Harvel, Hall lead area boys track and field teams

There won’t be many times during the regular season that Blue Springs South’s Ben Harvel will be challenged in the 300-meter hurdles.

But Friday wasn’t one of those days.

Facing off against last year’s Class 3 state champion, Dapo Akinmoladun of Grandview, Harvel – who was the Class 4 runner-up a year ago – was at his best. The senior broke the meet record, finishing in 38.4 seconds in winning gold. 

“I really like running against Dapo,” Harvel said. “It makes me bump it up a notch. It’s great to run against guys that push you. I think my conditioning allowed me to challenge for the win.”

Blue Springs South's Ben Harvel, right, and
Grandview's Dapo Akinmoladun run
between hurdles during the 300-meter event
during Friday's Rusty Hodge Invitational at
Blue Springs South. 

Akinmoladun took a page out of Harvel’s book to start the race by going out fast.

“He came out hard this time,” Harvel said. “I had to play catch up.”

That conditioning Harvel talked about proved to be the edge he needed, as he works toward the state title he fell short of a season ago.

“Right now it’s just important to compete, to have that will to win,” Harvel said of his early-season focus.

Harvel was also strong in the long jump, setting a personal best of 22 feet, 4 1/2 inch to take second, as South placed sixth with 51 points. Besting him in the event was Blue Springs’ Deiondre Hall (22-11 3/4), who also won the triple jump with a new personal best (45-8 1/2) and took second in the high jump (6-6), leading the Wildcats to second place. 

“He’s very, very competitive,” Wildcats head coach Joe Cusack said of Hall. “He wants to win, win, win in those three events.”

The past two years the Blue Springs track and field team has relied heavily on a veteran. In 2010 it was Jordan Dodd and last year it was Jayce Thomas. This year, Hall is stepping up his game after a strong junior season.

“He’s stepping into those senior shoes,” Cusack said. “He’ll get on his teammates when he has to. He’s a better leader than he has been in the past. The team feeds off of his competitive fire and performance.”

Cusack was also pleased with his distance runners, as three runners did well in the mile and two-mile, led by Simon Belete taking second in the mile at 4:29.31. James Barnett was right behind him in third place. Freshman Stephen Mugeche was fifth in the two-mile.

Jacob Belke ran a nice split in the 3,200-meter relay, which placed second, and also earned points in the 800 by taking fourth. The 1,600 relay closed out the meet by taking second.

Erron Holley was the leader in the sprints, taking second in the 200 and third in the 100.

“We like where he is right now,” Cusack said.

Chris Clark recovered from nearly falling in the 300 hurdles to tie for third to round out the Wildcats' top three finishes. 

The Jaguars also had a good day in the sprints, especially from their 400-meter relay team of Trey Irvin, Dylan Hernandez, Harvel and Steven Sullivan, as they took first and broke the 43-second mark at 42.71.

Hernandez was also strong in the triple jump, taking third, Josh Watson took fifth in the discus and the 1,600-meter relay took fourth.

As expected, the 16-team meet posed plenty of challenges for both squads in the early part of the season.

“We know this is a high-powered meet,” Cusack said. “But this isn’t where we are going to end up. We just wanted a nice showing tonight.”