Bill Knust/Sun NewsPark Hill High senior Andre McDonald completes his victory in the preliminaries of the 110-meter hurdles at the Class 4 District 8 meet on Saturday, May 10 at Blue Springs High School.
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FOUR FOR FOUR
McDonald suffers injury during high jump
By Bill Knust
Things were going really well for Park Hill High’s Andre McDonald at the Class 4 District 8 track meet.
McDonald had uncorked a 23-foot, 10-inch long jump to win that competition, breezed through the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.15 seconds, and needed to clear just one height to win the high jump.
However, the day took a turn during the latter portion of the high jump. As the only athlete left, McDonald was trying to clear 6-8 when he felt something not right about his knee.
“The trainer said I strained my IT band,” McDonald said. “I came over to the triple jump and took two jumps. I hit 45 feet, 2.5 inches and that put me in first after the preliminaries, so I just scratched the rest of the jumps. I wanted to rest and make sure I don’t injure myself any more.”
The jump ended up good enough for second place. Liberty’s D.C. Okonta jumped 45 feet, 3 inches in the finals to beat him. The injury did leave McDonald a little worried heading into the sectional meet at Lee’s Summit North on Saturday, May 17.
“It is hurting while I am walking right now, but I think I will be fine,” McDonald said. “I probably won’t practice that much this week, but I will be ready for sectionals.”
Before the injury, McDonald had not been pushed very much at the meet. In the 110 hurdles, McDonald got out to a lead and never relinquished it. In the long jump, he led after the preliminaries and then erased any doubt of someone catching him with his first jump in the finals.
“I feel like my performance was pretty good,” he said. “I wanted to break 24 feet, but 23 feet, 10 inches is pretty good. My hurdle time I was looking to go sub-14, but 14.1 is pretty good. I am OK with that.”
It is the 110-meter hurdles that McDonald is looking forward to the most this weekend. He is eager to get back at Blue Springs South’s Keyen Porter after Porter knocked him off at the KU Relays. There has also been a little trash talking from Porter’s side as well. McDonald tries not to get too caught up in that, though.
“I got kind of thrown off my race, so I am looking forward to getting back at him,” McDonald said. “There is a little bit of talk going on, but I don’t mind it. I try to show it on the track; I don’t really talk much.”
Trojans have good day at the track
While McDonald was busy racking up his medals, his teammates were putting up good marks of their own.
Teammate Trace Norfleet will join McDonald in the long jump at sectionals. He finished third overall. Norfleet also advanced to sectionals in the triple jump. His distance of 44-0 ½ outdistanced Park Hill South’s Josh Scott by 1 1/4 inches.
In other field events, shot putter Nick Smith finished third, and in the discus, Jeremy Woolfolk was runner-up.
In the relay events, the Trojans finished fourth in the 3,200 to advance to sectionals with a time of 8:31.71. While not a relay distance specialist, Kevin McKee qualified for sectionals in the mile and two-mile events. McKee was runner-up to Oak Park’s Will Hansen in the 1,600, and finished fourth in the 3,200.
Adrien Esaw rounded out the individual qualifiers with a fourth-place finish in the 300 hurdles.
On the girls side, the Trojans were able to advance their 400 relay team of Helena Hudson, Rayci Lee, Chantal Perry and Kelsey Dietrich. They edged out Oak Park by nine-hundredths of a second. Kate Skorjia also advanced in the 400 with a time of 1:03.66.
Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or billknust@npgco.com.
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McDonald had uncorked a 23-foot, 10-inch long jump to win that competition, breezed through the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.15 seconds, and needed to clear just one height to win the high jump.
However, the day took a turn during the latter portion of the high jump. As the only athlete left, McDonald was trying to clear 6-8 when he felt something not right about his knee.
“The trainer said I strained my IT band,” McDonald said. “I came over to the triple jump and took two jumps. I hit 45 feet, 2.5 inches and that put me in first after the preliminaries, so I just scratched the rest of the jumps. I wanted to rest and make sure I don’t injure myself any more.”
The jump ended up good enough for second place. Liberty’s D.C. Okonta jumped 45 feet, 3 inches in the finals to beat him. The injury did leave McDonald a little worried heading into the sectional meet at Lee’s Summit North on Saturday, May 17.
“It is hurting while I am walking right now, but I think I will be fine,” McDonald said. “I probably won’t practice that much this week, but I will be ready for sectionals.”
Before the injury, McDonald had not been pushed very much at the meet. In the 110 hurdles, McDonald got out to a lead and never relinquished it. In the long jump, he led after the preliminaries and then erased any doubt of someone catching him with his first jump in the finals.
“I feel like my performance was pretty good,” he said. “I wanted to break 24 feet, but 23 feet, 10 inches is pretty good. My hurdle time I was looking to go sub-14, but 14.1 is pretty good. I am OK with that.”
It is the 110-meter hurdles that McDonald is looking forward to the most this weekend. He is eager to get back at Blue Springs South’s Keyen Porter after Porter knocked him off at the KU Relays. There has also been a little trash talking from Porter’s side as well. McDonald tries not to get too caught up in that, though.
“I got kind of thrown off my race, so I am looking forward to getting back at him,” McDonald said. “There is a little bit of talk going on, but I don’t mind it. I try to show it on the track; I don’t really talk much.”
Trojans have good day at the track
While McDonald was busy racking up his medals, his teammates were putting up good marks of their own.
Teammate Trace Norfleet will join McDonald in the long jump at sectionals. He finished third overall. Norfleet also advanced to sectionals in the triple jump. His distance of 44-0 ½ outdistanced Park Hill South’s Josh Scott by 1 1/4 inches.
In other field events, shot putter Nick Smith finished third, and in the discus, Jeremy Woolfolk was runner-up.
In the relay events, the Trojans finished fourth in the 3,200 to advance to sectionals with a time of 8:31.71. While not a relay distance specialist, Kevin McKee qualified for sectionals in the mile and two-mile events. McKee was runner-up to Oak Park’s Will Hansen in the 1,600, and finished fourth in the 3,200.
Adrien Esaw rounded out the individual qualifiers with a fourth-place finish in the 300 hurdles.
On the girls side, the Trojans were able to advance their 400 relay team of Helena Hudson, Rayci Lee, Chantal Perry and Kelsey Dietrich. They edged out Oak Park by nine-hundredths of a second. Kate Skorjia also advanced in the 400 with a time of 1:03.66.
Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or billknust@npgco.com.