Kaufman Track welcomed strong fields in both the boys and girls divisions Thursday for the annual Bluejay/Jayette Invitational.
Ottumwa won the boys side with 169 points, with Boone second at 140. Norwalk (134) was third, Carroll (77) fourth and host Perry (58) fifth. North Polk tallied 176 points to claim the girls title, with Winterset second at 136. Webster City (82), Greeene County (75), Roland-Story (58) and Perry (55) completed the field.
“Competition-wise that was the best we have seen this year, which is good,” Perry boys head coach Ben Coy said. “The 4×400 took another three seconds off of their season best and has put themselves back in the hunt to qualify for the Drake Relays. They still need to take another second-and-a-half off to solidify a spot, as the past couple of years the cutoff has been in the mid-3:27 range.”
Reece Dunlap, Brandon Kenyon, Rashon Ivory and Adan Medina ran the 4×400 Thursday, placing second in 3 minute, 28.55 seconds.
The sprint medley unit of Dunlap, Ivory, Medina and Mana Martinez shaved nearly two seconds off the school record with a third-place finish in 1:37.8, a clocking Coy feels can be improved upon.
“Honestly, our handoffs were not great in that relay,” he said, “so I believe that they still have room to drop some more time.”
The 4×800 quartet of Kenyon, Alexis Garrido, Zachary Thompson and Kaleb Olejniczak were second, in 8:42.40, with the distance medley pairing of Martinez, Nic Fellom, Devon Archer and Zach Stewart was fifth, in 4:06.05. Also fifth were Martinez, Fellom, Olejniczak and Justin Stammer in the 4×100 (47.85) and Kenyon, Fellom, Garrido and Medina in the 4×200 (1:36.67).
Dunlap and Garrido were 2-5 in the 200 in 23.18 and 24.52 seconds, respectively, with Thompson and Olejniczak 3-4 in the 800 in 2:11.81 and 2:13.02. Stewart crossed fourth in the 1600 in 5:20, with Eduardo Sanches fifth in the 3200 in 12:42.64.
Kato Dougan scored the only field event points for either Perry team by landing fifth in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 2-1/2 inches.
The boys set five personal records in the meet, with the girls having season-best efforts in seven events. Although not scoring, both Adrian Thompson (68’2) and Sydney Helmers (67’7) had season bests in the discus.
Rachel Kinney was fourth in the 100 (14.46) and sixth in the 200 (30.14), with Haley Vaughn fourth (1:06.95) and Damaris Robles fifth (1:09.72) in the 400. Sid Vancil used a 2:32.76 clocking to place second in the 800, with Grace Stewart fourth, in 5:43.37, in the 1500 while Joselyn Carrillo was fifth, in 13:31.53, in the 3000 and Breanna Penenger second in the 400 low hurdles in 1:18.63.
The best effort by a relay was a second-place showing by the 4×800, which finished in 10:47.14. Vaughn, Penenger and Stewart ran the first three legs, with Vancil taking the stick and trailing by nearly 200 meters. The senior nearly made up the gap, coming a stride short at the line of pulling off an amazing run-down-and-pass.
The 4×400 foursome of Vaughn, Penenger, Vancil and Robles were third in 4:39.75, with Stewart, Isabel Saemisch, Alejandra Rivera and Jaky Castaneda fourth in the distance medley in 5:06.61 while Emma Humpal, Saemisch, Kinney and Robles placed fifth in the sprint medley with a time of 2:05.73.
Humpal, Saemisch, Kinney and Rivera were sixth in the 4×100 (58.78) and Humpal, Saemisch, Rivera and Carrillo sixth in the 4×200 (2:05.3) while the quartet of Zoe Gordon, Erica Crawford, Star Love and Chelsea Krueger finished sixth in the shuttle hurdle relay (1:33.31).
Perry will compete in a pair of coed meets next week, with the schedule calling for a Monday visit to Greene County and a Thursday trip to Newton.
