Dozens of area Class 4 track & field athletes achieved their long-term goals at the MSHSAA State Track & Field Championships on Saturday in Jefferson City.
CLICK HERE FOR CLASS 4 PHOTOS
In the boys’ competition, the West Plains Zizzers finished as the third-best team in the state highlighted by a couple of great performances from seniors Chase Riley and Alex Ugbah. Riley repeated as the state champion in the high jump and Ugbah took gold in the long jump.
“It was a fun ride,” said Riley. “I love my teammates and I want to give all the credit to them. They pushed me harder every single day just to be the best I can be. Without them I wouldn’t be able to do any of this.”
Riley leaped an impressive 7’1” earlier this season, but managed just 6’10” to win the event at the state meet. He bested his jump at last year’s state meet by two inches on Saturday.
“I’m glad I’m a state champ, but at the end of the day, I still wanted to be the best in the state,” he said. “I wanted to get 7’3”-plus just to say that I’m the best to ever go through. Obviously I’m still pleased with what I did today.”
His Zizzer teammate Ugbah has been to the state meet four times in his career, but came away as a champion for the first time as a senior. He leaped 23’1.5” to claim first place.
“It feels like it was something that I really needed to do,” said Ugbah. “It’s really been something that I’ve been fighting towards. I feel like it has all paid off now.”
West Plains had five all-state boys on Saturday, including Noah Friend who placed in both discus and shot put.
The Carl Junction boys also had an outstanding day at the state championship meet. They finished fourth behind the Zizzers.
Their 4×100 and 4×200 relay team of Zachary Taylor, Weston Wendt, Lucas Berliew and Aaron Ludders stood out, winning gold in the 4×100 (42.19 seconds) and silver in the 4×200 (1:27.61). They edged Grandview’s 4×100 team by two-hundredths of a second.
Wendt, Berliew and Ludders are all just sophomores and Taylor is the lone senior on the relay team. Taylor has never run track before in his life until this season.
“I didn’t want to play baseball anymore,” Taylor said, “and everybody said I was fast and I should come out, so I did… We put a lot of work in in the offseason. I mean, gym every day, three to four hours just to train for this moment right here. So we earned it.”
Gunnar Allison showed up for the Rogersville boys on Saturday. He will top off his senior year with a silver medal in the shot put (56’1”) and bronze in the discus (182’2”).
“I’m ecstatic,” Allison said. “It’s been a great weekend overall. Pretty much more than I was expecting. I had an injury coming out of districts, so I never expected this to happen. So I’m just incredibly grateful for how this played out… I tore my hamstring at districts trying to save a throw and it kind of plagued me for the rest of the competition and in sectionals. I barely made it here and finally got healthy again, so much to be grateful for.”
The other Rogersville athlete to place at the state meet was pole vaulter Elleigh Spragg. She came in second place with a vault of 11-feet behind only Republic’s Haven Lander. The junior Lander’s vault of 11’6” earns her a state title.
“It’s just all surreal,” said Lander. “All my hard work really paid off. I know that after today I’m still going to work even harder to get even better and do even better next year.”
M.I.C.D.S. ran away with the team competition on the girls’ side on Saturday. The best local girls’ team on Saturday was the Rolla Lady Bulldogs in fifth place. The Rolla boys’ and girls’ teams had seven all-state finishers, but no finishers higher than fourth place.
While no girls’ track and field team particularly stood out from the area, there were several female individuals that left Jeff City as state champions.
Bolivar’s 4×800 relay team of Alena Fugit, Hollie Myers, Kelie Henderson and Allison Porter ran a terrific race (9:30.51) to earn the gold medal over M.I.C.D.S. and St. Genevieve. The Lady Liberators got out to a big lead in the first three legs, so by the time the anchor Porter received the baton, there was no one near her.
“Since I was by myself, I felt like it was kind of hard to pace myself because I was just out there trying to keep the lead and I didn’t have anyone next to me to know what pace to keep,” said Porter. “So the ending was really hard. So by the end, I was thinking excited thoughts but I was just so tired I couldn’t express it.”
Sophomore Kelie Henderson expressed the excitement for her.
“I gave the baton to Hollie,” said Henderson, “and I was like, so happy. Like ‘yes, we’re in first,’ and we kept that lead and right when Hollie handed it to Allison I was like, ‘yes, we got this,’ and right when Allison passed the finish line, me and Alena were just like, ‘oh my gosh, oh my gosh!’ We were hugging each other and screaming and it was just amazing.”
Camdenton’s Kylie Meier took the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 43.46 seconds. Meier, a sophomore, had the best qualifying time in the event and pulled away in the final 100 meters in the finals.
“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” said Meier. “I didn’t expect to run that time, it was a really good thing to do. I’m really proud and proud of everyone here too. It was a really good race.”
Meier has another all-state hurdler on her team. Freshman Natalie Basham finished sixth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 45.84.
“It’s super helpful because we are able to help each other,” Meier said of her teammate. “She’s super good at the start and I use that to help me because I’m always really bad at that… it helps to calm down the nerves too to have someone to talk to.”
Senior Kimberly Teed from Carthage won the girls’ long jump on Saturday, the only state champion for the Tigers. Teed jumped 38’4.5” to claim the gold medal.
“My personal best is 38’5, so I was only half an inch away,” said Teed. “It feels really good. It’s a good way to end my high school career.”
Teed will continue to jump at Missouri Southern State University after high school.
“It really boosts your confidence knowing you’re the best jumper in the class,” she said. “I’m really happy and hopefully this can continue on in my college career.”
The javelin throw is a new event to the MSHSAA state track meet, and so it is considered an exhibition event and is not counted toward team scores. Webb City’s Emily Harris and Tyson Roderique each won the javelin throw on the day.
For the underclassmen, they’ll have a chance to come back and compete for another shot to return to the state meet in Jefferson City. As for the seniors, they’ll move on to the next phase of their lives. The athletes that finished as Class 4 state champions will be able to carry that title forever.
