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| Carbajo runs her race to state medal in 3,200-meters |
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| Sports | |||
| Written by Gene Morris | |||
| Wednesday, 03 June 2009 08:00 | |||
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WICHITA — Running her own race and trusting in herself, Spring Hill High School junior Kelsey Carbajo captured the last Class 4A state medal in the 3,200-meter run Friday evening. In the process Carbajo scored the lone state point for the Broncos.
 Ashley Schoenhofer, a freshman, qualified for state in the 1,600-meter run and placed 10th.
Jeanette Ngu, a foreign exchange student from Hamburg, Germany, went to state in the long jump and placed 15th. Carbajo found herself in a very fast field in the 3,200-meters and was quickly left near the middle of the pack. “I started out to run at my own pace,” Carbajo said. “Coach (Brent) Smitheran has always preached to me to run my own race. It was like I could see his face and hear him saying, ‘Don’t worry about them, run your race,’ and that’s what I did. “I just kept at my pace and started passing people every lap,” she said. “There were people cheering for me at every turn. They were chanting ‘One more and you medal.’ It was just great.” Carbajo passed that one more person and placed seventh, winning a Class 4A state track and field medal. She crossed the finish line with a personal record time of 12 minutes, 22.86 seconds. In the first 400 meters, it looked like the pack was going to run away from her. Carbajo stuck to the plan. She ran a time of 1 minute, 30 seconds in the first 400 meters. More than a dozen runners in front of her went out at a 1:20 pace to open the race. Carbajo started out in 14th place at the end of the first lap. She would pass seven girls in the final seven laps to run down her state track and field medal. She has always loved to run, but it has never come easy for Carbajo. She was sidelined with shin splints as a seventh-grader and has had to battle through injuries ever since. A talented softball player, it would have been easy for Carbajo to stop running and focus on softball. Instead, she decided the pain would not win. Even having to endure evenings with ice on her legs, Carbajo would not give in. Now, five years after she began running for the Spring Hill Middle School Chieftains, Carbajo is a state track and field medalist. “You know, I think it says a lot about her to fight through it and keep running,” her father Tom Carbajo said. “Ten years down the road, she will look at that medal and know how hard it was to achieve that.” She had her moment on the medal stand Friday evening, during the first day of the two-day state track and field competition. Even when she had it in her hand, Carbajo had trouble taking it all in. “I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It was awesome.” Schoenhofer found herself in the same position Carbajo was to start the 1,600-meter run. One lap into the four-lap race, Schoenhofer was in 14th place. By the end of the second lap, she had passed three people to move into 11th place. Schoenhofer finished the race in 5:41.83 for 10th place. “Ashley and Kelsey both finished higher than what they were seated in the state meet,” Spring Hill coach Brad Reinking said. “Anytime you can go to state and place higher than expected, you have made a great achievement.” Ngu came into the track and field season with high expectations, but she never would have guessed she would qualify for state — at least not in the long jump. She ran the hurdles in Germany, but two races into the season Ngu had a thigh injury and began trying other events. Eventually, she found her event. She took up the long jump and the triple jump. Ngu placed third in the regional in the long jump and qualified for state. She went 13 feet, 8.5 inches on her first attempt in the preliminaries. Ngu added to that with a mark of 14-6.25 on her second attempt. She went 13-11.75 on her third attempt. The mark of 14-6.25 placed her 15th in the state.
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Comments (1)
Janel Carbajo: ...
Kelsey--That Gene is Out and About Again.. Just want to Congratulate you on the State Medal, you earned last Friday. It was a great joy for me to attend and watch you compete. You have worked hard to achieve the 7th place in the 3200 Class 4-A State Track & Field Event. Keep up the good work. Love you, Grams
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June 05, 2009
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