Boys Track Wins Four State Championships

May 11, 2022

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Catoosa, OK - Bethany headed to the Class 4A State Track & Field Championships this past weekend and came away with the most successful state meet performance as a team in the history of Bethany High School. The Bronchos' success was led by an incredible performance as they won the State Championship in three relay event. Bethany's 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 Meter Relay teams of Jackson Clark, Taylor Heim, Aedan Hughey, and Jocelyn Malaska won state championships in both of those sprint relay events. The Bronchos also set a Class 4A State Meet Record in the 4 x 200 Meter Relay.

Bethany also won the state championship in the 4 x 400 Meter Relay. The team of Clark, Malaska, Chapman Neal, and Karter Fouts took down the top ranked team in the event, Cache, who had run four seconds faster than Bethany coming into the meet. In over 70 years of track and field history, Bethany's boys track team has never won a relay at the State Championships, and in this state meet alone they captured three titles. In addition to the relay championships, Bethany's Taylor Heim was also the State Champion in the Long Jump, jumping 21 feet, 8.5 inches. Heim, who had the best jump in the state coming into the meet, showed incredible perseverance as he sat in 6th place going into the final jump of the competition. In that final jump he passed all of the other competitors to win the state title.

In other events Bethany has success as well. Neal ran a personal record time by almost two seconds in the 800 Meter Run to finish fourth. He covered the 800 Meters in 1 minute and 58.71 seconds. Neal also ran on the 4 x 800 Meter Relay team with Fouts, Levi Johnson, and Kylar Peterson as they scored team points for the Bronchos in a 7th place finish. The Bronchos also performed well in the High Jump with Cameron Wright finishing in 3rd place at 6 feet, 2 inches and Caleb Palmer finishing in 6th place at 6 feet. 

Another huge performer for the Bronchos in the relays, Jocelyn Malaska, also had a great finish in the 100 Meter Dash as he earned 3rd place overall. Malaska came into the competition in 11th place prior to the state meet, but worked his way much higher with a fantastic 100 Meter race. The Bornchos had a great performance on the girls side by Tabitha Sparks, who was the state runner up in the 200 Meter Dash, running a time of 25.22 seconds. That time is a new Bethany High School record. Sparks also finished in 4th place in the 100 Meter Dash.

The Bronchos boys team ended up finishing in 3rd place overall in the meet, which is the highest finish in school history. Prior to this year the highest team finishes in school history was 5th place overall in both 2012 and 2014. The Bronchos also had their first ever three time state champions in Taylor Heim, Jocelyn Malaska, and Jackson Clark.