By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Before Saturday, it had been a little while since Neosho’s boys track and field squad won a district championship. Forty-four years, to be exact.
And entering the day’s final event, the 4×400 relay, the Wildcats found themselves trailing Nixa by a point.
But Neosho’s relay of Izaiah Hill, Isaiah Green, Isaiah Keezer and William Ebbinghaus bested their seed time and won the event in 3:26.77 to give the Wildcats their first district title since 1979.
“We’re super excited,” Neosho coach Randy Mustain said. “Those guys have known they could do something special from the beginning and we continued to preach that. We actually started off the season with a plywood state plaque we cut out and we put ‘victory takes payment in advance’ on the front of that plaque and on the back we put every team we were going to face at conference and districts and we said this is what we want, this is what our program is striving for.”
Neosho’s first-place finish came barely a week after the Wildcats won the Central Ozark Conference title for the first time in program history. Neosho also entered the 4×400 relay in that meet a point out of first place but turned in a PR and got the win.
“Some of those guys ran four, five events tonight and came back and battled hard and pulled through in the end for us,” Mustain said. “To be able to come back and win that event to cap it off tonight, there’s nothing more sweet.”
The top four finishers in each event qualified for next weekend’s sectional meet.
Neosho won six events and earned a dozen entries for the sectional competition.
In addition to the 4×4 relay, senior Tyrese Hill won the 100-meter dash in 10.81 seconds and the 200 in 22.46. Izaiah Hill won the 400 in 49.99 seconds. Isaiah Green was tops in the triple jump with a distance of 44–11.00 and Collyn Kivett won the javelin throw with a distance of 164–01.
The team’s other sectional qualifiers were Jared Siler (4th in the triple jump, 4th in the high jump, 4th in the long jump), Isaiah Green (3rd in the long jump), Carter Baslee (3rd in the discus) and the 4×200 relay that placed third and the 4×100 relay that took fourth.
“This is year six for me as a head coach with the program,” Mustain said. “We’ve seen it grow every year and we’re super proud. That’s not a testament to me, that’s a testament to the kids’ commitment in the weight room. Coach (Brandon) Taute does a great job with them in the weight room and having him in there driving those kids helps a lot. I have awesome assistant coaches. At the beginning of the year we were looking at districts and we were scheduled to get zero points in the throws. We came out today and I think we scored 22 points in the throws. I’m extremely proud of our kids there.”
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Ozark athletes qualified for sectionals in six events. Mamady Embola won the 110 hurdles (15.20) and the 4×200 relay took first with Sam Clark, August McComas, Embola and Chase Kirkland finishing in 1:30.77.
Branson also had six qualifiers. Kyshin Isringhausen won the pole vault (14–09.50) and Maxwell Chapman was third.
Carthage earned seven bids for sectionals, highlighted by Miguel Solano’s first-place finish in the 800 with a time of 1:58.88.
Nixa earned 11 sectional qualifications and was highlighted by Jackson Cantwell’s first-place finishes in the discus and shot (183–11 and 61–04.75) and Gideon Carter’s win in the 300 hurdles (40.53).
Parkview earned four qualifiers for sectionals.
Kickapoo qualified 11 for the sectional and was led by a first-place finish from the 4×800 relay and Tyler Harris’ win in the 3200 (9:37.11).
Joplin, with a dozen qualifiers, was highlighted by a win in the 4×100 relay and Hobbs Campbell’s win in the 1600 (4:18.80).
Republic qualified six for the sectional. Zion Allen won both the high jump (6–05.50) and long jump (21–11.50).
Republic girls use team effort to win
The girls competition was just as close as the boys, and Republic, with six first-place finishes, managed to edge Nixa by three for the district championship.
“It was really a team effort,” said coach Tori Mooneyham. “We’ve got a lot of kids that finished first but it was those points we snuck in that we didn’t expect that I think kind of put us over the top.”
Those pleasant surprises included Chloe McCann, who took fifth and added four points in the 300 hurdles. Avery Rossow was fifth in the discus to score four more. Misora Nambara was eighth in the 3200 for a point and sixth in the 1600 for three more.
