Higher competition? Singhateh clears hurdle to become state champion at Maize South
Ashley Singhateh had nothing to prove when she arrived at Maize South for her final year of high school.
She had already stamped herself as one of the best three-sport athletes in Kansas during her time at Eureka, where she was a star volleyball and basketball player and also a four-time state champion on the track.
But the ultra-competitor in Singhateh convinced herself she had to prove herself all over again.
“A lot of people think Class 3A is a way easier division,” said Singhateh, who moved up to Class 5A at Maize South. “I wanted to show I could do it at a higher level too.”
By the end of her senior year, Singhateh left no doubt her status as one of the state’s best athletes — regardless of level — is secured.
After playing a role in the front row for Maize South’s program-best volleyball team, which won 38 games and took third place at the state tournament, Singhateh averaged 18.1 points, 4.4 assists and 3.7 steals to lead the Mavericks’ girls basketball team to its first appearance in a state championship game. She was named a Top-5 player in the state, the Class 5A Player of the Year and the All-Metro Player of the Year by The Eagle.
And to top it off, Singhateh successfully doubled up as state champion in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles in Class 5A on May 25 at the Kansas high school state track and field meet — just like she had done the previous two years in Class 3A.
“I feel like God put me in Maize South for a reason and I’m incredibly happy with how my senior year went,” said Singhateh, who is signed to play college basketball at Butler Community College. “It was definitely a very fulfilling year.”
While Singhateh played a complimentary role for the volleyball team, she blossomed in an enhanced role for the girls basketball team during the winter.
Maize South girls basketball coach Ben Hamilton said Singhateh immediately earned the respect from her new teammates and left even him, who was familiar with her success at Eureka, impressed.
“I knew she was good, but Ashley absolutely became one of the best players I’ve ever coached,” Hamilton said. “I’ve coached guys and girls and her passing ability is hands down the best I’ve ever seen. You pair that with her athleticism and you’ve got a pretty scary combination.”
That athleticism was on full display this spring on the track, although it took her some time to knock the rust off early in the season. In fact, the future double state champion only won one of her first six hurdles races of the season.
While the step-up in competition provided an early wake-up call, attending a 5A school also had an advantage: a designated hurdles coach. Singhateh credits her improvement this season in part to working closely with Maddie Noble, a former Maize South star hurdler and recent graduate of Washburn.
“I’ve never really had a specialized hurdles coach before, so that was really nice,” Singhateh said. “Coach Maddie helped me so much with technical things to help me get over the hurdle faster in both of my races. That really helped me improve my times.”
Singhateh has the make-up of an elite hurdler, beginning with her straight-line speed that was evident by a second-place finish at the state meet in the open 100-meter dash in a time of 12.08 seconds. Throw in a relatively tall frame at 5-foot-8 and improved technical skills going over the hurdles from her work with Noble and Singhateh was unbeatable in the hurdles by the time May rolled around.
She clocked in with a career-best time of 14.32 seconds in the 100 hurdles and 44.13 seconds in the 300 hurdles on May 10 at the AV-CTL Division I meet, where she became a four-time league champion by adding gold medals in the open 100-meter dash and as anchor of Maize South’s 400-meter relay.
Singhateh saved her best for last, ripping off another career-best time of 43.13 seconds in the 300 hurdles at the state meet to shatter the 25-year-old Class 5A record of 43.34 set by Goddard’s Sharlee Beiter in 1999.
“Ashley is just extremely fast with her straight foot speed,” Noble said. “And then she’s just very aggressive out of the blocks and over the hurdles. So when you combine that over eight hurdles, it just adds up because she has it all.”
“That was incredible because I’ve never run that fast before,” Singhateh added. “I really focused on running fast in between the hurdles. I feel like that’s what makes a big difference in the (300 hurdles) race.”
Just like her performances at the 3A state meet, Singhateh was dominant in 5A, where she won the 100 hurdles title by four tenths of a second in a time of 14.50 and she cleared the field in the 300 hurdles by more than a full second. She also placed runner-up in the open 100 in a season-best time of 12.08 seconds, then teamed up with her sister, Aliyah, Jillian Gregory and Amaya Garcia to anchor Maize South’s 400 relay team for another silver medal with a time of 48.74.
Even after all of her success, Singhateh admitted to feeling the nerves ahead of what could be her final track race (she said she could be persuaded to continue hurdling in college at Butler).
“I get nervous before every race, I can’t help it,” Singhateh said with a laugh. “But I think in the end, those nerves helped me kick into gear and end with a crazy PR.”
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