Veliquette brothers pace Collegiate boys track and field to second in Class A state meet

LEXINGTON — When Oliver Veliquette finishes in front of a race, he’s seldom shocked by the person on his heels. They went to bed under the same roof before heading to the UK Outdoor Track & Field Complex on Thursday.

Oliver, a senior, claimed wins in the boys 110- and 300-meter hurdles at the Clark’s Pump-n-Shop Class A Track and Field State Championships. Right behind him — by 0.10 and 0.16 seconds, respectively — was his brother Julien, a junior.

Their performances were key in Collegiate’s runner-up finish to Beechwood for the boys team title. Oliver repeated as the 300 hurdles champion and Julien as the 110 runner-up, but the brothers didn’t compete against one another in those respective events in last year’s Class A state meet.

“We decided the hurdle events were where we could score the most points, and that paid off,” Oliver said.

Both ran personal-best times in the 300 on Thursday: Oliver a 39.32 and Julien a 39.48. Oliver’s headed to Baldwin-Wallace University in Berea, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. Next for Julien?

“Hopefully get first in both the hurdles next year,” Julien said with a grin.

Go the distance

Collegiate’s Roman Sierpina and James Gurley swept the longest races. Sierpina repeated as the 1,600-meter champ, and Gurley took the 3,200, improving on his runner-up mark a year ago.

Sierpina’s seed time in the 1,600 — 4:33.90 — slotted him below Gurley and several others, but was misleading. Those are based on regional performances, not best times. Sierpina intentionally ran slower there — and second to Gurley, who finished third in the same event Thursday — to help better position the team at its regional (held May 22) and to save some gas for the RunningLane Track Championships in Alabama, which were contested a couple days later.

“Holding back and staying with the bigger pack felt a little different than what I usually do, but it also was a good experience,” Sierpina said.

It paid off, too; Sierpina ran a PR, 4:11.09, at the national-level event. He was just a couple seconds slower at this year’s state meet. Bishop Brossart’s Nathan Ruth, who finished second, led Sierpina and Gurley going into the final lap.

“He kicked it for 400 meters and I was just waiting for the right move to make the pass, and that was with about 100 to go, and that’s what I did,” said Sierpina, who has his sights set on breaking the overall state-meet record in the 1,600, 4:09.99, set by Class A runner Jacob Thomson (Louisville Holy Cross) in 2013. He also hopes to finally break through for the Class A state title in cross-country; he’s finished in the top 10 each of the last three years, including a runner-up finish to Ruth most recently.

“Definitely doing that, and next year coming here and getting the state time from Jacob,” Sierpina said. “I’m definitely going for a 4:07 next year.”

Sierpina combined with James Marshall and the Veliquette brothers to lift Collegiate to a third-place finish in the 1,600 relay, the day’s final event.

One-girl wonder

For the second year in a row, Walden School finished inside the top 10. It was again buoyed by the performance of sophomore Natalie Svidal.

Svidal won all three of her events — the 100 hurdles, long jump and triple jump — after challenging in all three last season as a freshman. In 2023, she finished behind her older sister, Amelia, in both field events but got the better of her in the hurdles. Amelia now competes for Bellarmine.

“I’m really happy,” Natalie said. “I feel like a lot of the work is starting to pay off.”

Training has been different this year, since her best partner has been off at college, but Natalie’s adjusted well — and gotten an inside track to some higher-level expertise.

“Even though I really miss her and I like competing with her, she’s able to take a lot of her college knowledge from her coaches and help me,” Natalie said. “It’s working out well.”

The Svidal sisters’ success is encouraging others within Walden School — one of the smallest in the state — to participate in track and field. Three other girls — Elizabeth Mathews, Kate Tyler and Sophia Westergren — qualified along with Thomas Mathews on the boys side.

“We had a lot of people trying track for the first time this year, and we had some really good runners,” Natalie said. “Our team is really young, all the people who came to state are freshmen and sophomores, so I’m excited to see how it goes in the next couple years.”

