By Chris Parker
If Friday was a good day for the Barton family, then Saturday was a great day.
Liberal sister’s Abby and Ally Barton combined with Bailey Couch and Taylor Swarnes to sweep the 3200- and 1600-meter relays for the Bulldogs.
The quartet got the Saturday track events going with a win in the 4×800 relay.
Liberal came through the first 800-meter split in eighth place. The Bulldogs moved up to second place when it was time for Abby Barton, a former 1600-meter run state champion, to take the baton. She was dominant on her third leg running a 2:26.55, which was seven seconds faster than any other third leg and 10 seconds better than all but one other third leg.
She moved Liberal all the way up to first place going into the last leg where the senior handed off to her freshman sister Ally, who won the 800 and 1600-meter runs on Friday.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE MEET
“I knew if I gave it to her (Ally) with any bit of a chance she was going to chase anybody down and crush it,” Abby Barton said.
Crush it is exactly what Ally Barton did.
Barton posted a 2:23.06 on the final leg to secure the championship in a time of 10:00.95. The Barton sisters turned a one-second deficit into a 10-second victory in just 1600 meters.
Liberal set a lineup with the goal to get progressively faster on each leg. It was a strategy that proved to be wildly effective.
“We decided that we had two veteran runners in the 800, so we want to put them last; they know how to race. We had two girls who hardly ever run the 800 before and they went out and killed it. We knew they were strong mentally,” Abby Barton said.
The quartet came back for the last event, winning the 1600-meter relay in a time of 4:09.09. Abby Barton got the chance to hand off to her sister and share the top of the podium with her teammates and sister one more time.
“This is better (than an individual state title). 100-percent, Abby Barton said. “It is so awesome to share with my teammates, especially my sister. I have been waiting three years to do it with her. I love training with her every day and having somebody else to push me.”
Ally Barton finished with four gold medals helping Liberal score 40 points in the team competition. Abby Barton finished fourth in the 800 for five more points. Libby Stebbins, Taylor Swarnes, Ellaina LaNear and Baily Couch came together to finish eighth in the 400-meter relay to score one point while Swarnes placed eighth in the open 400 for another point.
That all added up to 47 total points and a fourth-place finish as a team.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL RESULTS OF THE GIRLS MEET
Dora’s Nold defends state titles
Last year, Dora junior Cade Nold was a bit of an unknown coming into the state meet.
This year, after sweeping the 400 and 800 as a sophomore, Nold was the hunted.
“There is always someone out there. Every year someone new is up there competing. It is still a race, but my confidence was definitely higher than it was last year. I am getting faster, but so is everybody else,” Nold said.
Get faster he did.
Nold came out in the 400 and dominated setting a new meet record in the event with a time of 49.15 to win the race by a full second over Appleton City’s Preston Anderson.
He came back just a few events later ready to defend his 800-meter title.
While the result of the 400 was never really in question, the same cannot be said for the 800.
“There was a little (doubt). I didn’t execute the first 200 as I was hoping to,” Nold said. “I was hoping to get up front. I had to make a move to get to where I needed to be. That wasn’t technically the plan. I was a little worried coming through in the middle of the pack.”
Nold came through the first 400 sitting in fifth place with a split of 59.28. He broke out of that box in a big way by running a 57.77 on his second lap to pull away for a victory in a time of 1:57.04. That was almost two seconds better than runner-up Michael Parrigon who ran 1:59.03.
Appleton City boys close meet with first gold
The Appleton City boys had scored points in five different events entering the 1600-meter relay final, but none of those five events yielded a gold medal.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL RESULTS OF THE BOYS MEET
The quartet of Hayden Bock, Landon Oehring, Michael Smith and Preston Anderson changed that with a time of 3:27.12 to win the final event of the meet. Anderson threw down an anchor split of 49.26 to secure the championship.
Hermitage boys place fourth as a team
The Hermitage boys used their depth to secure a fourth place trophy as a team on Saturday. The Hornets did not win any events, but they scored in eight of them.
On Friday, Bennett Mantooth, Jaxon Wheeler, DeJuan Chambers and Justus Yates finished runner-up in the 3200-meter relay. Yates (sixth) and Wheeler (seventh) also scored points in the 3200-meter run on Friday.
On Saturday, Chambers placed seventh in the 400 and sixth in the 800 while Mantooth also placed two times individually in the 300-meter hurdles and high jump. Yates placed sixth in the 1600-meter run to round out the individual scoring.
That left the 1600-meter relay with Hermitage sitting tied for fourth with Rich Hill. The math was simple, beat Rich Hill and get a team trophy. Lose Rich Hill and get no trophy.
Chambers, Mantooth and Yates along with Gabriel Montejo came together to run a 3:31.03 to place fourth overall and beat Rich Hill by just over a second to secure the team trophy.
