Zeke Elliott, Amos Bartlesmeyer Shine at Skippy Keefer Relays

The long and the short of it.

Ezekiel Elliott of John Burroughs won the shortest race of the annual Skippy Keefer Relays at John Burroughs. He won the 100 meter dash in 10.9 seconds. Amos Bartelsmeyer of MICDS won the longest race, the 3,200 meter run in 9:51.0 and the two athletes showcased their talents on a sun drenched day at the JBS track.

Several things were missing. For one, with the meet right before Passover and Easter, a number of traditional teams declined to participate. Additionally, Skippy Keefer, for whom the meet and the track are named was not in attendance either.

No matter, it was a solid tune up for the teams who came.

Elliott wracked up the usual triple, winning the 100, the 110 high hurdles in 14.1 and the 300 intermediate hurdles in 39.35. He also combined with Sam Schnabel, Zach Lamb and Ted Grace to win the 1,600 relay in a time of 3:35.33.

Not only has Elliott, a junior given a verbal commitment to the Ohio State football team, he will run track also for the Buckeyes.

Good thing, because he’d like to challenge the records set by Olympian Jesse Owens some 60 plus years ago in Columbus.

Conditions are different today. Elliott runs on an artificial surface, Owens sprinted on cinders. The training regimen and equipment is altogether different today.

Huffing from a long hurdle race, Elliott said “it was a good day, and lots of competitors had some early season good times.”

Both Elliott and Bartelsmeyer are tuning for the Kansas Relays some three weeks away.

“I was a little cautious approaching the season. I had an ankle injury in basketball. I don’t want to be rushing things,” he said.

Elliott figures he will be in the mix with some super star hurdlers like Brandon Shepard of Parkway Central (Oklahoma State) and Jehu Chesson of Ladue  (Michigan).

“I figure whoever wins hurdle titles at state might just set some records,” he said.

It only took Bartlesmeyer a few second to gather his thoughts after the eight-lap victory. Normally, he specialty is the mile. He had a great sophomore performance last spring in Jeff City with a 4:17.11 in the state mile.

He too is just rounding into shape. During the indoor track season he suffered a stress fracture in his foot.

“I’m taking it easy. I’m not pushing too hard. I use a lot of ice, and I’m being very cautious,” said the junior distance standout from MICDS. He enjoyed Saturday’s race, going stride for stride with his cross country buddy Kirk Smith of Burroughs.

Bartelsmeyer mostly stayed with the field, kicking into full gear and moving away from the pack with about two and a half laps left in the race.

In other meet performances, Xavier Bledsoe was tops in the high jump relay with a height of 6 foot-1 inch, and first in the long jump relay at 19 feet-3 inches.

Aaron Francis of MICDS won the boys triple jump at 39 feet-5 inches.

Jaelin McGull of Burroughs topped the discus throwers in the relay event, 132 feet-6 inches.

The MICDS quartet of Cameron Jackson, Heather Cousins, CeCe Moore and Julia Olson won the 4 X 200 meter relay.

In the boys distance medley relay, the MICDS team of Tilman and Amos Bartelsmeyer; Chris Brown and Chris Noda were first.

The Burroughs boys won their division with 107 points; the MICDS girls took third place overall.