Underwood, Smith, Ickes Lead MCHS At Pitt State

Connor Underwood won the 1600 meter run to lead the McDonald County boys while Courtni Smith and Nicole Ickes placed in multiple events to lead the girls at the Jock's Nitch/PSU Relays held Friday at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan.

Facing some of the toughest competition they will see all year while attending one of the Midwest's most elite meets, Underwood, Smith and Ickes easily had their best performances of the year.

Underwood was trailing Derek Pigsley, of Grove High School by 20 to 30 meters entering the stretch drive before the McDonald County junior out-kicked the leader to win in a time of 4:46.07 while Pigsley settled for second in 4:46.40.

McDonald County's only other points in the boys division came from Donavon Hadley who took seventh in the discus with a throw of 124-7.

The Mustangs totaled 12 team points to take 18th in a field of 25 teams. Lee's Summit North won the meet with 113 points with Wichita Southeast finishing second with 102 points.

Girls Division

Smith had a second, a third and a fifth while Ickes added two thirds and a sixth to lead the Lady Mustangs to a seventh place finish in the team race with 41 points. Pittsburg won the girls division with 92.5 points to beat Ozark with 78 points.

Smith was second in the triple jump with a leap of 35-6. Chelsea Baker jumped 35-8.5 to win the event. In the long jump, Smith had a best of 16-2 for third. Breanna Eckles, of Wichita Southeast, set a new meet record of 18-9.5 to win the event. Smith added a fifth in the high jump with a leap of 5-2. Grove's Emilee Iverson cleared 5-8 for the win.

Ickes was third in the 100 (13.31) and 300 hurdles (50.08) and sixth in the 100 hurdles (17.57).

Dakota Bunch took sixth in the 400 (1:06.23) to account for the Lady Mustangs' other points.

McDonald County's next meet is April 17 at the East Newton Relays at East Newton High School.

Sports on 04/17/2014