Holt Invitational - March 30, 2024
The Holt Invitational is one of the biggest early season meets in terms of teams and number of entries. The boys division had 22 teams while the girls side had athletes from 17 different schools. On Saturday, March 30th, the 2024 Holt meet offered more than 100 heat races for their Varsity only invite. The Blue Knights ladies had a stellar day finishing in a 5th place team finish including many PRs, and 3 all-time team records. The BK Ladies finished 1 ½ point ahead of the 6th place team. Every point proved quite valuable in the team score.
The Girls relays teams this year have taken a big step forward in terms of commitment and talent. The 4 x 400 team of Tabitha Bryant, Cami Plymale, Sophia Boehlke, Faith Brown completed the 4 lap race for a BK record of 4:24.64 and a podium finish of 3rd place. The 3 other relay teams: 4 x 100 - (Cami Plymale, Sophia Boehlke, Cali Plymale, Brown) - 4 x 200 - (Cali Plymale, Lydia Boehlke, Kayla Martin, Sophia Boehlke) 4 x 800 - (Lydia Myskowski, Anna Armesto, Kiera Stiles, Bryant) all achieved the 2nd fastest times ever recorded by BK relay teams. The 4 x 800 took home the 2nd place medals as well.
Brown not only anchored two of the relay teams, but she really impressed when she took the open 400 title with a BK record of 1:02.57. She had the fastest time of any of the other 33 young ladies who entered the 400 competition. The Plymale cousins (Cami and Emery) earned points in the 400 by finishing 5th and 6th places.
Bryant added a 3rd place finish in the 800 as well her two stellar relay performances. Bryant ran a 2:34 in this first warm race of the year.
The 3200 at Holt will go down easily as the most successful race of that length for BK athletes in our brief history. Izzy Aimonette was the other gold medalist for the team winning the 3200 with a PR and BK team record of 12:19.42. Armesto and Myskowski added points in the event by finishing 4th and 6th in the furthest individual race contested on the day. Armesto achieved the 2nd best BK recorded time as well.
Aimonette and Lynn Criswell also earned a valuable point each for 8th place finishes in the High Jump and 1600. Hannah Gresham set PRs in the 100 and 300 hurdles. Coach Alan Wamsley’s positive influence in these events has been substantial for Gresham and all the hurdlers this year.
On the boys side, the BK highest finisher was James Wamsley with a 4th place finish in the 1600 with a time of 4:44.99. Reuben Anderson ran into a 7th place finish in the 3200 and Aaron Mudge rounded out the point winners for an 8th in the 200.
Freshmen Clay Muratori and Evan Adkisson set PRs in the 1600 with times of 5:13.37 and 5:15.67. These are the top 2 times ever run by BK Freshmen in the distance.
The Blue Knights will be back in action on Friday, April 5th at St. Dominic High School.
Winfield High School - March 19, 2024
The Blue Knights Track & Field HS Team opened their season in grand style at the Winfield
Early Invite. For the first time in their 6-season history, the Blue Knights Boys and Girls brought
home team trophies from the same meet. Led by the junior duo of Aaron Mudge and James
Wamsley, and senior Brandon Bryant, the Boys' team brought home the 3rd place plaque. While many
girls helped secure the 2nd place trophy, Tabby Bryant, Anna Armesto, Lynn Criswell, and Lydia
Myskowski each scored points in at least 2 events.
The historic night started with the Girls' “A” relay taking 1st in the 4 x 800 (Myskowski,
Armesto, Kiera Stiles, and Tabby). Later on in the meet, Tabby would go on to win the 800
with a time of 2:34:95. This was nearly 10 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher. Tabby
finished the evening by leading off the 4 x 400 “A” relay to a 2nd place finish. The other
members of the 4 x 400 consisted of Sophia Boehke, Criswell, and Cami Plymale.
After contributing to the 2nd place finish in the 4 x 800 relay, Armesto and Myskowski finished 2nd and 3rd in the 3200. In her HS debut, Freshman Criswell
continued her previous success in the 1600 with a first place finish and a time of 6:01:04. Izzy
Aimonette and Sonya Myskowski finished 3rd and 4th in the same 1600. Faith Brown added
much needed points for the Blue Knights with a 3rd place finish in the 300 meter hurdles.
As mentioned above, Brandon, Mudge and Wamsley all had great opening meets. Both juniors
and senior were part of BK records at Winfield. Mudge, Brandon, Michael Moore, and Caleb Gall
combined to take the 4 x 100 in a time of 47.29. This new BK standard mark broke the previous
record by nearly 2 seconds. Brandon continued his winning ways by taking the 400 meter race in
a time of 53:36. This lowered the BK record which he had set at Nationals last May.
Wamsley earned a second place finish in the 1600. With a time of 4:44:26, he set the BK record
in the event. He also anchored the 4 x 400 relay team of Brandon, Ruugan Lilly, and Nathaniel
Barton to a 1st place win. Wamsley took the baton trailing by a fair amount, but ran a 57:17
anchor leg to secure the victory for the Royal Blue.
Moore earned other individual points for the BK nation. On his 3rd attempt, Moore
crossed the High Jump bar at 1.75 meters for a 3rd place finish. Another 3rd place finisher on
the guys' side was the 4 x 800 “A” relay team. Nathan Schellman, Andrew Meyers, Ben Barfield,
and Joel Barfield. With this finish, the BK Boys were able to earn podium status in 3 of the 4
relays. It is believed this would also be a first for a BK team at a MSHSAA sponsored meet.
With such a good start to the 2024 season, the Knights will look forward to competing at Holt
Invitational on Saturday, March 30th!