DeSoto sophomore Ellie Sheridan keeps a good pace against Free State's Kyra Kilwien in the girls' 4 X 880 yard relay.

After two days and more than a dozen different races, the Free State High track team learned one thing about its make-up this weekend: The Firebirds have a fistful of talented relay runners.

For the second straight day, it was a Free State relay team that highlighted the city’s efforts at the Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium, as Drue Davis, Susan Wilson, Chloe Porter and Libby Wiebe teamed together to finish ninth (4:30.57) in the girls sprint medley.

“We just work really well as a team and we all have a lot of fun running for each other,” Wiebe said.

The sprint medley was broken down into four legs of three different distances. Davis and Wilson each ran 200 meters, Porter ran 400 meters and Wiebe was left to handle the 800-meter anchor leg.

By traditional track standards, 800 meters hardly is considered a sprint. But in the spirit of the name, Wiebe did her best to comply.

“I tried,” she said. “But I definitely wasn’t sprinting the whole time.”

The girls sprint medley team was one of four FSHS relays to place in the Top 20 on Saturday. Wiebe was part of two of them, as she also joined Rachel Schaeffer, Hayley Francis and Kyra Kilwein to finish 12th in the 4×800 relay (10:16.68).

In addition, the boys 4×800 team — JD Wiebe, Harrison Scheib, Logan Sloan and Nash Riggins — took 19th (8:33.72) and the boys 4×400 team — Keene Niemack, Chase Hoag, JD Wiebe and Riggins — took third in the Sunflower Showdown in a season-best 3:27.35.

Free State coach Steve Heffernan said the team’s relay success was the result of the program’s emphasis on total team preparation.

“It kind of goes back to the philosophy that we try to work with all the kids all the time,” Heffernan said. “And, as a result, we can usually put together some pretty good relay teams because we have so many hard-working kids.”

Lawrence High also enjoyed its share of relay success on Saturday. The girls sprint medley team of Kianti Vann, Emily Davidson, Asia Thomas-Kimble and Alexis Scheibler finished in 20th place in 4:44.05. The girls 4×400 relay — Davidson, Scheibler, Thomas-Kimble and Shelby Clark — finished fourth in the Sunflower Showdown (4:14.97).

In individual action Saturday, Free State’s Logan Sloan and Lawrence High’s Roy Wedge dug in for the mile in similar positions.

Starting on the outside edge of their respective 20-man heats, Sloan and Wedge chose different routes to start their race. Sloan, who finished 30th in 4:43.48, immediately dove for the inside lane, cutting off four or five competitors before the first turn. Wedge, meanwhile (19th place, 4:32.18) chose to stay wide all the way through the first turn.

Both said their decision was based more on instincts than intent and both said the start had little bearing on how the rest of the race played out.

Heffernan agreed.

“You either make up your mind that you’re going to go to the back and work your way up or you’re going to dive for that center lane,” Heffernan said.

Earlier in the day, LHS senior Chebon Dawes missed out on qualifying for the finals in a throwing event for the second straight day. After finishing 15th in the shot put on Friday, Dawes took 16th in the discus on Saturday with a top throw of 137 feet, 9 inches.

Despite coming up short in his two events this weekend, Dawes walked away from the Relays with a great sense of pride.

“I kind of look at this as a big stepping stone for state and the rest of the season,” Dawes said. “Just being here was pretty cool. I can always tell people that I competed at the KU Relays. Some guys never even get to come here.”