Seniors provide spark for Blue Springs boys track and field team in race to conference title

Members of the Blue Springs boys track and field team pour Gatorade on head
coach Joe Cusack in celebration of the teams conference title Friday night.

All season long Blue Springs boys track and field head coach Joe Cusack has heaped praise upon his seniors, and with his most prolific senior on the sidelines for all but one event during Friday’s Suburban Big Six Conference meet at Blue Springs South, they all needed to step up in a big way.

Mission accomplished.

The Wildcats needed every point they could get, edging Lee’s Summit North 171-163 for the conference title.

“Any time there was a set back someone else stepped up. We had some big-time second place finishes,” Cusack said. “All the seniors were great.”

Erron Holley was the leader of the seniors on this night with Deiondre Hall only doing the high jump, and Holley stepped up to the plate, winning both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. He earned a personal best time in the 200 at 22.04 seconds.

“Erron has been a leader all season,” Cusack said. “He didn’t win in the prelims but he wanted to make a statement in the finals.”

Added Holley, “I was scared more in the 200 since it’s a longer race and the guys with long strides pick back up on you. The Lee’s Summit North guy was picking up on me but I held him off.”

Holley was also part of the 400-meter relay team that took first with a time of 43.49. It also included senior contributor Cole Jones who helped fill in with Hall out.

“Cole Jones stepped up in the 4x100. He’s had a football injury linger this season but he’s been a class act dealing with it,” Cusack said.

Other senior standouts were Jacob Belke running in two relays, earning a point in the 400 and then running the 800 for the first time and taking third. Tyler Ray and David Johnson combined to score nine points in the discus, and even though Hall only did one event, he was still able to take second in the high jump for eight points.

Then, there were the distance runners.

Simon Belete, Stephen Mugeche and James Barnett were solid in the mile, taking third, fourth and sixth, respectively.

But it was the two-mile that put the Wildcats over the top in the second-to-last event, as the trio took first, second and third, in the same finishing order as the mile.

“It turned the meet. We were waiting for it,” Cusack said. “We knew those three guys were going to go to work on them. I’m proud of them. And they did a great job in the mile, too. They got 39 points in two events. They let me know all along they’d take care of it for us.”

It was truly a team win, as the Wildcats scored in every event and had seven events with multiple people finishing in the top 8.

“Everywhere you looked points kept coming in,” Cusack said.  

The other gold medal for Blue Springs went to junior Chris Clark in the 300 hurdles with a time of 40.04.

More key finishes went to Donte Watkins in the long jump (second), Carlos Davis in the shot put (second) with a 5 foot personal best, Eli Leavell (second) and Jacob Peister (third) in the triple jump and Danny Thompson (third) in the pole vault.

As Cusack looked back on the season to this point, he couldn’t help but be impressed with the team title and just not just due to the fact they did it with Hall’s absence in two field events, but because of how far the entire team has come since the beginning of the season.

“I saw a lot of potential but this team has far exceeded what I expected at the beginning of the season. This is a special group,” he said.

The Blue Springs South boys turned in a fourth-place performance with 83.50 points. They also had to deal with a major injury, as senior Ben Harvel hurt his hamstring during the prelims of the long jump and sat out two relays and the 300 hurdles.

“Our effort was fantastic,” South head coach Troy Harding said. “We had some things go wrong with Ben getting hurt. That was a crippling blow, but the guys responded like they needed to.”

Tyler Blair had one of two firsts for the Jaguars, winning the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.57.

“Last year my best was a 16.2 and this year I’m at a 15.2. I’m improving every meet. My hard work and patience is starting to pay off,” Blair said. “I was always nervous last year and I fell a lot. But this year I came in with so much confidence. Honestly, I credit a lot of that to Ben (Harvel). He provides so much motivation and he’s so helpful. Him and Hunter (Stoll) are great.”

Blair also took third in the 300 hurdles, which is what opened Harding’s eyes.

“It’s hard to say this but he’s been doing so well lately that I almost expected it,” Harding said of Blair’s win in the 110’s. “I was maybe more impressed with his 300. He hasn’t shown that in the 300. That was a big jump knocking almost two full seconds off.”

Sophomore Josh Watson won the other gold in the discus by throwing 151-4.

“That was huge. He’s made a lot of strides,” Harding said. “That’s the first time he’s won a big meet and it was a great time to do it.”

The 400- and 800-meter relays weren’t quite the same without Harvel, as they took second and fourth, respectively, although they still almost won the 400 in coming fifteen-hundredths of a second behind Blue Springs.

Stoll had a nice meet in the hurdles, taking second in the 300’s and third in the 110’s. Syrell Fuel took third in the high jump and Steven Sullivan was fifth in the 100 and 200.