SHOES OF GOLD

Ewing, Whitaker Earn High-Point Awards At Chillicothe Relays

Until this season, Lexi Whitaker had never competed in the 300-meter hurdles. She was an accomplished sprinter, but the idea of competing in an event with hurdles added didn’t come into play until the start of this year when Coach Chris Parks suggested adding it to Whitaker’s event schedule.
It turns out that wasn’t a bad idea.
Whitaker ran second in the 300-meter hurdles on Friday at the Joe Shy Relays in Chillicothe, doing so with a time of 48.78. That time broke a 34-year-old school record and helped Whitaker claim the Bob Carter Memorial Gold Shoe Award – given to the highest individual point-earner at the relays.
“It was an adjustment,” Whitaker said. “The first time I ran (the 300 hurdles) I was pretty nervous just trying to adjust to this. I didn’t really know a pace at all and so I got out at our first meet in Higginsville and I figured out what I was doing, really and figured out a pace. It’s different, but I really like it. I think it’s for me.”
Whitaker added first-place finishes in the high jump, another new event for her, and the 200-meter dash and was sixth in the 100-meter dash. All totaled, Whitaker garnered 31 points individually to capture the Gold Shoe, giving Trenton a sweep of the top awards as Brian Ewing netted 35 points on the boys side to earn the boys’ Gold Shoe Award.
“Overall, I was just proud of the way Lexi had a day,” Parks said. “Winning the high jump, which she hasn’t done since her freshman year, and then coming back and breaking the record in the 300-meter hurdles in just her second time in that event – it’s just very impressive.
“It’s not very often that we have both a boy and girl winning the Shoe down there and this year we had it. I was just so proud of both of them – Lexi and Brian.”
Whitaker broke the mark of Beth Breitenbutcher, who held the school record in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 48.84, setting it in 1985. The record was the second-oldest record for Trenton girls track and field.
Whitaker used a time of 27.0 to win the 200 and cleared 5-5 en route to her high jump title. In the 100-meter dash, where she placed sixth, Whitaker turned in a time of 13.34. The points added up for the junior, who places her name among the likes of De’Andre Vandevender and Chandler Wilson as THS athletes who have won the Gold Shoe at Chillicothe.
“I feel really accomplished just to be by those athletes like Chandler,” Whitaker said. “They are really good athletes and I looked up to them and wanted to be just as good as them.”
On the boys’ side, Ewing swept the open sprints, winning the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes, and was fourth in the long jump to reach his total of 35 points. Ewing won the 100 with a time of 11.31, the 200 with a time of 22.9 and the 400 with a time of 50.88. In the long jump, Ewing earned his fourth-place finish with a leap of 20-2. All marks posted by the Trenton senior were personal bests.
“He PR’d (personal record) in everything,” Trenton boys track Coach Lysander Overstreet said. “He is looking good early in the season, which gets me excited for what’s to come down the road. Last year he didn’t quite make it to state, but I think he is on pace to do something really special – not just for state, but to possibly break some school records. He is looking really good.”
The Trenton girls backed Whitaker’s big day with several other strong performances. The Bulldogs tallied 127 team points, running away with the relay title as Chillicothe’s 81 points and Maryville’s 80.5 represented second and third in the team standings. The team title was Trenton’s second in as many meets to start the season. Trenton has gone well beyond 100 points in each meet, winning the season-opener in Higginsville with 120.5 team points.
“The girls have been working really hard together,” Parks said. “All the way through our field events, through our sprinting and through our distance running, the girls are just really taking a lot of pride this year in our track program. It’s showing in the standings with the points that we are scoring.”
Trenton won three other gold medals in addition to Whitaker’s two and Kristi Ewing had a hand in all three. She was first in the 100-meter dash, wining with a time of 13.36, and the 400-meter dash, winning with a time of 1:00.71. Ewing closed the meet, combining with Lexi Gott, McKayla Blackburn and Chandler Lynch to win the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 4:24.33. Ewing’s other event was the 4×200-meter relay, where she combined with Lynch, Gott and Mykah Hurley to place third with a time of 1:54.93.
Other placewinners for the Trenton girls included Maci Moore, third in the high jump with a mark of 4-8, third in the shot put with a throw of 34-8 and fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 31-2.75; Hurley, third in the long jump with a mark of 15-3.5; Kendall Crowley, sixth in the discus with a throw of 99-10; Salem Croy, fourth in the javelin with a throw of 117-5 and eighth in the discus with a throw of 96-10; Gott, fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:07.5; Blackburn, fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:49.41; Shay Westerhof, seventh in the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.02; Sidney Lynch, seventh in the javelin with a throw of 97-10; Gracyn Rongey, sixth in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 6:25.09 and seventh in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:50.69; Katie Markell, eighth in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 15:07.61; Emma Curtis, seventh in the long jump with a mark of 14-9.25; the 4×100-meter relay team of Gott, Curtis, Hurley and Westerhof, fourth with a time of 55.14; and the 4×800-meter relay team of Gwyneth Foster, Rongey, Markell and Blackburn, fifth with a time of 11:10.61.
Trenton’s boys would finish fourth at the meet after scoring 76.5 team points. Maryville won the boys’ title, collecting 151 team points. Brookfield was second with 94.5 team points and Chillicothe placed third with 83.
Behind Ewing’s 35 points, Trenton got a gold medal performance out of Carson Burchett, who won the shot put with a throw of 48-0. Matt Sibbit had a pair of third-place finishes in the hurdle events, placing third in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.66 and third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 43.82.
Other placewinners for the Trenton boys included Jadan Whitney, fourth in the discus with a throw of 135-6; Hunter Trask, fifth in the shot put with a throw of 43-5.5; Camdyn Leeper, fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 18.52; Dylan Harris, seventh in the triple jump with a mark of 38-7 and eighth in the high jump with a mark of 5-4; Kayden Spencer, seventh in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 12:15.24; and the 4×400-meter relay team of Sibbit, Leeper, Harris and Hayden Griffin, which was seventh with a time of 3:52.35.
Trenton’s track and field teams return to action today, (Tuesday) when they travel to the Brookfield Quad. Action is scheduled to begin at 4 o’clock.