Platte County’s biggest strength might end up being depth, and the Falcon Relays provided a perfect season-opening opportunity to put that on display.
Platte County junior Jordan Burnett takes off for his leg of the 4×200-meter relay during the Falcon Relays on Friday in the Falcon Relays at North Kansas City District Activities Complex in Kansas City.
Uniquely formatted, the meet includes all four traditional relays (4×800, 4×400, 4×200 and 4×100) plus two sprint medleys (100-100-200-400 and 200-200-400-800) and a distance medley (1,200-400-800-1,600). The Pirates won three of the seven and placed in the top four of six with 12 different runners contributing to those efforts. There were also There were also all all field events plus an open 1,600 and both hurdle races with team point awarded based on the cumulative efforts of three entrants from each team.
Final team standings were not included in the official results.
Platte County came into the season needing to rebuild quartets across the board, and coaches making decisions on how to allot entries different from a normal meet only complicates the process. However, the Pirates showed a full array of options from sprints all the way up to distance medley.
Opening the meet, Platte County’s team of senior Ryan McCoy and juniors Andrew Johnson, Kade Meinke and Connor Currence showed off potential in the 4×800. The Pirates finished in 8 minutes, 48.72 and topped second-place Park Hill South by more than 24 seconds.
McCoy brings Class 4 Missouri State Track and Field Championships experience in the event from his sophomore season, but Platte County has since moved up to Class 5. Meinke and Currence are also relatively new to track and field but combine with Johnson, an all-state cross country runner who reached Class 5 Sectional 4 competition in the 3,200 as a sophomore, to form an intriguing quartet.
Platte County sophomore Caden McGhee competes in the 300-meter hurdles during the Falcon Relays on Friday in the Falcon Relays at North Kansas City District Activities Complex in Kansas City.
The same team of McCoy (400), Johnson (1,600), Meinke (1,200) and Currence (800) also combined to win the distance medley by nearly 28 seconds, pulling away from Park Hill South and Central (St. Joseph).
More surprisingly, Platte County also closed with a win in the 4×400. The Pirates struggled in the event last year to find the right combination but used Currence, senior Aaron Cordova and sophomores Brayden Eschliman and Josh Fraker to start the season. They went 3:33.47 and easily bested Park Hill.
Cordova did not run track as a freshman at Platte County and spent the past two years pursuing club soccer before transferring back and already showing glimpses of potential in multiple events.
In fact, Cordova (200) and Eschliman (400) closed the shorter sprint medley behind senior Garrett Smith-Dean and junior Jordan Burnett in Platte County’s second-place effort in that event. Burnett, Smith-Dean, senior Cameron Wolfe and sophomore Caden McGhee were third in the 4×100 (44.82), while the Pirates’ 4×200 of Cordova, Wolfe, Burnett and freshman Jackson Goodale were fourth 1:33.02).
Platte County saw a lot of success in sprint relays during recent seasons but have mostly been completely rebuilding them due to graduation, season-ending shoulder surgery for senior Nate Walls and ongoing hamstring concerns for senior Carter Salzman currently limiting him to pole vault competition.
Despite loading up the relays, Platte County also saw success in the 1,600 with sophomore Tanner Jenks making a late push to finish fourth (5:01.80) with all three Pirates in the top eight. McGhee also continued his rapid development in hurdles, placing second in the 300s (43.72) and third in the 110s (15.80).
Platte County’s best finish in field events came from Wolfe, who placed third in the discus at 41.20 meters. The pole vault was not contested due to extremely gusty winds.
