Lawrence High’s boys and girls track-and-field teams combined to finish 11th of 15 teams at the Free State Barrier Breakers Invitational on Friday at Free State, but one probably would have guessed the Lions had finished a lot higher judging by the delighted mood of LHS coach Jack Hood.

The Lions were short-handed but collected 13 top-two finishes and several personal records.

“We only brought about 30 kids to the meet, boys and girls,” Hood said. “We’ve got a lot of kids out for a variety of reasons, Showtime (choir concert) being the biggest. Of the kids we brought over here, we’ve got about 20-something PRs.”

Lawrence’s sprinters and throwers paced the Lions. Rebecca and Matia Finley swept the top two spots in the discus and shot put, and Jensen Edwards (girls 400) and JD Woods (boys 200) each picked up victories.

“That’s a PR for me,” said Woods of his time of 22.25 seconds in the 200. “Hopefully, I can get to 21 by the end of the year. I felt really good about that.”

Edwards’ day began with the victory in the 400. She went on to place second in the 200 and help the Lions’ 4×400 relay team win in 4:05.70.

“This season, my coach has been working really hard with me about getting out hard from the blocks and then just trying to keep it the whole way and kicking on the curve,” Edwards said.

Edwards was joined by Marissa Pope, Myah Yoder and Maddie Stegman on the 4×400 relay team. The victory in the last race of the meet highlighted the day for Hood.

“I was most proud of girls 4×4. We had two girls missing off our girls 4×4 that usually run it that are state champions,” Hood said. “We had to run our sixth-best 400 runner (Stegman), and she turns a great time, and our girls missed their season-best by two seconds.”

The hosting Firebirds had their fair share of top performances as well, led by senior Gabbi Dabney. Dabney collected wins in the 100 hurdles and high jump, added a second-place finish in the long jump and took fourth in the 200.

“I was really excited for hurdles because it was a great time (14.94), but I feel like I could go a lot faster,” Dabney said. “I was working more on mentality for this meet, not necessarily expecting a lot of things out of myself, but believing I could perform well.”

Kiara Clark was the only other FSHS event champion — in the the 300 hurdles — but Firebirds’ depth helped them break 61 barriers, just three shy of first-place St. Thomas Aquinas and two behind Olathe East.

The unique scoring system is enjoyable for the athletes, according to FSHS coach Jordan Rose. For each event, athletes have to hit a certain mark in order to receive a medal and earn a broken barrier for their team.

“You have something to shoot for,” Rose said. “All of the kids are really trying to hit that barrier. They’re asking all week, ‘What do I need to do to get there?'”

Free State junior Ethan Donley broke two barriers by placing third in the 800 and fifth in the 3,200. The experienced FSHS distance squad of Thomas Becker, Ryan Liston and Tanner Hockenbury helped push Donley in both events.

“If I’m having an off day, these other guys are going to step up and be right there where I should have been,” Donley said.

Free State Barrier Breakers Invitational

Friday at Free State

Barriers broken (boys and girls combined): St. Thomas Aquinas 64, Olathe East 63, Free State 61, Shawnee Heights 47, Blue Valley West 37, St. James Academy 37, Blue Valley Southwest 34, Bishop Miege 34, Shawnee Mission North 31, Washburn Rural 30, Lawrence High 25, Topeka West 22, Schlagle 11, Wyandotte 3, Trinity 1.

Free State boys top-eight placers

Javelin — 2. Tye Carter, 182-10; 8. Connor Ballenger, 141-08.

Discus — 3. Nick Hocking, 151-09.

110 hurdles – 4. Zack Sanders, 15.43; 6. Tayvien Robinson, 15.61.

100 — T-5. Khaury El-Amin, 11.18.

3200 — 4. Tanner Hockenbury, 9:50.87; 5. Ethan Donley, 9:52.37; 7. Thomas Becker, 9:56.17.

800 — 3. Ethan Donley, 2:04.12; 5. Ryan Liston, 2:04.28.

300 hurdles – 4. Zack Sanders, 41.31; 7. Tayvien Robinson, 43.66.

1600 — 7. Ryan Liston, 4:39.25.

4×400 — 2. 3:30.85.

Lawrence High boys top-eight placers

Long jump — 2. Tae Shorter, 21-06.

Triple jump — 2. Tae Shorter, 42-08.

110 hurdles — 3. Trey Moore, 15.42.

100 — 2. JD Woods, 10.92; 8. J’Mony Bryant, 11.32.

4×100 relay — 2. 43.29.

300 hurdles — 4. Trey Moore, 41.30.

200 – 1. JD Woods, 22.25; 5. J’Mony Bryant, 23.32.

Free State girls top-eight placers

Shot put — 4. Jillian Schuler, 35-07.50; 5. Hannah Walter, 33-06.00.

Discus — 3. Hannah Shoemaker, 107-11.

High jump — 1. Gabbi Dabney, 5-02.

Pole vault — 2. Callie Hicks, 11-06; 7. Avery Miller, 7-06.

Long jump — 2. Gabbi Dabney, 16-07.75.

100 hurdles — 1. Gabbi Dabney, 14.94; 2. Kiara Clark, 15.63.

100 — 7. Laura Kennard, 13.16.

3200 — 5. Kiran Cordes, 11:58.37; 8. Marlee Yost-Wolff, 12:13.38.

400 — 7. Laura Kennard, 1:02.74.

4×100 relay — 5. 52.20.

800 — 4. Emily Venters, 2:28.07.

300 hurdles — 1. Kiara Clark, 47.53.

200 — 4 Gabbi Dabney, 27.32.

Lawrence High girls top-eight placers

Shot put — 1. Rebecca Finley, 38-02.50; 2. Matia Finley, 38-01.50.

Discus — 1. Rebecca Finley, 145-02; 2. Matia Finley, 142-06; 8. Moneque Bean, 93-00.

High jump — 8. Nesreen Iskandrani, 4-10.

Pole vault — T-4. Kaytlin Reidesel, 8-06.

400 — 1. Jensen Edwards, 59.77; 2. Marissa Pope, 1:01.71.

200 — 2. Jensen Edwards, 26.84; 7. Myah Yoder, 27.51.

4×400 relay — 1. 4:05.70.