Girard’s Webb, Southeast’s Renfro battle for the top spot in the 300-meter hurdles at track championships

Despite the fact that Southeast’s Nick Renfro and Girard’s Johnny Webb don’t see much of each other during the regular track season, they are both well aware of one another’s accomplishments.
Both had a chance to showdown in the 300-meter hurdles at the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League track and field championships Thursday at the Raider Sports Complex at Frontenac.
“I have seen his times and I have been looking around and I was kind of glad to see him today and we had a good race,” Renfro said.
It was Renfro who was able to come away with the win in 40.25 seconds and also break the 19-year-old league record (40.3) set by Galena’s Marian Moore in 1989.
“It feels pretty good,” Renfro said. “I have been working on a personal record for most of the year and trying to get my time around 39 to 40 seconds and I was able to do that today.”
Girard won the boys title with 133 points over Riverton (88) and Baxter Springs (77) and St. Mary’s-Colgan (75).
Even Webb, who has only been running hurdles this season, was waiting for the 300 for most of the day.
“I had been looking forward to that race all day today,” Webb said. “I knew that there would be some very fast competition in the race and there certainly was that.”
He had been looking for a matchup with Renfro since the start of the meet in the afternoon.
“I have been looking at him all year and he was able to push me to a personal best so that is not that bad,” Webb said.
Despite that, Webb scored a first-place in the triple jump (40-feet-6.5), second in the high jump (6-4) and third in the long jump (19’ 9.75”).
“I was hoping to score 40 but you really can’t be disappointed in that, I guess,” Webb said.
Renfro said that the race in the 300 started a little differently than usual and that Webb helped start the pace.
“I came out a little harder than usual and it seemed like he came out a little harder too,” Renfro said. “I started to catch him on the curve and I had to try to pull away on the straight away.”
Renfro had a solid day himself by placing first in the 110 hurdles (15.54) and fourth in the 200 (24.31).
“It is always fun to come to the CNC meet and compete against guys that you may or may not see all the time,” Renfro said.

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140