35th Annual Jock’s Nitch/PSU Gorilla Relays 2024

The El Dorado Springs track team loaded the bus on Friday, April 5 to head to Pittsburg, KS for the 35th Annual Jock’s Nitch/PSU Gorilla Relays 2024.  This is a pretty decent size track meet with schools from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas attending.  The weather ended up being pretty nice, in the upper 60’s to low 70’s with little wind.  Overall, a great day for competition. 

On the girls side, Sophomore, McKinli Mays finished 4th in the 400 m. dash with a season best time of 1:00.37 and then finished 2nd in the triple jump with a jump of 34’8.25”.  Junior Audrey Goatley, finished 6th in the 1600 m. run with a season best time of 5:39.83 and then went on to finish 5th in the 3200 m. run with a season best time of 12:20.45.  Kalen Post finished 8th in the 100 m. Hurdles with a season best time of 17.36.  Braylie Steward finished 6th in the 300 m. hurdles with a personal best time of 49.62, which broke the school record of 50.34, previously held by Candace Fortney.  The 4 x 400 m. Relay, consisting of Tatum Quinlan, Braylie Steward, Lainey Dody and McKinli Mays finished 7th with a time of 4:24.54.  The 4 x 800 m. Relay, consisting of Tatum Quinlan, Audrey Goatley, Christian Steuck and McKinli Mays  finished 3rd with a time of 10:28.20.  Overall the girls competed well and several that didn’t score in the top 8 still had personal best or season best performances.  We handled ourselves well with top caliber competition and in the end, ended up finishing 8th place as a team out of 37 teams.

On the boys side, Junior Justin Brown led the way, finishing 1st in the 100 m. dash with a time of 10.92, then turned around and finished 3rd in the 200 m. dash with a time of 22.37.  Junior, Will Seitz won the 400 m.dash with a Personal Best time of 51.06, breaking a record time of 51.27 held by DJ Bland since 2006.  Freshman Wyatt Klaiber finished 4th in the 1600 m. run with a Personal Best time of 4:26, and then followed that up with a 4th place finish in the 3200 m. run, with a Personal Best time of 9:48.  The 4 x 400 m. Relay team, consisting of Justin Brown, Wyatt Klaiber, Braxton Watts and Will Seitz, finished 5th with a time of 3:33.35.  The 4 x 800 m. Relay team, consisting of Logan Fisk, Wyatt Klaiber, Braxton Watts and Will Seitz finished  3rd with a time of 8:28.41.  Just like the girls, the boys competed really well and held their own against really good competition and in the end the boys team ended up 6th as a team out of 37 teams.

Overall, this was a great day, with numerous Personal Best or Season Best Performances, along with two school records broken.