Junior high teams excel in season
The Tonganoxie eighth-grade girls and boys track teams wrapped up tremendous seasons at the May 11 meet in DeSoto, setting school records and posting several remarkable performances.
Long Jumper Billy Braska took first and set a new school record with a leap of 18 feet, five inches.
Brittany Jerome set a new record in the hurdles, and Katie Jeannin swept the sprint events, winning the 100, 200 and 400 meter runs.
Seventh-grader Sam Mitchell took first in the high jump, second in the long jump and ran the first leg in the 4×200 meter relay to help the team take the gold.
Travis Schultz, who anchored the winning 4×200 team, took first in the 400 and anchored the second-place 4×400 meter relay team.
“We had some good performances this year,” Coach Phill Jeannin said. “But at our last meet it was the fourth- and fifth-place kids that really made the difference.”
And the difference they made was keeping both eighth-grade teams undefeated. They both won league.
The seventh-grade girls finished the season third in league, and the boys finished second.
But, besides the kids, Jeannin said he owed much of his team’s success to assistant coaches and other adults who helped throughout the season.
“We had very excellent parent support,” he said. Jeannin thanked assistants Mona Dibble and Jim Cackler and high school coaches Chris Weller and Phil DeWitt for all the help they gave the youngsters this year.