Flurry Of Fours

   Saturday was moving day at the 2009 State Track and Field Meet at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium, and the Dodge High Red Demons did most of their damage on day two.
    A string of fourth-place finishes Saturday gave the Demons a 21st-place end to the state meet on the boys' side and 20th place overall on the girls' side.
    Graduating senior Toby Boese put up 7.5 of the boys team's 11.5 total meet points in his two individual events: the pole vault and the 300-meter hurdles. Boese placed fourth in the low hurdles and tied for fourth in the vault with his leap over the bar at 13 feet, six inches.
    Blue Valley North's Landon Rosevar won the state championship in the vault with a jump of 14 feet, six inches, a height that Boese reached over two weeks ago at the Western Athletic Conference meet at Memorial Stadium. That jump gave Boese a Dodge High school record.
    "I didn't really have the best preparation time coming into the state meet, with my back injury," Boese said after he missed his third vault attempt at 14 feet. "I was kind of limited in what I could do in practice. Other than that, I thought I competed well — it just wasn't one of my best performances."
    The tie for fourth gave the Demons 3.5 points, but Boese got a full four points after his fourth-place run in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.80 seconds.
    Boese also ran the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay for the Demons, which gave Dodge its final four points of the meet by placing fourth in the final event of the day.
    Taggart Ketron, Boese, Trevor Otterstein and anchor Joe Butcher teamed up for a run of 3:23.91 in the finals. The team from Maize won the event, with a time of 3:18.46.
    The only member of the Red Demon girls team to place in an event on day two was graduating senior Courtney Brady, who placed fourth in the 400-meter dash. The run at state was just her sixth at a meet in the 400, but Brady still managed to improve on her fifth seed coming into the race.
    "She's been here before, and she knows how the sprints work," said DCHS coach Justin Burke. "I think she was excited to get to run in that race because it combines speed with guts, and she ran a good race."
    Brady added: "It's bittersweet that this is the last race for me to go out on. I'm really proud of myself. I can't believe I got fourth."
    The four points Brady earned for DCHS matched Friday's total from Sophie Shaull's sixth-place finish in the triple jump, Lauren Marshall's seventh-place performance in the pole vault and Erin Sughroue's seventh-place high jump.
     Shaull also competed in the girls long jump Saturday and earned a 12th-place finish in the event finals with a jump of 15 feet, 3 3/4 inches.
    Other Dodge City competitors at the state meet on day two included Emily Durler and Rebecca Oberly in the discus throw, who placed 13th and 14th respectively.
    DCHS sophomore Kierra Johnson placed sixth in her heat of the 100-meter dash Saturday, with a time of 12.96 seconds, and did not make the finals. One the boys' side, senior Shane Graves placed sixth in his 100-meter heat with a time of 11.64 seconds.
    "It was a solid season," Burke said. "The girls had a great season throughout. Maybe they wanted to be able to do a little more at state, but with all the talent that assembles there each year, it's fun to watch our kids compete."