By MARSHALL MOORE

Garden City Track Video

Click Photo to Purchase Photo Reprints!

Click Photo to Purchase Photo Reprints!

Click Photo to Purchase Photo Reprints!

mmoore@gctelegram.com

For a few rounds, Scott Duesing was in a battle.

Just after clearing 14 feet with relative ease, the Garden City High School pole vaulter watched as Toby Boese, his final competitor from Dodge City, tied the Red Demons' school record by clearing the same height with little difficulty. As the crew raised the bar to 14-6, a crowd gathered around the event prepared for a showdown.

Then, Duesing raised the bar yet again.

The Buffaloes junior got the better of his rival, clearing 14-6. The vault set a new personal record for Duesing as he took first in the pole vault, helping Garden City's boys track team to a second-place finish at their lone home invitational of the year Tuesday at Memorial Stadium. The Buffaloes finished with 89 points, which followed Dodge City's 156. Scott City and Great Bend tied for third with 85 points.

Duesing attempted to break the school record of 15-1 1/2 in his final attempt, nearly clearing the bar on his second jump.

"I've done 15 in practice a couple times, but it's just so exhilarating," Duesing said. "(Boese) and I go at it almost every meet. We just push each other hard."

Duesing also finished second in the triple jump and third in the long jump.

The Buffaloes' 3,200-meter relay team of Erik Chester, Ismael Arteaga, Logan Schultz and Josh Stewart also took first, clocking a time of 8:20.09 to finish three seconds ahead of second place Dodge City despite lingering fatigue from Friday's meet at Salina.

"We don't really even have our legs underneath us after running on Friday," Buffaloes coach Mike Smith said. "I think our 4x800 is capable of getting down to 8:10 and maybe even 8:05. We just have to do it at the right time."

The Lady Buffaloes finished in sixth place with 51 points --¬ five points behind fifth place Colby and just one point ahead of seventh place Ulysses.

Lexi Josserand, Chinwe Ekweariri, Regan Hill and Audrey Seibert each posted third place individual finishes for Garden City. Josserand ran a 50.6 in the 300 hurdles, while Ekweariri took third in the 100 with a time of 13.77. Hill grabbed third in the shot put while Siebert cleared 8-6 to finish just behind Janelle Mason and Margo Sattler from Scott City in the pole vault.

Tuesday's meet was the first time Siebert has finished outside of the top two in the pole vault this season.

"Audrey has hit a little bit of a plateau," Smith said. "Once she gets 9 feet, she'll be fine. That happens in every event, you shoot for a distance or height and it's tough, but once you get it, it's like getting over a mental block."

Scott City finished third in both the boys and girls team standings, using a wealth of points from Mason and Chance Chelemedos to climb the leaderboard.

Mason took second in both the 800 and the pole vault while running on the Beavers' first place 400 and 800 relay teams.

On the boys side, Chelemedos took first in high jump, clearing 6-4, while setting a personal record 44-1 1/2 to win the triple jump. The Scott City senior also took second in the long jump.

"We've worked pretty hard this year, and we're pretty determined to do well at state this year," Chelemedos said. "This is some of the best competition we've seen. Being a 3A school and going up against all these 6A schools, I really like it because it gives us someone else to look at and challenge us."

Calvin Hughes also took first in the Javelin for the Beavers while Trace Kendrick won the 3,200 with time of a 9:38.34. Margo Sattler won the girls pole vault, beating teammate Mason at 9-feet to give the Beavers a one-two finish in the event.

In addition to their seventh place finish in the girls standings, Ulysses finished seventh with 31 points on the boys side with the aid of a first place finish by Michael Morales in the discus.

Morales set a personal record with a throw of 164-6 to beat out Joe Bach from Liberal by nearly two feet.

"I just go out there and try to focus on my own effort," Morales said. "It was my best throw on the year, but not by much."

Janni Meierhoff captured the Tigers' only other first place finish, winning the 3.200 with a time of 12:44.52. Jared Stringhman finished second in the shot at 46-9, while Brandi Moral, Brittney Moral, Meierhoff and Jennifer Long took second in the 1,600 relay with a time of 4:12.53.

------------

See full area results on B2