By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- The way Hayden's Jensen Schrickel won the Class 4A boys long jump state title on Saturday at Cessna Stadium would have been considered a clutch performance by any age athlete.
The fact that Schrickel pulled off the unlikely accomplishment as a freshman making his first state meet appearance was even more impressive.
Jensen Schrickel
Hayden freshman Jensen Schrickel (left) competes in Saturday's Class 4A 400 meters state final. Schrickel won three state medals, including a win in the long jump. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Sitting in fourth place going into his final attempt, Schrickel moved into the lead in a very tight field with a jump of 21 feet, 9-50 inches.
"I just wanted to make it count,'' Schrickel said.
That jump put Schrickel in front of Tonganoxie's Isaiah Holthaus by an inch, but the Hayden standout still had to sweat out Holthaus' final jump.
Holthaus improved his previous best by a half inch, but his jump of 21-9 was still a half inch behind Schrickel's winning mark.
All eight of the 4A placers eclipsed the 21 foot mark, with 8.75 inches separating first from eighth.
Although he coudn't have predicted how everything was going to transpire, Schrickel said he went into Saturday feeling like he could win the title.
"I thought so, I felt good,'' Schrickel said. "When I won regionals I thought I had a good chance at it.''
Schrickel returned later in the day to finish seventh in the 400-meter dash in 50.95 seconds and teamed with junior Ethan Florence, junior Jake Muller and senior Ryan Rochford for a third-place finish in the 4 x 400 relay (3:29.93) to wrap up a fourth-place team finish.
Hayden, which got three victories from senior star Tanner Newkirk, finished the two-day state meet with 64 points, finishing behind Andale (101), Chanute (71) and Louisburg (67).
Muller finished second in the 300-meter hurdles in 39.21 seconds and was seventh in the 110 highs in 15.43.
The Wildcats' foursome of senior Nick Padilla, Newkirk, junior Nick Lloyd and Rochford posted a fifth-place finish in the 4 x 800 relay in 8:30.60 while Sean McConnell finished seventh in the shot put at 49-7.75.
On the girls side, sophomore Natalie Hillebert finishe third in the 400 (61.49) while senior Jadyn Paige Falley was fifth in the shot put (37-7) and the team of N. Hillebert, senior Miranda Hillebert, senior Megan Carr and senior Riley Schmidtlein finished eighth in the 4 x 400 relay (4:26.12).
