With only one semester of high school remaining, senior Jake Eastes decided he wanted to try something different. He had played baseball at Riley County High School for the previous three seasons, and felt the urge to seek out a new challenge. His dad had been a successful javelin thrower at the college level, and so this spring he decided he wanted try it out himself.
After dumping baseball and joining head coach Garry Sigle’s successful track and field squad, Eastes embarked on that challenge.
“I just kind of picked up a javelin,” Eastes said. “I knew my dad threw javelin, and he has been a really good coach for me. So I went home and practiced about every day, and picked it up pretty quick.”
Now, after finishing in first place in the javelin throw at the Smith Center regional track and field meet last week with a toss of 175 feet, a personal record, he qualified for the State meet Wichita this weekend.
Did he surprise himself?
“A little bit,” he said. “The thing that surprised me a lot was at the Manhattan meet, my previous best was 142 (feet) and I went there and threw 172 (feet). So I (set a personal record) by 30 feet. That’s what shocked me the most. It definitely just clicked.”
Eastes will be competing in one of 14 events for the Falcons at the 2010 State meet in Wichita after completing what Sigle described as a very difficult regional qualifying events at Smith Center last week.
“We went to a really challenging regional,” Sigle said. “It was kind of a mini-state meet, because of just how challenging it was.”
Sigle did say however the difficulty of the meet in Smith Center was a good preparation those who qualified.
“We feel like the kids that are qualified have a much better chance of scoring,” Sigle said. “Simply because if you made it out of our regional, you are going to do very well.”
Accompanying Eastes on the trip to Wichita this weekend will be senior Danya Pachta of the girl’s squad, who also qualified for the Javelin throw after setting a personal record by five feet in the Smith Center Regional.
“My coach prepared me very well,” Pachta said also in her first year of throwing Javelin. “It’s really exciting, I’m excited to go and I think we will all do well.”
Meanwhile, in the track events, the girls will be led by a their 4x800 and 4x400 relay squads. Kelly Thompson will be a member of both relays and the 800 meter run. Both relays recorded their best times of the year during the regional meet last week, and Thompson said both the competition and their results came at the right time.
“It was definitely good preparation heading into next week,” Thompson said. “To be able to see some of the top runners in the state, and some of the top teams that we are going to be competing against this weekend was helpful.”
When sending his squads down to Wichita this week, Sigle will look to keep an impressive streak of state championships alive.
The head coach has brought home at least one state champion for the previous 15 years at Riley County, but that streak hasn’t distracted the focus of his athletes.
“I think there is a lot of pressure to try and keep the streak for coach Sigle,” Thompson said. “But we try not to tie ourselves up with it, and just try to stay relaxed and confident and try and do the best we can do.”
Boys Qualifiers
Grady Goff 800
Adam Larson 1600, 800
Jake Brazzle Discuss
Calvin Kenney Triple Jump, Long Jump
Jake Eastes Javelin
Girls Qualifiers
Dayna Pachta Javelin
Kelly Thomson 4x800, 800, 4x400
Karly Ruggle 1600, 3200
Cajsa Larson 4x800, 4x400
Kirstie Krinhop Triple Jump, (4x800R), 4x400R
Lindsey Cook 4x800
Bree Busch 4x400
Janelle Bailey 4x800, (4x400R)
Stacy Pachta 4x800, (4x400R)
Friday, June 4, 2010
Indians Fall at State
LAWRENCE — The Indians just couldn’t keep up with Blue Valley Friday afternoon at Hoglund Ballpark on the campus of the University of Kansas.
More so, they couldn’t keep up with the likes of starting pitcher Ryan Stanek.
The tall, lanky senior right-handed pitcher from Blue Valley consistently blew pitches past the Indians all afternoon, sending Manhattan home early from the 6A state tournament with a 6-0 loss.
With shutout the Indians’ season came to a close with a final overall record of 19-4.
Following the loss head coach Don Hess held an extensive meeting with his team, discussing the fact that what they saw that afternoon was something even he was impressed by.
“We just came across a very good team with a pitcher that throws harder than any of us have ever seen.” coach Hess said. “I played division one [college] baseball and I never saw anyone throw that hard, and I know I haven’t seen it in the high school ranks.”
Staneck, who tossed a complete game shutout against the Indians, consistently threw in the mid-90s throughout all seven innings of the game, toping out at 97 mph in the first inning.
“I was just trying to go out and do my job,” Stanek, who has committed to the University of Arkansas and has been in contact with all 30 Major League Baseball organizations, said. “It’s kind of what I have done all year, just try and throw strikes, get hitters out and let our offense do the work.”
In fact, he did a lot of the work on the offensive end. Stanek went 2-3 at the plate, hitting two doubles off the center field wall, just out of the reach of a leaping Kyle Speer both times. He also drove in two of the six Tiger runs.
Despite the seemingly dominating performance on the mound and at the plate by Stanek, the Indians put themselves in position several times to make a run at the Tigers.
Beginning with the first inning, with junior Ryan Wilkinson on second and senior Garrett Hess on first base, sophomore Derek Francis came to the plate, giving the Indians a chance to take an early lead on Blue Valley. But as he did throughout the afternoon, Stanek mixed his dominating fastball in with off-speed pitches, and struck out on a curveball that registered at 83 mph.
