Kansas Volleyballers shining bright at state track

<p>This volleyball writer is also a track and field fanatic. I spent some time last weekend at the Missouri State Championships and saw many athletes I’ve covered over the years doing big things. I decided to take a glance at the results on the Kansas side as well. I love the Kansas State Championships because they have all classes together in my location over the course of the two days. Here are some names we recognized doing some big things last weekend. </p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="120012" first="McKenzie" last="Fairchild"]</strong></p> <p>Dominant on the court, the fields may be her sweet spot. One of the top javelin throwers in the country she didn’t disappoint winning state with a throw of 163-03. She also took home the 4A discus tossing it over 130 feet. </p> <p><strong>Chaney Barth</strong></p> <p>The Baldwin and Mavs KC player competed in the high jump and took 6th place with a jump of 4-10. </p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="119719" first="Taylin" last="Stallbaumer"]</strong></p> <p>The Topeka Seaman three-sport superstar competed well in the 100 hurdles in Class 5A. She ran a prelim time of 15.88 to qualify for the finals before running a 15.86 and finishing 5th. </p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="122210" first="Maddie" last="Schrandt"]</strong></p> <p>The Andale volleyball team had a good run last year with the before-mentioned Fairchild as a catalyst. Another key player was Schrandt who was impressive in the 4A 400m. She ran the fastest qualifying time of 58.62 before running a state winning time of 59.09 in the finals. She also showed out in the 200m finishing as the top runner in the state in 26.21.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="120015" first="Ava" last="Jones"]</strong></p> <p>Nickerson product and volleyballer [player_tooltip player_id="120015" first="Ava" last="Jones"] had a good showing at state finishing runner-up in the Class 3A high jump with a leap of 5-04.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="105655" first="Abby" last="Rose"]</strong></p> <p>The fastest prelim time in 3A came from the talented Rose, who ran a 56.73. She followed that up in the finals with a 57.86 to capture the state title.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="119708" first="Rachel" last="Van Gorp"]</strong></p> <p>The sophomore has garnered a lot of attention in the last couple of months on the volleyball court. She was equally impressive winning the Class 3A long jump touching the sand at 18-08.25. She also looked good on the track finishing in 3rd place in the 200m. She ended up 4th in the 100m finals in a time of 12.55</p> <p><strong>Jadyn Befort</strong></p> <p>Another really good volleyball player had a really good day in the pits with Befort taking second in the 5A long jump. Her best jump of the day was just under 18 feet. </p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="123123" first="Brooke" last="Hammond"]</strong></p> <p>I actually first learned of Hammond from the track many years ago and she ended up being a good volleyball player. She is running track next fall and has dominated her class over the years. She was her typical self winning the 100 in 12.41 and the 200 in 27.89</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="119724" first="Jillian" last="Huckabey"]</strong></p> <p>We didn’t even know she tossed the javelin around but besides volleyball and basketball it appears she has some talent in the field events finishing 6th with a throw of 120 feet in Class 6A</p> <p>As we shared in our Missouri piece, we are certain we’ve missed numerous tremendous athletes in this piece. As we scrolled results, particular names jumped out due to them being highlighted over the last year in volleyball stories. We apologize if we missed you and congratulations on a great spring. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p>