“We knew we had a chance,” Mooneyham said. “We won conference and then we lost three schools from that and added Kickapoo and Parkview so we knew we were probably in the top three but we knew it’d be close. My top kid Gracie Troester, we ran her in all four today for the team and she won all four events. So that one kid scored 40 points and she’s just a sophomore.”
Troester won the 1600 in 5:22.91, the 800 in 2:21.77 and the 3200 in 11:43.34 and also ran on the first-place 4×800 relay. Republic’s 4×400 relay also took first. And Alaina Norman won the shot put with a distance of 37–05.25.
Republic also took fourth in the 4×200, Rilynn Finley was second in the 300 hurdles, Kristin Probst was second in the 800, Kailey Manes tied for second in the high jump, Jenna Belcher was second in the triple jump, Norman placed third in the javelin and Belcher was fourth in the long jump.
Ozark’s sectional qualifiers were Bria Wright, who won the 100 hurdles in 15.98 seconds; the 4×800 relay that placed third, the 4×200 relay that placed third, the 4×100 relay that placed third, the 4×400 relay that took second, Kopelyn Delong (2nd) in the 1600, Ellsie Estes (3rd) in the 1600, Wright (3rd) in the 300 hurdles, Delong (4th) in the 3200, Skylar Hilton (2nd) in the high jump, Mallory Beets (4th) in the pole vault, and Izabella Rickard (4th) in the discus.
Additionally, Ozark had two winners on Saturday: Blaire Pace won the 400 in 1:00.10 and Abby Beets won the pole vault at 10–05.50.
For Neosho, Jazmyn Washington was second in the 100 hurdles.
Branson’s qualifiers were Kaedyn Pierce (3rd) in the 100 hurdles, Talia Tompkins (4th) in the triple jump, and Allison Thomas in the javelin. Thomas won the event with a distance of 124–04.
Kickapoo qualifiers were Ava Shurtz (4th) in the 100 hurdles, the 4×800 relay (2nd), the 4×200 relay (1st), the 4×100 relay (1st), Parker Papa (2nd) in the 200, Papa (2nd) in the 400, Klarie Brown (4th) in the 800, Alayna Stewart (2nd) in the 3200, Allison Scott (3rd) in the discus, Kaylee Henderson (4th) in the shot put and Sophia Gardner (2nd) in the javelin.
Additionally, Kickapoo’s Taylor Mayo took first in the triple jump (38–08.25) and long jump (18–03.25).
Parkview qualified Erykah Lee (12.22) after winning the 100, Lee (3rd) in the 200 and Rebecca Waterman (3rd) in the 3200.
Joplin’s sectional entries are Brylee Strickland (2nd) in the 100, Phia Vogel (4th) in the 100, the 4×100 relay that placed second, Abigayle Lowery (4th) in the 200, Strickland (3rd) in the 400, Maria Loum (3rd) in the pole vault and Kendall Nyarango (3rd) in the long jump.
Joplin also had champions in Kiki Thom, who won the 300 hurdles (47.48), and Strickland, who won the 200 in 26.30.
Nixa qualifiers were Taylor Hopper (3rd) in the 100, the 4×800 relay (4th), the 4×200 relay (2nd), the 4×100 relay (4th), the 4×400 relay (3rd), Cassidy Williams (4th) in the 1600, Meliah Copley (4th) in the 300 hurdles, Brookelyn Bidinger (3rd) in the 800, Chloe Holgate (4th) in the high jump, Eva Williams (2nd) in the pole vault, Faith Chepkondol (2nd) in the long jump, Rylee Eng (3rd) in the triple jump and Amelia White (4th) in the javelin.
Nixa brought home first-place honors in the discus, where Ava Owens won with a distance of 121 even.
Carthage qualified its 4×400 relay that placed fourth, Lexa Youngblood in the 400 (4th), Joey Hettinger (1st) in the high jump, Chasity Straw (2nd) in the discus, Lilly Holmes (2nd) in the shot put and Karlie Nichols (3rd) in the shot put.
