The Knoxville Track and Field Squads showed off the newly refurbished Randy Wilson Track to the South Central Conference and the Panther boys celebrated a conference title for the first time since rejoining the South Central Conference in 2014. The Panthers edged out Albia 144-140 and had just enough of a separation going into the final race to clinch the title. The Panthers got four gold medal performances from Seth Walraven in the 3200 and 1600 meter runs, T.J. DeJong also brought home gold in the 100 and Kaiden Smith took first in the high jump. Knoxville won the meet on the back of several 2nd and 3rd place finishes including a 2nd in the 800 sprint medley relay, shuttle hurdle relay, and DeJong in the long jump. 3rd places went to Walraven in the discus, DeJong in the 400, Kaden McGill in the 800, Gavin Montalvo in the long jump, plus the distance medley relay. Walraven and DeJong told KNIA/KRLS Sports to win this year after being close last season and at home make it even more special.
Seth: “It’s super awesome and last year was so agonizingly close it just feels great.”
TJ: “I came into this night to be on top, I wanted to win so bad, and we have worked so hard to battle through adversity and not be able to get stuff in early meets, and I think we deserve this title.”
The girls finished 4th with 88 total points. The throwing tandem of Ashlyn Finarty and Ciara Heffron dominated the shot put and discus events going one/two in both. Finarty won the shot with a toss of 37 feet five inches and Heffron won the discus with a throw of 118 feet two inches. Finarty tells KNIA/KRLS Sports she likes having Ciara as her top competition since she sees her every day in practice and meets.
Finarty: “It’s actually very nice and she’s coming up there in shot and it’s nice to have my teammate as my competition rather than the other girls, and it really make me want to throw farther.”
Other runner-up medals went to Natalie Collins in the 3000 and Melanie Sullivan in the long jump. 3rd place showings were Sullivan in the 200 and 400 and Collins in the 1500. Full results can be found with this story on kniakrls.com.