How Dru Zeka’s hidden power became a 4-gold Kansas state track masterpiece
Before Dru Zeka became the most decorated track and field athlete in Wellington history, before the nine individual state championships, before the school records and the gold medals and the growing case that she is one of the best all-around athletes in Kansas, there was just her and a barbell.
During the pandemic, when everything was shut down and there was nowhere to go, the Zeka family found a routine in their home gym in Wellington.
Colby and Anne Zeka, both former college athletes, had always been into fitness. Colby played football at Hutchinson Community College. Anne played basketball at Barton. Working out was already part of the family rhythm, but during the pandemic, it became something more.
Their three daughters joined them. Dru was an 11-year-old in sixth grade when she began learning Olympic weightlifting.
“We didn’t have anything else to do,” Colby said. “So we were working out, lifting weights, just having fun with it.”
Olympic weightlifting consists of two competitive lifts: the snatch and the clean and jerk. In the snatch, the bar moves from the floor to overhead in one motion. In the clean and jerk, the bar moves from the floor to the shoulders, then from the shoulders overhead.
No one was mapping out state championships in the 400-meter dash, high jump, long jump or 100-meter hurdles. They were just lifting, learning and competing because it was something the family enjoyed doing together.
“Nobody was thinking about state medals at that time at all,” Anne said. “Colby and I have always been into working out and it’s just something we’ve always done as a family. So it wasn’t like, ‘Let’s do this so you’ll be a four-time state champ.’ That was never on the radar.”
But looking back now, it is easy to see what was being built.
Zeka may look long and lanky on the track, but there is a powerful base underneath. Years of lifting gave her strength, balance, speed and body control. It gave her the force to leave the ground in the jumps, the coordination to attack hurdles and the power to hold form down the final straightaway of the 400.
“Immensely,” Dru said, when asked how much lifting has shaped her athleticism. “I really do think that’s the reason I am explosive.”
Colby had become fascinated with teaching young athletes Olympic weightlifting. He ran MGP Strength in Wellington, worked with a mentor, studied film and analyzed technique. He believed there was a window where young athletes could build a foundation that would pay off later.
“I learned this from someone that the golden age of strength training is before puberty,” Colby said. “It’s hard to know how much of this she was just born with, but you’ve got to take what they’ve been born with and then maximize it. So when they hit puberty, it’s like someone gives them a giant nitro boost and they just take off.”
That is what happened with Dru.
The weight room did not just make her stronger. It taught her how to perform under pressure. Long before she was walking onto a track with state championships at stake, she was walking up to a bar with a personal record waiting.
One lift. One attempt. One moment to execute.
“Olympic weightlifting is just two lifts, but those lifts combined are incredible at producing several great factors for athletes,” Colby said. “They hit on balance, strength and speed. And then there are the mental challenges that it brings. It’s like shooting free throws or hitting a golf ball. I think she’s benefitted from that a lot too.”
The work never felt forced, Anne said. As Dru grew older, she fell in love with lifting, nutrition and training. Colby would research ways to tailor workouts to what she needed, but the desire had to come from Dru.
“Dru does it all without complaining,” Anne said. “She doesn’t do it because anybody makes her. It’s because she wants to do it.”
That foundation has helped turn Zeka into one of the best all-around athletes in Kansas.
Oh yeah, and she still considers herself a basketball player first. The 5-foot-10 guard was named a second-team all-state player in Class 4A this season and also helped the Crusaders win the first girls basketball state championship in program history in 2025.
On the track, though, Zeka has already entered rare territory.
The Wellington junior completed one of the most impressive individual performances in Kansas high school track and field this spring, winning four Class 4A state championships in four individual events (high jump, long jump, 100 hurdles, 400) at the state meet in Wichita on May 29-30.
Four events. Four gold medals.
“It’s a big deal just to be part of the state,” Wellington coach Tim Lira said. “So for her to not only get on the medal stand four times, but to be the best at what she’s doing with the time crunch she faced, it’s just an unreal achievement.”
Zeka already had built a remarkable resume before this season.
Last year, she went 3 for 3 at state, winning the 400, high jump and long jump. She is now a three-time state champion in the 400 and high jump. She owns school records in the 400, long jump and high jump, while she was also part of Wellington’s school-record 400 relay team in 2025.
But this spring was different.
Last year, Wellington used Zeka on the 400 relay team that placed seventh at state. This year, the Crusaders pulled her out of the relay and gave her a new challenge: chase four individual gold medals.
