Wichita ? Scott Penny would have given anything to dream late Thursday night.

Instead, he lay wide awake in a Wichita hotel room thinking about the book he’s currently reading. And his snoring roommate. And the small matter of waking up early Friday morning for his final day of competition as a high school athlete.

“I’ve never had insomnia before,” Penny said. “I was in bed about 9:45 and not able to get to sleep until 3.”

Fast forward 24 hours, and he found himself with plenty of dream material. But he didn’t want this day to end.

The Lawrence High senior showed no ill effects from his restless slumber, capping his stellar throwing career with two gold medals Friday to lead a bountiful opening day of competition by the Lions’ field participants at the Kansas State High School Championships.

Penny did his first bit of work outside the Cessna Stadium gates, winning the Class 6A boys discus before the thunderheads that battered the area overnight even had a chance to fully disperse.

Some five hours later, he made himself at home at the south end of stadium, winning his second consecutive boys shot put gold to end his LHS tenure with three trips to the top step of the medals stand.

“It’s probably like trying to choose who’s your favorite parent,” said Penny when asked which of his three golds meant the most. “Last year was just such a great victory. I got second in the discus and I was hungry.”

He turned that motivation into a throw of 165 feet, 2 inches, winning this year’s event by more than two feet.

His appetite for repeating in the shot put was more immediate. Despite his status as the defending champ, Penny entered this year’s state meet as the No. 3 seed based on his performance during last week’s regional meet in Olathe.

He wasted little time dispelling his role as an underdog, unleashing a winning mark of 56-113â4 on his final throw of the preliminaries.

“It’s just kind of the, ‘How do you respond when someone’s pushing on you?'” Penny said. “I just try to respond, and fortunately, it worked out.”

In fact, Friday couldn’t have shaken out much better for the Lions.

Just prior to Penny’s shot put win, teammate Liz Beisner thrilled the same throng of LHS faithful with her own golden moment in the high jump pit.

Like the regional meet, Beisner joined Free State’s Emma Brooke and Brooke Carter in the final four. However, the wrinkle this time around was Beisner’s name atop the list, courtesy of her personal-best leap of 5-4 on her third and final crack at the height.

“I was really nervous before,” said Beisner, apparently afflicted with the same bug that bothered her gold-medal brother. “I just kept thinking, ‘This is my senior year. I might as well go out with a bang.'”

By virtue of being the only jumper to clear 5-4, she got a little extra bang for her buck. The sole focus of the fans’ attention, she had the pit to herself and three cracks at clearing 5-6 and setting a school record.

“It was weird because I’ve never done that before,” Beisner said. “It’s a great way to end my career at Lawrence High and hopefully contribute to getting a (team) trophy Saturday night.”

That’s a very real possibility on both sides of the gender ledger.

In addition to Penny, the LHS boys – dubbed by coach Scott Stidham his “field and track team” – secured a third-place finish by Brian Houle in the javelin, a tie for fourth by Brendan Halpin in the pole vault and a sixth by Uliti Fangupo in the shot put, earning 311â2 team points.

The girls weren’t far behind thanks to their rainbow of Beisner’s gold, a silver from Amy Magnuson in the long jump and a bronze by Magnuson in the triple jump – good for a combined total of 24 points.

“We had a lot of good things happen for us,” Stidham said. “They found a way to score every point they could because they care about Lawrence High track, and they want to do everything they can for us.”

Then again, the feel-good field events weren’t confined to just one Lawrence school. The Free State girls also find themselves on solid footing in the team standings with 18 points courtesy of Brooke’s silver in the high jump and Carter’s twosome of bronze in the long jump and fourth place in the high jump.

“On the girls side we needed to have a good start in the field events,” said Free State coach Steve Heffernan, who was indeed rewarded with the best first-day performance in the program’s relatively brief nine-year history. “It just shows we’re making improvements in field events over the years.”

– High school sports editor Scott Tittrington can be reached at 832-7227.