Tigers host Alex Francis Classic

Story by MAYAN PAZ Photos by PARKER NISBETH, DANIEL LITTLE, and MAX BOWYER

Tiger Media Network

On a cold and blustery day, FHSU hosted the annual Alex Francis Classic at the FHSU Track and Field complex. This was an opportunity for the athletes to compete in front of the home fans and for the seniors to get recognized by the team. The meet was initially planned for Thursday, but was moved to Friday due to concerns about the weather. Unfortunately, the weather still wasn’t ideal for the athletes, and some visiting teams cancelled their appearance, but the Tigers still produced some quality performances. 

Head Coach Jason McCullough highlighted some of the performances, especially of Toby Wahlmeier in the 100 and the 200-meter races. Wahlmeier clocked 10.38 in the 100-meter dash and 20.74 seconds in the 200 meters, winning both events and placing himself 11th nationally. 

“Today was just a tune-up for conference, but we did have some really solid performances. Toby had a great 200 and 100, and we also had some other good marks throughout the day. So it was a pretty good tune-up for the weather we had,” McCullough said. “To have a really good performance, we probably have to have some warmer weather and less wind, but it was a good effort by all the athletes.” 

In the 100 meters, Eddie McVay and Avery Albright also impressed, running 10.55 and 10.53 seconds, respectively. Albright also added a solid run in the 200-meter race, clocking a time of 21.40 seconds. In other events,  Nakari Morrical-Palmer set a new personal best in the 400 meters, running a time of 47.52 seconds, and climbed to the fifth spot on the FHSU all-time performance list. In the field events, the most impressive performance came from Dean Clark in the long jump, producing a wind-aided jump of 7.23 meters. 

On the women’s side, Annabeth Baalmann won the pole vault competition with a jump of 4.06 meters, and Emma Slade continued her standout season in the discus throw, throwing 47.03 meters to finish first. On the track, Reba Mader had a solo run over the 400-meter hurdles, almost equaling her personal best time of 1:02.48.

At the end of the meet, the Tiger seniors were recognized for their contribution to the program with a gift from the coaches and a standing ovation from the team. McCullough said it’s an opportunity to thank the seniors leaving. 

“I just wanted to say a thank you to all the seniors, because they put in a lot of time with us, and they’ve sacrificed a lot, so that’s why we want to honor them a little bit today,” he said. “It’s unfortunate to move the meet because there’s going to be fewer people here, but really, I want them to be honored in front of their teammates and possibly their parents.” 

This senior class had some All-Americans who will graduate in a few weeks. Jacob Clark, Nolan Churchman, and Hayden Albright have all contributed to the team in their years at Fort Hays with awards and excellence. Clark said it was important for him to have this last year with some new athletes on the team.

“I know they look up to me,” he said, “and it felt good to be able to help the younger athletes develop before I leave this place.”

With the seniors leaving, the track program needs to find new names to fill out the empty spots, and according to McCullough, the next recruiting class is meant to do exactly that.

“Coach Meyer and I have been recruiting super hard this year, and we currently have 46 incoming students, 46 incoming athletes. So we have a huge recruiting class, and some of them are phenomenal. So I think this is just kind of a rebuilding time for us,” he said.

The team now moves on and will compete at the MIAA championships at Emporia this weekend.