Louisburg junior Chelsea Morland heaves the javelin during Thursday’s Frontier League meet in Spring Hill. Morland won the event with a throw of 126 feet, which set a personal and a meet record. (Andy Brown / andybrown@miconews.com)
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Morland saves the best for last at league
Junior throws personal best, breaks Frontier meet record
By Andy Brown, andybrown@miconews.com
Chelsea Morland had the throw of her javelin career Thursday during the Frontier League meet at Spring Hill.
Her throw of 126 feet not only was a personal best, but it was plenty long enough to grab her first league title. In the process, the Louisburg junior also broke Osawatomie’s Jessica Jones’ new javelin Frontier League meet record of 125-1.
“It felt really great,” Morland said. “The first throw I threw quite a bit shorter than I had the last meet, so I was getting a little worried. But then I threw a little better after that, then I threw 126 in the finals, and it was pretty exciting.
“It felt like everything just clicked.”
Everything did click for Morland, who won the competition by more than six feet over Baldwin’s Courtney Harris. Halfway through the competition, Morland threw 123 feet, which tied her previous personal mark, and she had just enough in her final throw of the day for a few more feet.
Morland is hoping for even more in the weeks to come.
“(Javelin coach Greg) Darrington and I both agreed that 130 feet would be a good goal,” Morland said. “If I reach that, there would be a great chance for me to go to state. I am really pumped about that.”
Morland wasn’t the only league champion for the Wildcats, who finished fourth in the team standings with 84 points. At about the same time, freshman Colleen O’Brien was busy working on her title in the high jump.
O’Brien cleared 5 feet 4 inches to win the competition and nearly went 5-6. With all the competitors out of the way, O’Brien decided to try the higher mark and almost cleared. O’Brien has already cleared 5-8 this season and has one of the top jumps in the state.
Teammate Mackenzie Eveland finished third in the event after clearing 5 feet, while Cassie O’Brien took seventh.
Junior Sarah Abu-Ali earned a silver in the shot put with a toss of 33-6.75, and fellow junior Abbey Frazier took third in the discus with a mark of 109-7. Gentry Griffin also medaled in seventh place in the discus.
Sophomore Jaclyn Abrahamian picked up two medals in the long and triple jumps. Abrahamian took third in the long jump with a leap of 14-8 and sixth in the triple with a mark of 31-1. Colleen O’Brien was seventh in the triple.
Sophomore Emily Bergman outdueled teammate Gwen Baumgardner in the pole vault after Bergman cleared 8-6 to take sixth, and Baumgardner finished seventh.
On the track, senior Jessica Shiney turned in a three-medal performance, including a second-place finish in the 400-meter dash. Shiney earned the silver in 1 minute, 1.73 seconds and later finished fifth in the 200-meter dash and seventh in the 100-meter dash.
Morland also medaled in both hurdle events, along with the javelin. She finished fifth in the 300-meter hurdles in 51.59 seconds and seventh in the 100 hurdles. Teammate Rachael Nordquist took sixth in the 100 hurdles.
Distance runner Kaitlin Wertz medaled in sixth place in the 3,200-meter run, and Ashton Bergh took seventh in the 1,600-meter run.
The 4x400-meter relay team finished fourth with a time of 4:22.78, and the 4x100-meter relay team took fifth in 53.22 seconds.
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Her throw of 126 feet not only was a personal best, but it was plenty long enough to grab her first league title. In the process, the Louisburg junior also broke Osawatomie’s Jessica Jones’ new javelin Frontier League meet record of 125-1.
“It felt really great,” Morland said. “The first throw I threw quite a bit shorter than I had the last meet, so I was getting a little worried. But then I threw a little better after that, then I threw 126 in the finals, and it was pretty exciting.
“It felt like everything just clicked.”
Everything did click for Morland, who won the competition by more than six feet over Baldwin’s Courtney Harris. Halfway through the competition, Morland threw 123 feet, which tied her previous personal mark, and she had just enough in her final throw of the day for a few more feet.
Morland is hoping for even more in the weeks to come.
“(Javelin coach Greg) Darrington and I both agreed that 130 feet would be a good goal,” Morland said. “If I reach that, there would be a great chance for me to go to state. I am really pumped about that.”
Morland wasn’t the only league champion for the Wildcats, who finished fourth in the team standings with 84 points. At about the same time, freshman Colleen O’Brien was busy working on her title in the high jump.
O’Brien cleared 5 feet 4 inches to win the competition and nearly went 5-6. With all the competitors out of the way, O’Brien decided to try the higher mark and almost cleared. O’Brien has already cleared 5-8 this season and has one of the top jumps in the state.
Teammate Mackenzie Eveland finished third in the event after clearing 5 feet, while Cassie O’Brien took seventh.
Junior Sarah Abu-Ali earned a silver in the shot put with a toss of 33-6.75, and fellow junior Abbey Frazier took third in the discus with a mark of 109-7. Gentry Griffin also medaled in seventh place in the discus.
Sophomore Jaclyn Abrahamian picked up two medals in the long and triple jumps. Abrahamian took third in the long jump with a leap of 14-8 and sixth in the triple with a mark of 31-1. Colleen O’Brien was seventh in the triple.
Sophomore Emily Bergman outdueled teammate Gwen Baumgardner in the pole vault after Bergman cleared 8-6 to take sixth, and Baumgardner finished seventh.
On the track, senior Jessica Shiney turned in a three-medal performance, including a second-place finish in the 400-meter dash. Shiney earned the silver in 1 minute, 1.73 seconds and later finished fifth in the 200-meter dash and seventh in the 100-meter dash.
Morland also medaled in both hurdle events, along with the javelin. She finished fifth in the 300-meter hurdles in 51.59 seconds and seventh in the 100 hurdles. Teammate Rachael Nordquist took sixth in the 100 hurdles.
Distance runner Kaitlin Wertz medaled in sixth place in the 3,200-meter run, and Ashton Bergh took seventh in the 1,600-meter run.
The 4x400-meter relay team finished fourth with a time of 4:22.78, and the 4x100-meter relay team took fifth in 53.22 seconds.