Riley County Ready For State Run

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)