Moment of the Year: Cheney standout owns high school track's biggest stage
Varsity Kansas has introduced a new series, Moment of the Year. The series will highlight the top moment or performance from the 2017-18 high school sports season for each of the Wichita-area schools. And now, the Cheney Cardinals.
At an event that demands stars, she wore stripes.
Cheney's Layne Needham came into the 2018 Kansas high school track and field meet as one of the favorites in several events, but even with high expectations, she seemingly exceeded them.
Needham competed in four events at the largest high school track meet in America, earned team points for the Cardinals in all of them and came home as a two-time state champion. Just a junior, Needham won the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, finished third in the 200-meter dash and eighth in the 100. And each event presented different challenges from the field.
In the 100 hurdles, Needham won her first state title with a 15.34-second sprint. She crossed the line just three hundreths of a second of Sterling's Taya Wilson.
The 300 hurdles, her best event, came more easily. Needham came into state with the fourth fastest time in Kansas and proved it wasn't a fluke with a 45.68-second run for her second championship. She cruised past Chaparral's Sophie Francis, who finished at 46.16 seconds.
Needham had top 25 times in four events, including the 400 meters, which she didn't run. The 200 meters was not her strongest event. She came in with the No. 21 time in Kansas, but at state, she finished third in Class 3A.
She cross at 26.43 seconds, less than four tenths behind a third title.
Needham finished her state meet with 27 team points after an eighth-place finish in the 100 meters. She had 68.4 percent of the Cardinals' points and helped Cheney to a top four finish for the second straight year.
Other key moments
- Cheney's volleyball team finishes runner-up at the 3A tournament. The Cardinals beat Nemaha Central in straight games and fell 2-1 against Hays-TMP in the championship match.
- The Cardinals boys basketball team comes third in 3A after a 23-3 record. Cheney beat Perry-Lecompton in the quarterfinals, lost to Phillipsburg in the semis and topped Maur Hill in the third-place game.
- Cheney's football team reaches the 3A sectionals and finishes with a 9-3 record. Cardinals beat their first two opponents by a combined 104-8. First sectional appearance in more than eight years.
- The Cardinals' baseball team wins regional title at its home stadium. Cheney beat Hesston and Haven to reach the 3A tournament. It was the second state appearance in three years.
- Cheney's softball team wins a regional tournament with an 8-1 victory over Belle Plaine. Cardinals entered state tournament as No. 2 seed at 20-3.
Read other schools' moments
This story was originally published June 21, 2018 at 11:42 AM with the headline "Moment of the Year: Cheney standout owns high school track's biggest stage."