Sports

by REX ZIMMERMAN
The South Barber Lady Chieftains put together a total team effort last week-end to win the 1A State Track & Field Championships held May 23-24 at Cessna Stadium on the Wichita State University campus.
The Lady Chiefs used outstanding performances all nine athletes that qualified for state to roll up 59 points - outdistancing second place Minneola with 37 and third place Quivira Heights and Greensburg, both with 32 points. Every member of the team scored points and received medals, including the gold in two events.
Although South Barber has won several individual state track titles, it was the first team title for the Lady Chieftains. It was also a good day for the Heart of the Plains League as the Cunningham won the 1A boys state crown.
Seniors Get It Started
Friday’s competition for South Barber was in the field events, and two of the three seniors on the squad gave the Lady Chiefs a lead they would never give up.
In the discus, Calli Mathews got off a throw of 121 feet, 4 inches on her third attempt to win that event by nearly four feet over her nearest competitor.
Samantha VanRanken was up next in the javelin, and on her final throw she got off a 124 foot, 3 inch effort to take third place.
Sophomore Olivia Yandel also competed Friday in the high jump and finished 12th at 4 foot, 8 inches.
At the end of Friday’s competition, South Barber had scored 16 points while all the running events had qualified for Saturday’s finals.
Running To The Title
The Lady Chieftain runners took over on Saturday and before it was all over they had put the team title out of reach for anybody else.
Freshman Erin Merklein got it started with an outstanding performance to win the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 15.38 seconds, giving South Barber a 26-20 lead over Quivira Heights.
The 4x800 meter relay team of Erin Merklein, freshman Racheal Watts, senior Holly Rooks and junior Kelsie Johnston were up next and captured second place with a time of 10:19.27 and the Lady Chieftain point lead grew to 34-20.
Olivia Yandel then added three more points as she finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 6½ inches on her next to last jump.
South Barber all but put the title away in the next event, the 4x100 meter relay, as they blazed to second place with a time of 52.55 seconds. Running that event were Kelsie Johnston, Holly Rooks, Olivia Yandel and sophomore Dru Hitchcock and their performance gave the Lady Chieftains a 45-29 lead over second place Minneola.
But the ladies weren’t done yet.
Erin Merklein turned in another stellar performance in the 300 meter hurdles to win second place with a time of 46.71 seconds, less than a tenth of a second behind the first place winner.
That performance gave South Barber a big 53-29 over Minneola in the 46-team field and nailed down the team title.
The Lady Chiefs then capped it all off in the day’s final event - the 4x400 meter relay - with a third place finish in a time of 4:15.83. That race was run by Erin Merklein, Holly Rooks, Dru Hitchcock and junior Kaitlyn Morris and gave the ladies their final 59-37 score and the state team title.