Park Hill Boys Track
...had another quality performance last weekend at the district track meet, but the outcome was the same for the third week in a row as they placed second overall with 126 team points. Liberty, with their 144 team points, bested the Trojans like they did two weeks ago in the Park Hill Invitational. Nonetheless, Park Hill qualified an impressive 15 out of 18 events for the sectional meet this weekend at Staley. Leading them with first place finishes were Trace Norfleet in the long jump, Nick Smith in the discus and shot put, the 4x200 relay team of Burt Taylor, John Saucedo, Anthony Arens, and Quenton Noble. Also taking first was Cain Winebrenner whose burst from what was then third place towards the front of the pack on the fourth lap of the 1600 gave him a first place finish. Luke Bossert's pole vault and the 4x800 relay team of Nathan Koehler, Joseph Walton, Winebrenner, and Riley Farenholtz took away second place finishes. A host of third place finishes came from Quenton Noble in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, Devon Belew in the 400 meter dash, Dondrell Hardiman in the 300 hurdles, and the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams. Norfleet's triple jump and Walton's 800 meter dash performances were good enough for fourth place. Burt Taylor's fifth place finish in the 100 meter dash was less than a tenth of a second away from advancing to sectionals.
...advanced several athletes to the sectional track meet next week in their district performance this past weekend at Park Hill District Stadium. Stephanie Atkinson continues what has been a consistently high performing season with her second place finish in the pole vaulet. The 4x800 relay team of Brooke Bischof, Maddie Bischof, Katie Ebbrecht, and Joanna Grauberger placed second while the 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams of Daisha Battles, Marche Belcher, Onjhana Davis, and Nikki Moss placed third and fourth respectively. Marche Belcher finished third in the 300 hurdles along with Dominique Broadus's fourth place finish in the shot put. Park Hill finished eighth in the 12 team field with 51 team points.
Griffin Smith and Zack Royle placed first in the Class 2, District 15 doubles tournament and competed in the individual round of sectionals earlier this week at North Kansas City. The Panthers will compete against Park Hill in the team portion of the tournament over the weekend.
Park Hill Soccer Girls Soccer
Park Hill fell in their first round district game against Oak Park to bring a close to their season. They close their year with a 13-11 season and a second place finish in the conference to Lee's Summit West. Although the Trojans had a significant senior presence on the squad, only three saw significant playing time. Coach Manny Catano has a young, but talented team returning next year with more experience to take what had previously been a sub .500 team to the next step.
Park Hill Baseball
An exciting 3-2 victory over Liberty North in the first round of the Class 4, District 16 tournament over the weekend led Park Hill to a matchup with top seeded Liberty on Monday. Looking to defend their district title, the Trojans faced a steep task in defeating a talented and home field advantaged Blue Jays. Park Hill was given hope in their quest to pull the upset in the top of the first when their first two batters were walked before Logan Sloniker drove home Dalton Moats to give them a 1-0 lead. Their lead was short-lived though, as the good fortune Sloniker found with the bat was not equally returned on the pitching mound with Liberty racking up seven runs in the bottom of the first on the heels of Dylan Stevens's double which drove in three runs. Zach Thompson batted in two runs for the Trojans in the top of the second before adding another to narrow the margin to a 7-4 lead for the Blue Jays. That was as close as Park Hill would get though, because a pair of triples in the bottom of the fourth were the beginning of a four run inning for Liberty. They pulled even further away before closing the game with a final score of 13-4. Park Hill ends the season with a 13-13 record.
