If local high school track-and-field athletes were looking for an easy medal, now is not the time.

Heck, next month’s Kansas state championships in Wichita would be a much better bet at a high placing.

High school competition begins today at the Kansas Relays with an estimated 3,300 prep athletes flocking to Hershberger Track to go up against the best talent in the region.

Lawrence High and Free State each will have many athletes competing, as will Baldwin, De Soto, Mill Valley and Ottawa. Today, 25 high school events will take place. Saturday will feature 27 more high school events, nearly all of them displaying the top athletes from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois, Nebraska, Texas and Colorado, among others.

“If you look at the national rankings, a lot of people in the top 10, and everyone from the Midwest, come here,” meet director Tim Weaver said. “They come for that competition. Their state meet is the chance for them to compete with like schools from like areas. But for a lot of teams, this is their highlight event. They get to go up against state champions from all divisions from all these surrounding states.”

A few of those state champs reside in Lawrence, notably Free State’s Samantha Frisbie and Lawrence High’s Sylvester Birdsong, each champion jumpers. Lawrence High and Free State each will bring 11 individual competitors and eight relay teams to the meet.

“The way we approach it, it’s about showing up at a big meet,” LHS coach Jerry Skakal said. “Let’s go compete, run faster than we’ve ever run, throw farther than we’ve ever thrown. Let’s see how we handle a lot of high-dollar pressure, because that’s a little bit like the state meet.”

LHS has a few high seeds, including sophomores Amy Magnuson (100 hurdles) and Scott Penny (shot, discus). Free State has high seeds in senior Lauren Abney (javelin), sophomore Alysha Valencia (1,600, 3,200) and senior Lacey Baxter (pole vault).

Additionally, the Firebirds’ boys two-mile relay team of Spencer Martin, Alex Rock, Danny Schneider and Nick Squier is seeded fifth out of 30 schools and has the fastest time in Kansas this year.

The two-day high school portion of the meet starts at 8 a.m. today with the boys javelin and girls shot put.

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