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Tiger track season begins Friday
Fort Scott High School's track season begins Friday afternoon with a combined varsity/junior varsity meet at Labette County Friday afternoon.
Tiger head coaches Don Epps (boys) and Tracey Bogina (girls) will be doing a lot of evaluating at this meet, which will begin at 2 p.m. and quite possibly end somewhere around 10:30. Epps plans to use 17 athletes on the varsity level at this meet while Bogina, at least for now, intends to use 14 girls.
Each has a few State qualifiers back from last season. Senior Clint Lawrence was a discus qualifier while junior Jake Clements made it there in high jump. Throw in Grant Hartman, now a senior, who was a State qualifier in javelin two years ago, and you have some good experience coming back.
For the girls, Breianna Jones was a qualifier in the 400 meters and the triple jump as a freshman and Tiffnie Bradley was a competitor in discus as a sophomore.
Bogina said that she has a bit of a problem that she's actually happy to have. A lot of her athletes that played basketball have had maybe three or four full days of practice between their State Tournament appearance, the buffer week and spring break.
"There's also cheer tryouts and dance tryouts," Bogina said. "But it's a really good problem to have when the girls are successful in other things."
Jones, Ashley Cavin, Kori Page Rienbolt and Jolee Sharp -- who were all members of the State-qualifying basketball team -- are expected to run sprints (100, 200 and 400 meters). Cavin is a senior while Rienbolt is a junior out for the first time and Sharp is a sophomore. Junior Brittany Bingesser, another hoopster, will be back running hurdles. Any combination of the above could also run in relays, although Bogina said she wasn't sure who she would use quite yet.
Catherine Sercer, Daisy Jones and Kaylee Harper, who is in her first year of track after switching over from softball, will run distance events (800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters). It's even possible for B.Jones to run the 800.
As far as jumping events go, Jones will triple jump, Cavin will long jump and Rienbolt, Sharp and senior Carly Hyer will compete in high jump.
When it comes to field events, Bradley will return for discus. Senior Elizabeth Meech and Cassie Ogran will compete in shot put and junior Annie Gladbach will throw the javelin.
Most everyone listed competed on the varsity last season, giving Bogina a lot of experience to work with.
"That's always a good thing," Bogina says. "Depth might be a concern early in the season. We're going to be focusing on getting better every day to compete well at league and Regionals."
Pittsburg is the defending Southeast Kansas League champion and should be tough again this year. Bogina feels that Labette County and Chanute will also be contenders.
"I think any league team is going to be able to be good competition pretty much every meet," Bogina says.
Epps will have seven seniors in the varsity lineup at Labette County. Lawrence and Hartman among them. Lawrence will compete in discus and shot while Hartman throws javelin.
Chris Colvin will run the 200 and 400 meters and also on relays. Lucas Halsey will run those sprints as well as the 100 meters. Miles Dikeman will compete in discus, Thomas Gregory in pole vault, and newcomer Jared Harris in the 800.
"We're looking for our seniors to lead us in (team) points," Epps said. "Most of them have competed on varsity since their sophomore year."
Clements will head up the junior contingent at LCHS, competing again in high jump. In addition, Mitchell Stoughton will compete in sprints and relays, Alex Barner in high jump and triple jump, Tyson Woodson in long jump and high jump and Brandon Boyd in high jump, long jump and sprints.
Field competitors include Sean Durnal and Ben Sinn in discus, Aaron Judy and Kolby Allen in javelin and Andrew McGee in shot put.
"The field events and the sprints will be our strengths," Epps said. "We'll need to work on the hurdles and we're young in the middle and longer distances."
Chanute is the defending SEK champ but Epps also looks to Pittsburg and Iola as strong teams.
"Every team is strong in different areas," Epps says. "We just want to be well-rounded."
Fort Scott's home varsity meet is set for April 18 with the home junior varsity invitational scheduled for April 22.
Varsity
Friday......at Labette County, 2
April 4......at Paola, 3:30
April 11......at Independence, 3:30
April 18......FORT SCOTT RELAYS, 4
April 25......at Girard Optimist Club Invitational, 3:30
April 29......at Burlington, 3:30
May 2......at Chanute Thad Clements Invitational, 3
May 8......Southeast Kansas Relays at Iola, 3:30
Friday......at Labette County, 2
April 7......at Chanute, 3
April 8......at Pleasanton, 3:30
April 14......at Paola, 3:30
April 22......FORT SCOTT INVITATIONAL, 3:30
May 5.......at Iola, 3:30