“I knew once they took me out of the relay, I had expectations of doing good in my other solo event,” Dru said. “So that’s what pushed me to do good, just thinking of all of the people that have helped me.”
The new event was the 100 hurdles, something Zeka had not done since middle school. She picked it up quickly enough that it looked like she had been hurdling all along.
The choice was not as simple as picking her next-best event. Lira, a five-time state champion sprinter at Wellington from 2001-03, believed Zeka might have been capable of winning another gold in several events, including the 200 or 300 hurdles.
But the state schedule mattered.
The 100 hurdles came first on the track Friday. That allowed Zeka to run a short preliminary race, then move quickly into the long jump. If everything worked, she could conserve enough energy for the 400 preliminaries and the high jump later that day.
The plan worked best if Zeka delivered a big long jump early. She did exactly that.
On her final attempt in the preliminaries, Zeka soared 19 feet even. It was shorter than her winning mark of 19-0¾ from last year, but this year’s 19-foot jump was wind legal, making it the official Class 4A state record.
More importantly, it gave her control of the event.
Zeka scratched all three of her attempts in the finals, meaning she needed only three tries at the state meet to win the state championship. Still, she had to watch the rest of the field try to catch her while she saved her legs for everything else.
“I knew that I needed to pop one off before I had to go run the 400,” Dru said. “So I was just happy to get that one out there, but it was kind of stressful watching the other girls go when I was scratching my other jumps.”
No one caught her.
Then Zeka won the high jump at 5-8, adding a second gold medal on a Friday that required as much strategy as strength. The 100 hurdles preliminaries, long jump, 400 preliminaries and high jump all stacked on top of one another. Every decision was made with the next event in mind.
By Saturday, the hardest logistical part was over. Zeka had two races left, separated by six hours.
She won the 100 hurdles in 15.27 seconds with Wellington sophomore Vivienne Wright finishing second to give the Crusaders a 1-2 finish. Wright, who also placed seventh in the high jump, sees up close why Zeka’s success keeps stacking up.
“She definitely works really hard and puts in the work,” Wright said. “She doesn’t cheat anything. She definitely deserves everything she gets.”
Zeka finished the sweep by winning the 400 in 57.83.
That completed a perfect state meet and capped a season where Zeka did not lose a 400 race or a high jump competition. She won 30 of her 36 competitions across the season.
For her career, Zeka has now won nine individual state championships. She is the first Wellington athlete to win four track and field titles in the same season and, by a wide margin, the most decorated track and field athlete in school history.
“You just never know what might go wrong,” Colby said. “It’s very stressful, but it’s so awesome seeing everything come together like you hoped it would.”
What makes Zeka unique is not just that she wins. It is how many ways she can win.
The 400 tests speed endurance and pain tolerance. The high jump requires rhythm, timing and vertical explosion. The long jump demands runway speed and takeoff power. The 100 hurdles force an athlete to be fast, coordinated and violent over barriers, snapping the lead leg over the hurdle and driving it back to the track without losing momentum.
There is a common thread through all of them: explosion.
“You can definitely tell that the work that her and her dad put in has paid off,” Lira said. “Her explosiveness, her coordination, it’s all top tier compared to other female athletes her age.”
The first two years of Zeka’s high school career carried more surprise than expectation. Every breakthrough felt new. Every medal felt like a discovery.
This season carried a different weight.
After three gold medals as a sophomore, Zeka entered the spring expected to defend her titles and add a fourth. That brought pressure for Dru and plenty of nerves for her parents watching from the stands.
“My dad is the one who always pushes me to be my best,” Dru said. “He never lets me have an off day. That’s helped me so much.”
Athleticism runs through the family. Dru’s older sister, Ali, placed third in the long jump at state. Another sister, Brittan, was also on the Wellington basketball team that won the 2025 state championship. But the work that has made Dru special has been her own.
Now the season is over. The four gold medals are won. The state record is official. The place in Wellington history is secure.
Colby said it can still be hard to fully appreciate while the work continues.
“Until it’s over, it’s hard to look back,” Colby said. “I maybe don’t appreciate it quite yet because it always feels like there’s more work to do. This year is over, now it’s onto the next. But when you see the drive and see how much work she puts in, it is very satisfying.”
That is how Zeka reached this point.
One lift at a time. One workout at a time. One event at a time.
And at the state meet, one gold medal after another.
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