Benninghoff finally, officially takes down school record that stood for 43 years

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — Platte County cleared new bars and quickly negotiated literal hurdles in Saturday’s Class 5 Sectional 4 meet.

In the end, only of three returning state qualifiers earned a repeat trip with senior Adi Benninghoff removing any potential future asterisk with an emphatic school record while winning the 100-meter hurdles race in impressive fashion, while juniors Maggie Wagner (third, 300-meter hurdles) and Adi Kern (fourth, pole vault) both set PRs to earn debuts. All three compete in this weekend’s Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships looking to add more individual medals to the Pirates’ recent collection.

Prior to Saturday, Jan Herndon had held Platte County’s school record in the 100 hurdles since posting a time of 14.93 in 1983.

Benninghoff continually threatened the mark the past two years. She placed eighth at state as a junior in 14.95 but had not gone back under 15 seconds since the final two weekends of last season.

That changed Saturday when Benninghoff easily outraced the sectional field in 14.67 despite clipping at least one — and possibly two — hurdles in the race. Still, she easily beat St. Teresa’s Academy sophomore and runnerup Sah’Kyra Williams (15.08) to the line.

Benninghoff already held a claim to the school record in the era of fully automated timing (FAT) because handheld marks generally require an adjustment of rounding to the nearest tenth of a second and adding 0.24.

Now a three-time state qualifier in the 100 hurdles, Benninghoff previously didn’t advance out of preliminaries as a sophomore before claiming the last finals spot as a junior and then ending up eighth.

Wagner — oddly Platte County’s first state qualifier not named Adi/Addy since 2024 — competed in a team-high three events Saturday but only advanced in one. She lowered her career-best time in the 300 hurdles for the third time in a span of four starts.

In this race, Wagner emerged as part of a clear top three and ultimately ended up third in 46.12. That shaved nearly a second off of her third-place district time of 47.02 after previously going 48.17 in the Ken Peek Invitational.

Kern ended up part of a three-way tie in pole vault at 3.15 meters in what ended up a redemptive finish. She also qualified for sectionals as a freshman but didn’t record a height at districts last year in an unexpected conclusion to her postseason.

Lee’s Summit West senior Miller Wood (3.45 meters) and Lee’s Summit North senior Maeliana Stanfield (3.25 meters) claimed the top two spots on Saturday, but Kern ended up in the middle of tiebreaker criteria, behind third-place Liberty North junior Emily Barner and fifth-place Park Hill junior Emma Richei.

A lingering leg injury kept Kern to just one event at districts, and she placed second at 3.05 meters to advance to sectionals. She continually hit that mark this season but went over 3.15 meters on her second attempt Saturday to account for her new PR.

Last season, Platte County’s lone state qualifiers were Benninghoff and Addy Schlake (seventh-place, discus).

Platte County went into Saturday with a chance to drastically increase the number of state qualifiers but didn’t place any of three competing relays in the top four. The 4×800 ended up the final career race for senior Addie Ayers while the meet-ending 4×400 did the same for fellow seniors Emily Huehl and Madelyn Stewart.

In the 4×800, Platte County fell off of a blistering pace early and out of contention for a state spot before the baton went to Ayers — a state qualifier in the event as a freshman and sophomore — and freshman Mary Dellinger. The Pirates ultimately finished sixth in 10:07.06 — well off a season-best of 9:50.23 from this year’s home meet.

However, Blue Springs ended up fifth in 9:40.45, while the four state qualifying teams were all 9:31 or better.

The 4×400 saw Wagner run the lead leg with Stewart, Huehl and Dellinger following and combining to also come in sixth. This group didn’t have many starts together but ran a season-best of 4:03.95, also at the Platte County Invitational, and would’ve needed to better that by nearly 4 full seconds to finish in the top four on Saturday.

Platte County’s only two relays to reach state since moving up to Class 5 were the 2023 and 2024 4×800 team with Ayers on both. The latter season resulted in a sixth-place finish with a school-record time of 9:27.83.

An all-state performer in Kansas at Class 1A Wakefield as a sophomore, Huehl became a key contributor with Ayers the past two years in both the 4×800 and then emerging as part of the breakthrough 4×400 team. Stewart enjoyed the best season of her career while running middle distance, and Dellinger became a breakout performer despite splitting time between soccer and track.

Platte County’s best shot at a relay qualifier appeared to be the 4×100 with Benninghoff and fellow senior Rylee Carr and Wagner and fellow junior Vanessa Sarpong seemingly in contention until a mistimed final handoff. The Pirates ended up seventh in 50.09 with Park Hill disqualified.

The group combined to set and improved Platte County’s school record twice in recent weeks, culminating with a a 49.87 at districts the previous week.

Carr’s season came to an end after the race, having placed seventh earlier in the long jump at 5.01 meters. She entered with the No. 2-seeded distance from Districts 7 and 8 at 5.35 meters — third-best in program history — but didn’t fare well in her four finals-only attempts.

Platte County junior Kelly Bullano set a season-best of 39.52 meters in the morning javelin but ended up sixth in an extremely competitive field. She qualified for state and set a school record of 41.55 meters to place fifth in Class 5 as a freshman.

Bullano finished fifth at sectionals as a sophomore, and her sixth-place mark Saturday easily bettered her previous season-best of 36.72 from districts. She went over 39 feet for the first time since the third meet of 2025 and just the fourth time in her career.