Central Heights Vikings Make Their Mark at the Kansas State Track & Field Championships

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The Kansas State Championships is already the state’s largest high school track and field meet. This year, it grew even bigger. With entry fields expanding to 18 participants per event, over 4,400 athletes competed over two grueling days.

Among that massive crowd was a young, determined squad from Central Heights. Sending a team composed of just two freshmen, five sophomores, one junior, and two seniors, the Vikings proved they belonged among the best in Class 2A.

Battling Heat, Humidity, and Adversity

The conditions in Wichita were less than ideal for distance runners. A brutal combination of heat and humidity caused many athletes to collapse across the two-day event, but Central Heights pushed through.

Josiah Meyer entered the state meet ranked 8th overall in the 3,200-meter run. Despite battling a knee injury that kept him from running for nearly 10 days leading up to the event, Meyer fought through eight grueling laps. He secured a 6th-place medal with a season-best time of 10:17.19, just seconds shy of his personal record.

Meyer also gained valuable experience in the 1,600-meter run. Running on tired legs after already competing in two podium-finishing races, he placed 16th (4:52.83). With many of the runners finishing ahead of him graduating this year, Meyer’s future on the track looks incredibly bright.

Record-Breaking Relays

The Vikings’ relay teams delivered some of the weekend’s most exciting moments.

On Saturday, the Girls 4×800-meter relay team—Ebony Hughes, Lily Burkdoll, Makenzie Moon, and Katelyn Burkdoll—crushed their own school record by over six seconds. Their time of 10:24.19 earned them 11th place in a deeply competitive 2A field. Even more promising for Central Heights is that this young core could have two more years to run together.

The Boys 4×800-meter relay team (Aidan Howland, Hunter Johnson, Ben Wuertz, and Josiah Meyer) capped off a season of massive improvement. The squad knocked an incredible 51 seconds off their first meet time of the season to finish in 8th place (8:33.59) and earn All-State honors.

The Boys 4×400-meter relay team also gained valuable experience, qualifying for the state meet for the second consecutive year. Featuring only one true sprinter in Mathew Dunbar, distance runners Aidan, Hunter, and Ben stepped up to help the foursome reach the qualifying heats.

A Memorable Finale for a Senior Leader

There might not have been a more fitting way to close out the meet than senior Aidan Howland’s performance in the 800-meter run.

After fully converting from a 400-meter specialist to an 800-meter runner just a week earlier, Howland ran a brilliant tactical race. He held his position for 700 meters before hammering home an eight-second personal record of 2:03.41 to secure an 8th-place medal.

However, his celebration was put on hold. Just 10 minutes before Howland was scheduled to stand on the podium for his final high school race, mother nature intervened. Thunderstorms forced a stadium evacuation. After nearly two hours of waiting, the stadium reopened, and Howland was finally able to take his well-deserved spot on the podium alongside the best half-milers in 2A.

Carving Names into the Record Books

Reflecting on the weekend, the coaching staff expressed immense pride in a team that refused to get lost in the shuffle of a massive state meet.

“During this weekend, the Central Heights Vikings Track & Field team showed up, showed out, and carved their names so deeply into the record books that they will always be honored and remembered for their successes and efforts.”

Central Heights Official State Results

Boys Results

Girls Results