By BRETT MARSHALL
wacathletics.com
When he was planning his entry list for the 2024 Western Athletic Conference track and field championship on May 9 in Dodge City, Hays High coach Tony Crough knew he would have to get a significant amount of points from his field event athletes.
In order to defend their 2023 title, Crough was relying on the seven field events.
His troops didn’t disappoint as they scored points in all seven that propelled them to another dominating WAC championship with 121 points to easily outdistance runner-up Garden City’s 86 points.
“It was pretty clear that we would need to score the bulk of our points from the field events, and our kids really excelled,” Crough said.
In addition to earning Coach of the Year honors, Hays junior Kamani Jones won the Track Athlete of the Year award by winning the high jump (6-02), taking second in the triple jump (44-00), third in the long jump (20-01) and running a leg of the third-place 4Ă—100-meter relay team.
“A lot of good things have to happen to win the WAC because of the scoring and how fast the track events take place,” Crough said. “The WAC track meet is just so different from every other meet.”
The biggest difference comes on the track as there are no preliminaries in the dashes and the hurdle races, so each race is a final. That does not leave much time for recovery for those athletes who are competing in multiple events on the track.
“You just try to get as many kids in as many events as possible,” Crough said. “You get points where you can. Teams that are not filled up with entries will have a difficult time scoring enough points.”
In the WAC meet, points are awarded to the top 5 finishers on an 8-6-4-2-1 basis unlike most meets where points are awarded on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis.
For the Indians, the field events had Jones racking up his points in the three specialty jumps. Then, Gus Corsair (152-05) and Parker McGuire (139-09) went 1-2 in the discus; Jace Myeres took second in the pole vault (12-06); Dalton Meyers (178-00), Wyatt Kirkpatrick (161-10) and Derek Quach (156-10) swept the top three spots in the javelin and Maximo Luna led a 1-3-4 finish in the shot put with a winning throw of 46-08.50.
“We’re fortunate that we’ve been able to develop a lot of depth in the field events, and that’s been our key to the WAC meet,” Crough said.
But one other key element in this year’s title run came when Elijah McCullough took first in the 3200-meter run in 9:59.81 and Carson Avery won gold in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.17.
“We’ve been compiling more kids in three to four events,” Crough said. “The years that other teams won WAC, they did it because they had the numbers.”
Despite being one of the smallest schools in the WAC (5A a long with Great Bend), the Indians had about 100 kids out for the track squad this season.
“Hays has had a good track tradition and the kids enjoy the sport,” said Crough. “There is a certain amount of camaraderie with that many kids. They take a lot of pride in both individual and team accomplishments.”
Crough, who also serves as the school’s football coach, said that other fall and winter sports serve as feeders for the track program.
“We’ve got football players, volleyball players (girls), basketball, wrestlers, cross country kids,” Crough said. “They all come to the track program with different skills and talent. We have teachable kids and they have a lot of competition in practice.”
Kamani Jones, Hays High, Jr./Boys’ Track Athlete of the Year
Hays High junior Kamani Jones was just as surprised as anybody when he heard his name over the public address system at Dodge City on May 9 when he was declared the winner of the Western Athletic Conference boys’ track and field athlete of the year.
The award goes to the individual who scores the most points in the one-day WAC championship.
He did so by winning the high jump (6-02), placing second in the triple jump (44-00), third in the long jump at 20-01, and then running one leg of the third-place 4Ă—100-meter relay. All totaled to 19 points which eclipsed a few other double winners in the meet.
“I just try to do as much as I can to help the team,” said Jones, in an interview a week after the conference meet. “Essentially, a lot of hard work goes into this.”
Of his three specialty jumps events, Jones said the high jump is likely his best, having cleared 6-06 earlier in the season at a meet in Salina.
“It’s the most technical of the three jumps,” Jones said. “The triple jump is probably my favorite, though, because it’s an event I started in middle school. The long jump is something that I didn’t do until high school.”
Jones said the multiple aspects of the triple jump require specific training in each phase (hop, skip and jump).
“The first phase is my strongest of the three,” Jones said. “The second part is where I need to improve the most and the last phase I can do a better job on my landing. It’s a work in progress and there’s always one of those three that can be better.”
Despite having a favorite in the three jumps, Jones said he likes doing all of them.
“It’s great that I’ve been able to do all three,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, it’s about helping our team do well. Running the 4×100 or in some cases the open 400, those are not my best events. They all take a lot of grit.”
Jones said managing workouts for all three events is simply making a good game plan on how much time to spend on each one.
“I just listen to the coaches who help me manage the jumps in each when we’re competing,” Jones said. “You have to play your cards right to know that you only have so many good jumps with your legs before you get tired. I’m just grateful that I’ve been healthy and able to compete at the level I can.”
ALL-WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM
EVENT - NAME - SCHOOL - MARK
100m - Tochi Okoro - Dodge City - 10.78
200m - Tochi Okoro - Dodge City - 22.32
400m - Cesar Pavia - Liberal - 50.38
800m - Cesar Pavia - Liberal - 2:01.98
1600m - M.J. Foster - Liberal - 4:29.343
200m - Elijah McCullough - Hays - 9:59.81
110m hurdles - Carsen Avery - Hays - 15.17
300m hurdles - Carter Williams - Dodge City - 38.71
4x100m relay - Dodge City - 43.11
4x400m relay - Liberal - 3:24.05
4x800m relay - Great Bend - 8:25.66
High jump - Kamani Jones - Hays - 6-02
Long jump - Cooper Ohnmacht - Great Bend - 21-09.25
Triple jump - Cooper Ohnmacht - Great Bend - 45-04
Pole vault - Ivan Rivas - Garden City - 13-00
Discus throw - Gus Corsair - Hays - 152-05
Javelin throw - Dalton Meyers - Hays - 178-00
Shot put - Maximo Luna - Hays - 46-08.50
Athlete of the Year: Kamani Jones, Hays, Jr.
Coach of the Year: Tony Crough, Hays