Goessel athletes set personal records, take home state track medals
Contributing writer
Davis Cook’s last jump in a Bluebird uniform took place Saturday at the state high school track meet in Wichita. It was the best distance he ever jumped in triple jump competition.
“I knew this was going to be my last jump, so I gave it my all,” the Goessel High School senior said.
Cook entered triple jump finals in fifth place; his sixth and last jump, 42 feet 2.25 inches, moved him up one spot to finish fourth.
Teammate Heath Goertzen felt like his first jump in the triple jump competition was his best, but his toe crossed the board. He finished 14th in the state meet with a jump of 39 feet, 2.25 inches.
Goessel senior Shane Goerzen played golf his first three years in high school. However, he set a goal of going to state his first and only year on the track team. He made the state finals in the 100-meter dash with an outside chance from the eighth lane.
“A runner two lanes over was disqualified for jumping the gun and everyone had to return to their blocks,” Goerzen said.
He got out quickly on the restart and ended his season with a fully automated time of 11.69 seconds, his best of the year.
Goessel fielded a rookie relay team in the 4x800 boys’ event as the four runners had competed at state before the past weekend.
Grant Flaming, Ben Wiens, Cook, and Nathan Czarnowsky improved their season best time by five seconds, running eight laps in 8:56.84. They did not make the medal stand.
Goessel girls
Tia Goertzen clipped several hundredths of seconds from her preliminary times to place sixth in the 100-meter hurdles and eighth in the 300-meter hurdles at the state competition.
Goertzen’s times, 16.93 seconds in the 100-meter event and 49.45 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles, earned her two trips to the medal stand. It was her fourth appearance in state track competition.
“I remember breaking the 50-second barrier only once before,” she said. “So this was pretty exciting.”
Ali Buller, also a senior at Goessel, circled the track twice in the 800-meter race, battling an annoying south wind that blew into runners’ faces as they sprinted for the finish line. Buller finished in 12th place with a time of 2 minutes, 34.13 seconds.
Page Hiebert, a freshman, finished the 400-meter run in 66.95 seconds and earned 14th place.
The Goessel girls’ relay teams in both the 4x100 and 4x400 competed at the state meet. In the 4x400 relay, Hiebert handed off to Goertzen, who then put the baton in the hands of Erin Brubaker. Buller anchored the Bluebirds to the finish line. All exchanges were good but gusty winds may have prevented the girls from running their best time of the year and they finished in 4 minutes, 29.93 seconds for 11th place.
The 4x100 relay consisted of Aleena Cook, Buller, Hiebert, and Goertzen. They placed 14th with a time of 54.99 seconds. With fully automatic timing, the team secured their best performance of the season.