WICHITA — The Ellsworth track team took three athletes, two sprinters and one distance runner, to the state track meet in Wichita May 24-25.

A send-off down Douglas Avenue celebrated the athletes as they headed to their biggest meet of the year. All three placed in the top eight.

“It was a great finish to the season for all three athletes,” Head Coach Nick Rodriguez said. “Any time you can return from the state meet with a medal, then it was a good day.”

In the 3,200m run, freshman Molly Ehrlich placed eighth with a time of 12:19.95, her season and personal best.

“My highlight of state was getting my goal of making it to state, but then also placing,” she said. “Placing felt so good by ending the season off well. This will also help me next year to want to push myself harder knowing now that I have already made it to state once.”

Two athletes ran in the 100m dash.

“Both of these races were very tough,” Rodriguez said. “Both of these two sprinters had to take two weeks off of training back in April to get themselves recovered from some early season setbacks, but returned to form by the middle of May.”

Sophomore Lainey Peschka placed sixth. She had a preliminary time of 13.12 that qualified her for finals, where she ran a time of 12.95.

The other sprinter was senior Riley Stone. He placed eighth with a time of 11.26, which he ran in both preliminaries and finals.

“The highlight of the state meet was enjoying my last moments playing high school sports,” Stone said. “Although I felt unsatisfied with my placing, life goes on.”

“It was a great finish to the season for all three athletes. Any time you can return from the state meet with a medal, then it was a good day.”

Nick Rodriguez Head Track Coach