Jackson Heights Track Preview

The Jackson Heights Cobra track team is returning five of six state qualifying participants from last season.

One of the five returning state track qualifiers is sophomore Faith Little who a season ago was the Kansas Class 2A state champion in both the 800-meter run and the 1,600-meter run.

Cobra head coach Brad Alley is on his second season at Jackson Heights after spending eight years as a coach at Royal Valley.

Helping coach Alley with the JHHS track team this season are assistant coaches Caleb Wick, Greg Nilges, Gary Keehn, Denise Visocsky and Lyle Alley.

The JH girls track team placed third in the Northeast Kansas League last season behind Jefferson County North (first) and Maur Hill-Mount Acadey (second).

Meanwhile, the JH boys team finished in second place last season, trailing league champ JCN by just one point.

The Cobras had two athletes break school track records last season.

Little broke the school and Northeast Kansas League meet records in the 1.600-meter run with a time of 5:25.96 and was also the league champion.

Little set the NEK League meet record in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:24.49 and was also the league champion in that event.

Karley Dieckmann, as a freshman last year, broke the JHHS school record in the pole vault, competing at the Royal Valley meet, with a height of 7 feet.

Jackson Heights graduate Westin Jacobsen (a Cobra senior last year) also set a NEK League meet record in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.99 and was also a NEK League champion in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and the boys 4x400-meter relay along with Mason Hamilton, Jason Parker and Dalton Chartier. The team got ninth at the state meet. Hamilton is a senior this year.

The Cobras had six total athletes and teams qualify for the state meet last year.

*Little qualified for the 800-meter run, the 1600-meter run and the girls 4x400-meter relay along with Abby Williams (as a sophomore last year), Dieckmann and Trinity McMahon (as a freshman last year). The team got third at the state meet.

*Wyatt Olberding (as a junior last year) got second at the state meet in the triple jump and Abby Williams also went to state in the high jump.

The Cobras are returning 10 letterwinners from a season ago and they are as follows: Mason Hamilton – sprints, Wyatt Olberding – triple jump, Mark Mavrovich (a senior this year) – long distance, Dalton Chartier – mid-distance, Evan Fox – pole vault, Jason Parker – sprints and jumps, Abby Williams (a junior this year) – high jump, Curtis Niehues (a sophomore this year) – throws, Karley Dieckmann – pole vault and sprints and Sydney Raborn (a sophomore this year) - Javelin.

“The girls team will be young and our numbers aren’t great, but the quality is there to compete at each meet as a team,” coach Alley said.

Coach Alley listed the following newcomers to the team this season – Jodi White (sprints), Kylie Dohl (long sprints/middle distance), MaKenzie Kennedy (distance running), Abby Brey (throws), AJ Mock (distance), Cable Wareham (hurdles), Carson Williams (throws), Trey Manuel (throws), Riley Watkins (throws) and Grace Roles (throws).