By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- Highland Park junior multi-sport star Tre Richardson will probably never love track and field, but it is the sport that brought him his first state championship.
After a near miss in the Class 5A triple jump earlier in the day, Richardson took no chances in Saturday's 200-meter dash, winning in 22.32 seconds to earn his third state medal of the weekend.
Highland Park junior Tre Richardson crosses the finish line with the Class 5A state championship in the 200-meter dash Saturday at Cessna Stadium. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Highland Park junior Tre Richardson soared to a second-place finish in the Class 5A triple jump Saturday at Cessna Stadium. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Richardson won the 200 after finishing second in the triple jump Saturday and finishing fifth in the long jump on Friday.
Not bad for a sport he's not particularly fond of.
"Everybody knows I don't like track,'' Richardson said. "I do it because I know I'm good at it and it's good to see people watch me run and cheering, but I strongly dislike track.''
Richardson didn't have a great day in Friday's long jump, finishing fifth at 21-4 while running back and forth between the long jump and 200 qualifying.
But Richardson put himself in position to win the triple jump, taking the event lead with a jump of 46-9 before Mill Valley's Adrian Dimond took the win with a clutch final jump of 48-2.
"I wasn't disappointed,'' Richardson said. "I'd rather lose to somebody who's like 6-(foot)-6 and practices the triple jump than somebody who's inexperienced like I am. I just added the triple jump last year.
"I was good with that finish. That's top three, and once I got second in that I said I wasn't losing in the 200.''
Richardson, the No. 1 qualifier, finished off his title quest in the 200, winning by .34 of a second over Maize's Bryce Cohoon.
After this year's three state medals and five over his two high school seasons, Richardson is likely to be back for his senior track season ... like it or not.
"It just adds on that I'm good and I need to keep doing it,'' he said.
Highland Park senior Keijuan Johnson also earned a state medal with a seventh-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles in 41.69 while junior Tyrell Reed was seventh in the 100 in 10.95.
Topeka West senior Zsamar Sipple earned a pair of state medals in the jumps, placing third in the long jump at 22-3.25 and taking fourth in the triple jump at 45-3.75, while West junior Lenny Njoroge placed fourth in the 3,200 in 9:33.36.
Shawnee Heights senior Ja'Laven January finished fourth in the 5A 200 (23.14) while junior Jordan Garvin was fourth in the 300 hurdles (40.68), sophomore Jackson Esquibel was sixth in the 3,200 (9:36.78) and junior Maddox Moten placed eighth in the discus (141-6).
