Hays boys’ track team has field day at WAC

VanDerWege nabs Athlete of Year honor

It wasn’t so much a surprise that the Hays High boys’ won the 2023 Western Athletic Conference track and field championship, but the way they won it was certainly nothing ordinary.

So out of the normal that it left Indians’ coach Tony Crough scratching his head to figure out if he had ever experienced or seen this rare accomplishment at a track meet.

The Indians won the five-school conference meet with 128 points while Garden City was a distant second with 98.5 points. But what made this extraordinary was the fact that the Indians won all seven field events, sweeping the top three spots in two, and scored 94 of those points in those seven events.

Even more amazing was the fact that each event was won by a different HHS athlete. That’s right – seven wins, seven different athletes.

“I couldn’t remember if I’d ever seen that and I’m pretty certain that I had not,” Crough reflected. “And to have seven different kids do that is amazing. It’s a credit to how hard they work. It was cool once we realized that it was not just one guy.”

The team triumph was the third consecutive for the Indians and perhaps is a prelude to their goals of vying for the Class 5A state championship the final weekend of May in Wichita.

“We’ve had some incredible depth for a small 5A school competing against the 6A WAC schools,” Crough said. “A lot of times you’ll get swallowed up by the bigger schools’ depth, but we’ve been very fortunate with the number of kids who excel.”

In this case it was VanDerWege leading the way with his career best 6-02 high jump; Harley Zimmerman winning the pole vault at 12-06; Keamonie Archie and Kyreese Groen taking the long jump (23-01.50) and triple jump (45-02); Grayson Walburn claiming the discus (166-00), Wyatt Waddell took the javelin (175-01) and Bryce Salmans the shot put (47-02).

In the triple jump and shot put, the Indians had a sweep of the top three spots. They went 1-2-4 in the long jump. To cap off the impressive day, the Indians did just enough on the track with 34 points, to keep Garden City from having an opportunity to rally past them.

Multi-event success provides VanDerWege with WAC track award

Chason VanDerWege may not be the track athlete that is the fastest nor the one that jumps the highest or jumps the farthest in multiple track and field events.

But the Hays all-around athlete proved that he’s good enough in everything he does that it produced 19 points for the Hays Indians’ boys en route to their third consecutive league title.

He did it by winning the high jump with a personal best leap of 6-02 to claim the WAC crown. He placed second in the 200-meter dash and has a season best time of 22.48 seconds. He then placed third in the triple jump and owns a season top mark of 43-05 (career best 44-03.50 in 2022) and capped off the big day by anchoring the 4×100-meter relay that placed third in 42.99 (a season best school record of 42.52).

“I think hearing my name with the award was pretty surprising,” VanDerWege said. “I won’t lie, it’s a big confidence builder. We’ve got a lot of guys who could win this. Training for four events (and all different) is not easy, but you just have to budget your practice time to know which event needs more attention.”

His favorite event at the moment is the high jump, which he says is also his newest event to experiment with.

“I just started doing it three weeks ago and if I get my form and steps down, I think I can go 6-6 or 6-8 in the next two meets,” VanDerWege said. “In the triple jump, it’s pretty hard on your body so when I did it at the WAC it was the first time all year I competed in that one.”

VanDerWege said running the 200 meters is just an all-out race from start to finish.

“There’s no substitute for a good start and then run as fast as you can until you cross the (finish) line,” he said. “The best part of the race for me is the last 100 meters. Running the curve is something I hate, but you have to use it as kind of a slingshot and then sprint the whole thing.”

Anchoring the 4×1 relay carries extra responsibility because of the complexities of the handoff.

“You’ve got to know your teammate and watch the steps so you know when to grab the (baton) handoff without losing any momentum,” VanDerWege said.

Crough sees a multitude of events in which VanDerWege could compete if he so chose in the future.

“He could run the 800 or the 300 hurdles and be competitive,” Crough said. “He didn’t run his sophomore year, so there is just a cross-section of talent that he has that gives us flexibility in what events to put him.”

Crough had high praise for VanDerWege as highly coachable and also a good teammate.

“He’s unselfish and just a really good teammate,” Crough said. “He knows how to work hard and knows what to do that is best for the team. He’s a great young man and good to other people.”

2023 Boys Track & Field Team Standings

	TEAM	POINTS
1	Hays	128
2	Garden City	98.5
3	Dodge City	72.5
4	Liberal	45.5
5	Garden City	29

2023 Western Athletic Conference
All-Conference Boys Track & Field

EVENT	NAME	SCHOOL	MARK
100m	Jerry Arteaga	Garden City	10.77
200m	Jerry Arteaga	Garden City	22.35
400m	Daniel Amparan	Liberal	51.08
800m	Kaiden Esfeld	Great Bend	2:01.77
1600m	Devin Chappel	Garden City	4:22.53
3200m	Devin Chappel	Garden City	9:38.60
110m hurdles	Bryson Rohr	Dodge City	15.62
300m hurdles	Carter Williams	Dodge City	41.07
4x100m relay	Odir Fermin Velasquez Brody Burns Alan Chairez Jerry Arteaga	Garden City	42.53
4x400m relay	Mathew Banuelos Aparicio Isaiah Jimenez Suheyyb Mohammed Carter Williams	Dodge City	3:25.73
4x800m relay	Mathew Banuelos Aparicio Isaiah Jimenez Brandon Juarez Ramos Danny Lamas Mejia	Dodge City	8:22.94
High Jump	Chason VanDerWege	Hays	6-02
Pole Vault	Harley Zimmerman	Hays	12-06
Long Jump	Keamonie Archie	Hays	23-1.50
Triple Jump	Kyreese Groen	Hays	45-02
Discus	Grayson Walburn	Hays	166-00
Javelin	Wyatt Waddell	Hays	175-01
Shot Put	Bryce Salmans	Hays	47-02