KHSAA state track and field championships: Class A results

x-state meet record

GIRLS

Team scores — 1. Beechwood 91; 2. Bishop Brossart 81; 3. Lexington Christian Academy 76; 4. Leslie County 57; 5. St. Henry 37; t6. Murray 33; t6. Walden School 33; t8. Frankfort 28; t8. Green County 28; 10. Raceland 21; t21. Highlands Latin 7; t28. Collegiate 5; t30. Brown 3

3,200-meter relay — 1. Beechwood (Charlie Gerrein, Lily Parker, Annie Harris, Catie Hazzard) 9:49.02; 2. Bishop Brossart 9:57.36; 3. Lexington Christian 10:07.90

100 hurdles — 1. Natalie Svidal (Walden School), 14.69; 2. Sophie Maynard (Raceland), 15.30; 3. Layla Green (Murray), 15.59

100 — 1. Briley Cline (Paris), 12.12-x; 2. Katie Norman (Frankfort), 12.33; 3. Mahari Crump (Lexington Christian), 12.59

800 relay — 1. Leslie County (Emily Roark, Eden Melton, Hayley Smith, Iris Napier), 1:46.88; 2. Beechwood 1:47.37; 3. Bishop Brossart 1:47.68

1,600 — 1. Lily Parke (Beechwood), 5:05.00; 2. Kennedy Moughamian (Lexington Christian), 5:12.66; 3. Hadley Raisor (Lexington Christian), 5:15.47

400 relay — 1. Leslie County (Hayley Smith, Ava Napier, Emily Roark, Iris Napier), 49.95; 2. Mayfield 51.16; 3. Caldwell County 51.17

400 — 1. Maryah Counts (Beechwood), 57.48; 2. Caroline Nordman (Beechwood), 58.15; 3. Hayley Smith (Leslie County), 59.04

300 hurdles — 1. Sophie Maynard (Raceland), 45.69; 2. Lylah Mattingly (Williamsburg), 45.74; 3. Layla Green (Murray) 46.35

800 — 1. Lily Parke (Beechwood), 2:18.80; 2. Annie Sewell (Lexington Christian), 2:20.23; 3. Larah Callahan (Bishop Brossart), 2:25.02

200 — 1. Briley Cline (Paris), 24.78-x; 2. Maryah Counts (Beechwood), 25.62; 3. Hayley Smith (Leslie County), 26.18

3,200 — 1. Kennedy Moughamian (Lexington Christian), 11:18.16; 2. Emmie Underwood (Fort Campbell), 11:41.28; 3. June Karls (Lexington Christian), 11:49.34

1,600 relay — 1. Beechwood (Maddy Brauch, Maryah Counts, Ruby Fries, Lana Holt), 4:05.97; 2. Bishop Brossart 4:12.18; 3. Leslie County 4:12.39

Shot put — 1. Ava Walters (Bishop Brossart), 34-06.25; 2. Amyah Robinson (Frankfort), 34-05; 3. Mayani Montanez (Sayre) 34-03.5

Discus — 1. Anna Guard (St. Henry), 132-07-x; 2. Scout Brockman (Green County), 115-09; 3. Logan Boyd (Highlands Latin), 112-00

Long jump — 1. Natalie Svidal (Walden), 17-07.5; 2. Grace Burgess (Somerset), 17-02; 3. Layla Green (Murray), 16-07.25

Triple jump — 1. Natalie Svidal (Walden), 36-06; 2. Grace Burgess (Somerset), 34-11; 3. Lizzie Casey (St. Henry), 34-07.75

High jump — 1. Ansley Ova Turner (Monroe County), 5-04; 2. Hayden Harlan (St. Henry), 5-00; 3. Cariann Williams (Edmonson County), 4-10

Pole vault — 1. Cate Coppola (Green County), 11-00; 2. Kensey Clayton (Bethlehem), 9-00; 3. Emily Roark (Leslie County), j9-00