It was a blown opportunity that seemed to be replicated time and time again throughout the game.
“It thought we were in the game the whole time,” Wilkinson said. “We got runners on the corners every once in a while, and I figured we would score. I don’t think we were ever completely out of it. I think we were always in it.”
The Indians were able to stay in the game with the effort of starting pitcher Alec Giambrone. In the final game of his career at Manhattan, the senior tossed 4 2/3 innings allowing just six hits and two earned runs.
“He threw well,” Wilkinson said. “I was expecting that though, he’s our ace.”
In the bottom of the third inning, the Indians again had an opportunity to crawl back into the game. With two outs, and down 1-0, Wilkinson singled with a line drive over short stop Derek Hackney’s head. Junior outfielder Kyle Speer followed the single with a walk, and suddenly Manhattan had an opportunity to push a run across and tie the ballgame.
However Stanek blew that opportunity away in the form of a 95 mph fastball striking out Garrett Hess and ending the inning.
“I thought that there were times that we competed really hard at the plate,” coach Hess said. “We just couldn’t get the one extra hit or the two hits back-to-back that would propel us, and keep the inning alive.”
Despite the loss, Hess said he was extremely happy with the effort he saw out his program throughout the course of the season. The senior class, he said, returned the program to a state that he expected it to be.
And the future looks bright, as the Indians only graduate five seniors from the 2010 regional championship squad.
“[A] 19-4 [record] is an incredible season,” coach Hess said. “I don’t care what sport, I don’t care what era it is, 19-4 and being in the state tournament is something that I hope the seniors know they were responsible for, and laid the groundwork for us to maybe come back in the future.”
More so, they couldn’t keep up with the likes of starting pitcher Ryan Stanek.
The tall, lanky senior right-handed pitcher from Blue Valley consistently blew pitches past the Indians all afternoon, sending Manhattan home early from the 6A state tournament with a 6-0 loss.
With shutout the Indians’ season came to a close with a final overall record of 19-4.
Following the loss head coach Don Hess held an extensive meeting with his team, discussing the fact that what they saw that afternoon was something even he was impressed by.
“We just came across a very good team with a pitcher that throws harder than any of us have ever seen.” coach Hess said. “I played division one [college] baseball and I never saw anyone throw that hard, and I know I haven’t seen it in the high school ranks.”
Staneck, who tossed a complete game shutout against the Indians, consistently threw in the mid-90s throughout all seven innings of the game, toping out at 97 mph in the first inning.
“I was just trying to go out and do my job,” Stanek, who has committed to the University of Arkansas and has been in contact with all 30 Major League Baseball organizations, said. “It’s kind of what I have done all year, just try and throw strikes, get hitters out and let our offense do the work.”
In fact, he did a lot of the work on the offensive end. Stanek went 2-3 at the plate, hitting two doubles off the center field wall, just out of the reach of a leaping Kyle Speer both times. He also drove in two of the six Tiger runs.
Despite the seemingly dominating performance on the mound and at the plate by Stanek, the Indians put themselves in position several times to make a run at the Tigers.
Beginning with the first inning, with junior Ryan Wilkinson on second and senior Garrett Hess on first base, sophomore Derek Francis came to the plate, giving the Indians a chance to take an early lead on Blue Valley. But as he did throughout the afternoon, Stanek mixed his dominating fastball in with off-speed pitches, and struck out on a curveball that registered at 83 mph.
It was a blown opportunity that seemed to be replicated time and time again throughout the game.
“It thought we were in the game the whole time,” Wilkinson said. “We got runners on the corners every once in a while, and I figured we would score. I don’t think we were ever completely out of it. I think we were always in it.”
The Indians were able to stay in the game with the effort of starting pitcher Alec Giambrone. In the final game of his career at Manhattan, the senior tossed 4 2/3 innings allowing just six hits and two earned runs.
“He threw well,” Wilkinson said. “I was expecting that though, he’s our ace.”
In the bottom of the third inning, the Indians again had an opportunity to crawl back into the game. With two outs, and down 1-0, Wilkinson singled with a line drive over short stop Derek Hackney’s head. Junior outfielder Kyle Speer followed the single with a walk, and suddenly Manhattan had an opportunity to push a run across and tie the ballgame.
However Stanek blew that opportunity away in the form of a 95 mph fastball striking out Garrett Hess and ending the inning.
“I thought that there were times that we competed really hard at the plate,” coach Hess said. “We just couldn’t get the one extra hit or the two hits back-to-back that would propel us, and keep the inning alive.”
Despite the loss, Hess said he was extremely happy with the effort he saw out his program throughout the course of the season. The senior class, he said, returned the program to a state that he expected it to be.
And the future looks bright, as the Indians only graduate five seniors from the 2010 regional championship squad.
“[A] 19-4 [record] is an incredible season,” coach Hess said. “I don’t care what sport, I don’t care what era it is, 19-4 and being in the state tournament is something that I hope the seniors know they were responsible for, and laid the groundwork for us to maybe come back in the future.”
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