senior Daisy Ibarra will be expected to lead the young team.
“She has to bring the young kids along,” Gillespie said. “She runs the 100, 200 and 400 for us.”

Wade leads young
St. John team
St. John has a young track and field team. The Tigers have only one senior — Teresa Wade.
Wade competed in the shot put at the Class 1A state meet last season, taking the silver medal with a toss of 37-2 3/4.
“We had 12 kids in seven events at state last year,” said St. John head coach Trish Wade, who is Teresa’s mother. “We only lost Danielle Wendland and Kevin Norton from that group.
“We did lose a couple of other kids to work study, but we’ll have a competitive team. We’ve got some strong kids.”
Gabe Olivier and Omar Ramirez will be leaders for the boys’ team, according to Trish Wade.
Teresa Wade and junior Jamie Waters will likely be the leaders for the girls’ team, which has a lot of underclassmen.
“We have some good sophomores and freshmen coming in,” Trish Wade said. “We have Tia Smith, Alexis Witt, Taylor Woodward and Haley Falk. We were pretty young last year, too. We only had four seniors.
“Our younger group has some big numbers this year, though.”

Distance events to be
Ellinwood’s strong suit
Ellinwood had 13 athletes compete at the Class 2A state meet last season — 11 girls and two boys.
Of those 13, only two girls graduated from the team, leaving quite a few athletes with state experience on the roster for head coach Lyles Lashley.
“We’ve got quite a few girls who are going to compete well this year,” Lashley said. “Jenna Snell took third place in the two-mile and second place in the one-mile at state last year. Our girls 4x800 finished in second, and Sophie Hayes took seventh in the hurdles.”
Along with them, Amanda Tucker competed in the discus and shot put at state and Becca Strecker ran in the 800.
“We have a good nucleus of girls coming back,” Lashley said.
Distance events are a strength for the boys’ team.
“Again, we have a strong nucleus on middle distance and distance events,” Lashley said. “I think we scored 54 points in those events at Cimarron (on Friday). The boys are coming off of a state championship in cross country.”
Sophomore Pedro Montoya leads the Eagles in the distance events. He qualified for the state meet in the two-mile.
“Another strong runner is Kyle Oglesbee,” Lashley said. “I have him running the 800 this year. It was his first time running the 800 (on Friday) and he broke the meet record by about 10 seconds, I think.”

Larned has large
turnout for track and field
Larned has three athletes returning for another season after qualifying for the Class 3A state meet.
This season, Larned will be competing in 4A.
Carrie Kellie is the lone returning state athlete that placed in an event last year. Kellie took second place in the long jump and fourth place in the triple jump.
Mark Wysong, a junior, competed in the 200 dash last year at the state meet, and senior Brenden Lewis competed in the triple jump and the 4x400 relay for Lyons last season.
“We’ve got three, really, that competed at state last year,” Larned head coach Al Troyer said. “Brenden Lewis ran for Lyons last year.
“Carrie Kellie has already committed to compete in track and field at Emporia State next year.”
Troyer said that he had a few other stand outs.
“Jahman Hill is our distance runner,” Troyer said. “He has made state in cross country for the last two years. Tylisha Calkins is a junior. She will run the 200 and the 400 and will throw the javelin. Reagan Quick is a strong athlete. She throws the javelin and the discus.
“Alex Lessard is a high jumper.”
Larned looks to benefit from extra numbers this season.
“We have more athletes out for track than we’ve had in the past.” Troyer said. “We have 54 kids. That’s about double what we had last year.”

Otis-Bison expects solid
individual performances
Otis-Bison is returning three girls and one boy who competed at the Class 1A state meet last year.
However, Cougars head coach Travis Starr said that he wasn’t sure if his team will put up the same amount of points as it did a year ago.
“I think we got a hardworking group this year,” Starr said. “I don’t know if team-wise, especially the boys, if we’ll put up a lot of points. We have a lot of great individual athletes that will do really well, but I don’t think we’ll score as many points.
“We did return all of our points scorers from last year’s girls’ team, so that’s good.”
Janel Tammen will likely be the leader for the Lady Cougars, according to Starr.
“Janel Tammen is our senior,” Starr said. “She competes in the three throwing events and even went to state in a couple of them last year. Hannah Bannister works extremely hard. She’s our middle distance runner, but she went to state last year in the triple jump.
“Annie Kraisinger made the state meet in three events last year. I think they were 100, 200 and 300 hurdles. She’s our sprinter and hurdler.”
Matt Crotinger was part of a relay team that went to state last season.
“Crotinger is our senior sprinter,” Starr said. “We have Trevor Keller. He’s our middle distance and distance runner. I think he’s been to state, but not last year. Dylan Wissman does really well in the triple jump for us.”