Tigers sending eight athletes to State track

Fort Scott High School will send eight athletes to compete in seven events at the Kansas State Track and Field Championships this weekend at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium.

This is the 100th State Championship Meet. Girls' championships began in 1972, making this year the 40th anniversary of the first girls' meet. Because all six classes -- boys and girls -- compete at the same location on the same weekend, the Kansas meet is said to be the largest high-school championship meet in the nation.

Defending Class 4A State high jump champion Griffin Knopp, a senior, will be competing at State for the third time, also taking fifth place in 2009.

Knopp will be contending for the title against athletes such as Kerry Graber, a senior from Maize South who had the best jump in Regionals at 6 feet, 9 inches. Nick Deterding, a junior from Lindsborg-Smoky Valley, finished third a State last season and will go into this year's event having gone 6' 8" at Regionals. Trevor Miller of Hoyt-Royal Valley, a senior who was fifth here last year, has the third-best Regional jump of 6' 6".

According to the honor roll at the Wichita Eagle's high-school sports website, Varsity Kansas (www.varsitykansas.com), Knopp and Graber had each gone 6' 8" in previous meets prior to Regionals, which ranked at the time as the best jumps in Class 4A and two of the six best in all classes.

Junior Brady Fink is also competing for Fort Scott in high jump. He cleared 6 feet even in Regionals.

High jump will be held Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Fink and junior Dezmund Willard will both compete in the 400-meter dash with preliminaries taking place at 3:40 Friday. Fink is seeded 12th with his Regional time of 52.26. Willard is 15th with a 52.68. Deterding has the best Regional time of all qualifiers, 50.10. Morgan Burns of Wichita Trinity has the best time in 4A this season at 48.37 and qualified for State with a 50.45.

Junior Mallory Shelton returns to State in high jump after finishing 10th last year. She tied for the third-best Regional mark at 5' 2". Tonganoxie sophomore Jenny Whitledge and Louisburg senior Colleen O'Brien each went 5' 4" in their Regionals. O'Brien is the defending State champ (5' 6") and has cleared 5' 9" this year, the top mark in the state. Whitledge was second last year as a freshman (5' 4"). Girls' high jump takes place Friday at 6:30.

Seniors Megan McDermed and Marliss Allen will each compete in their first State meet in javelin Friday. McDermed won her Regional with a throw of 120' 6", which is third-best among the qualifiers. Allen's 113' 10" Regional mark is the eighth-best.

Senior Katie Ostlund of Haven is the only medalist returning in this event. She placed seventh last year and has the best Regional mark of 121' 9" and the best mark in 4A this year of 131' 6". Senior Kira Vega of Royal Valley had the second-best Regional at 121' 2".

Sophomore Paige Denton will compete in the 3,200-meter run Friday afternoon and in the 1,600 Saturday afternoon. Freshman Katren Rienboldt will compete in the 300-meter hurdles. The preliminaries are Friday at 4 p.m. If she is one of the eight best there, she will advance to the finals Saturday at approximately 4:25.