Track Regionals: 25 Buffs to state; Dodge joining them
Maize, Kan (westernkansasnews.com)-Garden City senior Alex Miller summed up the purpose of the 2014 season in one sentence:
“This is our last chance as Buffaloes to do something great.”
That was said immediately following the WAC championships, which Garden City won for a third year in a row. Fast forward eight days, and the Lady Buffs were regional champs.
“This is the time of the year where we strive to get better,” Miller said following her win in the 3200 meter on Friday. “This is our chance.”
Consider this: Miller’s performance in the two mile was in a sense extraordinary. But that’s nothing new to the senior, who clocked an 11:27.53-nearly seven seconds better than her WAC time and 10 seconds in front of second place Gabriela Reyna from Wichita Northwest.
She also finished second in the 1600 behind teammate Kayla-losing out by less than three seconds.
Speaking of the aforementioned Doll, she took home victories in both the 800 and 1600, falling second short of a 5:10 mark for the second straight week.
Doll and Miller were two of 25 Buffaloes that qualified for the 6A state track meet, which included Taryn Tempel-who punched her ticket with a third-place finish in the 400 meter dash along with third-place in the long jump and first in the triple.
Her brother Dustin qualified in the long jump as well-leaping 21-10.25 and finishing third.
Dodge City sent a handful of qualifiers to Wichita including Oscar Carmona whose time of 1:56 in the 800 meters beat out second place Wichita Northwest’s Mitchell Shurtz by nearly three full seconds.
“This was one of our best performances of the season,” Demons track coach Dave Foster said. “Now we will look to improve on some of these times at state.”
On the girls side-Brekk Flax raced to victories in the 100 and 200 meter dashes while Briana Bradshaw was champ in the 300 meter hurdles. Bradshaw was also part of Dodge City’s first-place 4X100 relay team.
