Lone Jack senior is 100-meter hurdles state champion

The Lone Jack High School track and field teams enjoyed a successful weekend at the Class 1 state championships in Jefferson City.

The boys scored 29 points to place seventh, and senior Nikki Harris performed as the soloist for the girls, becoming the state champion in the 100-meter hurdles and earning a second-place medal in the 300 hurdles.

“She’s a hoss!” senior Kevin Beaubien exclaimed about Harris.

Beaubien and Harris experienced similarities in their races. While Harris was edged at the finish in the 300 hurdles, Beaubien fell to second in his 400-meter race by a few tenths of a second.

“I saw (Chaffee senior Collin Dannenmueller’s) shadow coming down here,” Beaubien said. “I only thought about the finish, I was too tired to think about anything else.”

Beaubien also placed fifth in the 100-meter dash and sixth in the 200.

Harris the “hoss” — a sign of respect for an athlete who works hard — credited her performances to learning under Charlie Bock, a veteran coach who came out of retirement this season to assist with the team. Bock said he simply added more conditioning to Harris’ regimen but said she made the most impact by doing the work.

Freshman Mackenzie Weis led a contingent from Cass Midway by scoring high finishes in distance events. She finished third in the 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600, making her first state experience memorable.

Junior teammate Shannon Carver also earned two medals, third in the pole vault and seventh in the shot put.

For the Cass Midway boys, senior Justin Beshore finished third in the 300 hurdles for his first state medal.

Lutheran junior Michelle Persich won her first state championship on Saturday by taking the Class 1 long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 5 3/4 inches. And as the only Lutheran girl winning medals, Persich contributed the team’s 18 points. Last Friday, she finished second in the triple jump.

The Hogan Prep boys’ 400-meter relay team finished second. The crew of junior Maurice Sneed, junior Dawon Cummings, senior Ryan Benjamin and junior Matthew McMurry worked together to finish in 43.35 seconds.

submitted by CANDACE BUCKNER - 2009-05-26 13:29:01

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