Two Panthers medal at boys state track meet
CHARLESTON - After a year away from the medals podium, the Pinckneyville High School boys track and field team brought home some hardware with senior Stetson Lappin taking third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles and junior Dalton Kitchen placing eighth in the shot put at the Class 1A state meet.
"Tough is the word to describe Stetson," said Pinckneyville coach Tod Rushing. "Stetson is a kid who wants to be the best he can be. He grew up over the last four years. This year, his progression has been amazing. He went from a kid you had to get on to get to practice to being a leader who pushes the other kids. I couldn't have been prouder of him than I was the other day when he placed in the top three."
It was Lappin's third trip to the state meet in the 300 hurdles, but the first time he had qualified for the finals. He ran a personal best time of 39.95 seconds in the preliminaries, good for third heading into the finals, where he ran 40.77 seconds to remain in third or 3.52 seconds behind the winner.
"The 300 hurdles was pretty tough this year with the kid that won - senior Mason Barr of Colfax (Ridgeview) - running faster (37.70 seconds) than the winners in 2A and 3A," Rushing said. "Stetson just missed the finals by six one-hundredths of a second last year, so we felt like he had a good chance to get into the finals and then do something. He's just a tough kid. He fell back to fifth and then he passed two kids in the last 15 meters to get third. He just never says quit. He gave a great effort all the way hrough the finish line.
Kitchen also was making his third trip to the state championships in the shot put and advanced to the state finals for the first time. In the prelims, he threw 49 feet, 10 1/2 inches to go into the finals in seventh place. He didn't do any better on Saturday to finish eighth behind the winning throw of 55-9.25.
"I know he was disappointed," Rushing said. "We were hoping for fourth, but I think he would have been seventh if he had thrown his personal best (51-4). He jumped up a couple feet this year, so we have great hopes for him next year. He works at it all the time in the off-season. If he can do between now and next year what he did this year, he'll be right up in there."