BOYS

Team scores — 1. Beechwood 81; 2. Collegiate 68; 3. Bishop Brossart 57; 4. Green County 50.5; 5. St. Henry 39; 6. Fort Campbell 38; 7. Bethlehem 27; 8. Newport Central Catholic 24; 9. Shelby Valley 19; 10. Model 18; t15. Holy Cross 14; t29. Kentucky Country Day 5; t29. Walden School 5; t40. Highlands Latin 3

3,200-meter relay — 1. Bishop Brossart (Nick Heck, Griffin Hill, Brennen Callahan, Ryan Clines) 8:07.53-x; 2. Bethlehem 8:14.67; 3. Beechwood 8:20.63

110 hurdles — 1. Oliver Veliquette (Collegiate), 15.18; 2. Julien Veliquette (Collegiate), 15.28; 3. James Noble (St. Henry), 15.31

100 — 1. Luke Erdman (Beechwood), 10.77; 2. Anthony Cole (Model), 10.80; 3. Keith Hadley (Holy Cross), 10.84

800 relay — 1. Fort Campbell (McKenzie Andrews, Mateo Cerritos Gatto, Maurice Moore, Ja’Caryous Perryman), 1:29.61; 2. Shelby Valley 1:31.36; 3. Mayfield 1:31.40

1,600 — 1. Roman Sierpina (Collegiate), 4:13.80; 2. Nathan Ruth (Bishop Brossart), 4:14.53; 3. James Gurley (Collegiate), 4:15.18

400 — 1. Emmanuel Dut (Danville Christian), 48.66; 2. Maurice Moore (Fort Campbell), 49.14; 3. Riley Morris (Williamstown), 50.31

400 relay — 1. Beechwood (Brody Aylor, Nathan Pabst, James Cusick, Luke Erdman), 43.28; 2. University Heights 43.72; 3. Mayfield 43.75

300 hurdles — 1. Oliver Veliquette (Collegiate), 39.32; 2. Julien Veliquette (Collegiate) 39.48; 3. Josh Brockman (St. Henry), 40.71

800 — 1. Nathan Ruth (Bishop Brossart), 1:56.88; 2. Christopher Rober (Beechwood), 1:57.57; 3. Ryan Clines (Bishop Brossart) 1:57.65

200 — 1. Luke Erdman (Beechwood), 22.02; 2. Keith Hadley (Holy Cross), 22.16; 3. Charlie Ford (Newport Central Catholic), 22.44

3,200 — 1. James Gurley (Collegiate), 9:39.24; 2. Robert Wilke (Beechwood), 9:52.44; 3. Isaac Riggs (Bethlehem), 9:56.16

1,600 relay — 1. Fort Campbell (McKenzie Andrews, Mateo Cerritos Gatto, Samuel Atoubi, Maurice Moore), 3:25.37; 2. Newport Central Catholic 3:28.12; 3. Collegiate 3:28.96.

Shot put — 1. Kasey Webb (Edmonson County), 53-01; 2. Kelson McKinney (Green County), 51-08.5; 3. Cooper Mobley (Caldwell County), 50-05

Discus — 1. Kelson McKinney (Green County) 169-08; 2. Keanu Ziolkowski (St. Henry) 155-05; 3. Xavier Campbell (Beechwood), 144-05

Long jump — 1. Anthony Cole (Model), 21-09.50; 2. Braden Moore (Floyd Central), 20-09.75; 3. Octavius Mckeage (Russellville), 20-08

Triple jump — 1. Alex Koeder (Nicholas County), 45-08; 2. Lucas Schroeder (Bishop Brossart), 42-04.5; 3. Timothy Bennett (Mayfield), 42-01.75

High jump — 1. Nate Goodin (Williamsburg), 6-06; 2. Isaiah Ballard (Bethlehem), 6-04; 3. Braden Moore (Floyd Central), 6-02

Pole vault — 1. Josh Brockman (St. Henry), 12-06; 2. Austin Squires (Green County), j12-06; 3. Noah Everett (Bishop Brossart) 12-00

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA track and field: Walden's Natalie Svidal earns three titles