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Lutheran High School Knights Shine at State

Lutheran High School Knights Shine at State
Posted on 06/06/2018
Christien Robins

by Christian Nord
Lutheran High School of Kansas City came into the Class 1 State Championships with high expectations. Both the boys and girls teams were coming off of District Team Championships and a great showing at Sectionals the week before. In all, 15 students qualified for state in one or more events. Students and fans alike had a busy schedule, with athletes in a total of 19 events (2 events had 2 LHS athletes).

The Knights competed in 5 finals Friday. State started out with a bang with the Boys 4x800 relay. LHS ran in the first event of the weekend and finished in 3rd place, setting a new school record of 8:27. Relay team members included Juniors Christian Hinrichs and Jesse Schultz, and Sophomores Nathan Fischer and Jackson Horn. The boys have their sights set on the top spot next year when they all return to try to turn bronze into gold. Senior Anne Thomas and Junior Madison Chiappetta competed in the final of the 1600 together. Anne set a huge personal best in the race and finished 8th with a time of 5:39.  Sophomore Julia Gire continued her great season of jumping finishing with a spot on the podium in the triple jump. She finished in 8th place with a jump of 34’4’’. Madison Chiappetta and Freshman Abigail Allred were next to compete in the 800 meter final. Both girls ran well and set new personal bests. Madison ended up narrowly missing all-state honors finishing 9th (2:29) and Abigail finished 12th (2:34). Junior Jesse Schultz entered the final of the 3200 ranked second in the state. Only one boy had broken 10 minutes coming into state. Jesse came into the event undefeated. Friday, four boys broke 10. Jesse ended up finishing in second place, three seconds behind the champion with a time of 9:54. The junior will come into his senior season ranked number 1. The boys finished the day with 14 points, excited about what Saturday may bring.

Mother Nature made an appearance Saturday, in the form of rain, to delay the start of the events. Rain was a common theme during the day, making some events interesting. LHS competed in 7 finals. Saturday’s events started with the girls 4x800 relay. The relay team consisted of Senior Anne Thomas, Junior Madison Chiappetta, Sophomore Lauren Ada, and Freshman Abigail Allred. The last two years the girls finished 6th at state with the exact same school record time of 10:19.12. The Knights ran with heart and not only set a new school record time of 10:16, but matched the boys with a 3rd place finish. Senior Christien Robins was up next. Christien took first in his 100 meter preliminary, posting the fastest time. Last year Christien finished third, only .01 of a second behind 1st place. This year Christien had a great start out of the blocks and put no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who the champion was. Christien finished as the state champion in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.22. The girls 4x100 meter relay team (Senior - Camryn Robins, Junior- Lauren Gruber, Sophomores- Molly Miller and Julia Gire) qualified for finals and finished in 8th during their race Saturday with a time of 54.77. The next final was Christien in the 200 meter. The race featured the 100 meter champion (Christien) and the 400 meter champion. Both athletes ran very well, with Christien running a personal best of 22.61 and finishing second.  Christien’s performance gave Lutheran High 32 points for the meet with no more opportunities to score with 2 events remaining. Anne Thomas was up to the challenge in her 3200 meter final. She battled through the rain and storms and picked off one runner at a time, going out at a smart pace. Anne pushed through the driving rain and finished her senior season on the podium (for a 3rd time) finishing 8th, with a time of 12:46. The last final of the weekend belonged to Sophomore Molly Miller in the long jump. Due to the weather, Molly didn’t start her event until the final running event was completed. Molly jumped like a champion. In fact, she jumped far enough to match the longest jump of the day (16’10’’). Since her next best jump wasn’t as long as the other competitor, Molly finished second. The boys team now had to wait and watch the final results of pole vault and discus to see if they earned enough team points to leave with a team plaque. In the end, the Lutheran High Boys tied for 3rd place with 32 points.

Others that competed at the State Championships were Maria Trozzolo (11th - 100m Hurdles, 14th - 300m Hurdles), 4x200 meter relay - Senior - Camryn Robins, Sophomores - Molly Miller and Julia Gire, Freshman - Zoey Shroeter (11th Place), Madison Chiappetta (14th - 1600), Jesse Schultz (10th - 1600), Abigail Allred (12th - 400m), Molly Miller (15th - 200), Girls 4x400 - Madison Chiappetta, Zoey Shroeter, Lauren Ada, and Abigail Allred (11th Place), and Boys 4x400 - Nathan Fischer, Jackson Horn, Christian Hinrichs, and Christien Robins (12th Place).

Team Points -  Boys 3rd out of 58 schools
                           Girls 14th out of 54 schools

The Lutheran High Track Team is coached by Dan Bickel, assisted by Christian Nord, Chuck Pohlman, and Kurt Hinrichs.