Jefferson track and field head coach Alex Rouggly sees the big picture when it comes to placing his athletes in the best position to score points.
“You can win a lot of meets scoring in those four-through-eight spots,” said Rouggly as his Blue Jay girls squad wrapped up its second straight JCAA championship on Friday at Festus.
Jefferson athletes took first place in the 100-meter hurdles, 4x100 relay, 300 hurdles, triple jump and long jump. They also collected three second-place and three third-place finishes in piling up 151 points, well ahead of the host Tigers (125) in second and De Soto (113) in third.
“I can’t say enough about these young ladies,” Rouggly said. “They’ve worked their rear ends off in practice. They (did) everything and more today.”
Jefferson’s Anna Heacock broke a 32-year-old conference record in the 300 hurdles, clocking 47.02 seconds. The old record of 47.10 was held by Kathy Meyer of Crystal City.
“The hardest part of that race is the corner going into the final 100 (meters),” Heacock said. “You don’t where anybody’s at because the hurdles are staggered. You’ve just got to push through it.
“This season has been great. We lost a lot of good seniors last year and we were kind of nervous but we’ve done so much better. We’ve had a lot of personal bests.”
Heacock, who also won the 100-meter hurdles (16.22) and the long jump (16-10.75) and was second in the high jump, shared the meet’s female most valuable athlete award (based on total points scored) with last year’s MVP, Taylor Richey of Windsor. Richey swept the sprints, capturing the 100 (12.50), 200 (26.25) and 400 (1:00.81) and was second in the long jump behind Heacock.
Rouggly said because of the recent bad weather, the Blue Jays hadn’t competed since April 11, giving him and Heacock plenty of time to work up a strategy in the 300 hurdles.
“I’m extremely excited for her,” Rouggly said. “Our arch nemesis has been that fifth and sixth hurdle on the final turn and we game-planned about it.”
Jefferson’s Jenna Courtois won the triple jump (33-3.5) and the Blue Jay 4x100 relay team of Abi Chipps, Hanna Floyd, Sydney Weik and Holly Welker finished first in 53.16.
Sarah Handrahan helped the Blue Jays rack up points in the throwing events with a personal-best and school-record javelin throw of 97-8, good for second place behind Hillsboro’s Halle Roland (104-7). Handrahan also finished third in the discus and fifth in the shot put.
Richey, who said she has to fight from standing straight up out of the blocks in the 100, noted that she has improved by two-tenths of a second in the event each year.
“I was feeling it, not necessarily before the (100),” she said. “But as soon as I started running, I felt so much faster.”
Her Owl teammate, Nicole Barton, tied Caitlyn Reed’s conference record in the pole vault at 10-6. Reed, of Festus, set the mark in winning last year and came in second this time to Barton, who also ran the first leg of the Owls’ 4x400 relay (along with Tori Bowen, Heather Korman and Ali Perry) that finished third.
“I can think of no one who’s worked harder and deserves to tie that record more than Nicole,” Windsor head coach Stephany Dueker said. “It’s all mental. She can do anything she puts her mind to. She’s got 11-3 or 11-6 inside of her. She’s got to get over that mental bar.”
Hillsboro wound up fourth in the team standings, scoring most of its points in the field. Along with Roland’s win in the javelin, Kelsey Boyd came out on top in the shot put (35-6) and Ashleigh Wick conquered the discus (109-2).
Every time Lily Uding stepped off the track at this meet, she was all smiles. The Festus senior beat Herculaneum’s Nautica Stricklin by three seconds in the 1,600 (5:38.12), then nipped another Blackcat, Emily Fischer, to capture the 800 by less than half a second (2:28.34 to 2:28.80). Uding capped the meet by running anchor for the Tigers’ victorious 4x400 quartet (4:18.73).
“I knew that we were tied with De Soto for second place, so I knew that if we won (the 4x400) we’d finish second,” Uding said. “We wanted our first three runners to get a lead or a good enough spot so (that) when I got the baton I could keep the lead or catch the leader. We had about 60 people screaming on that last corner and that’s usually where I start to die, so that helped a lot.”
The highlights for De Soto included an early win in the 4x800 relay, with Sarah Peoples, Lillie Kaempfe, Allison Portell and Katie Keath clocking 10:06.95. The Dragons also won the 4x200 (1:51.38) and were second in the 4x400.
“We all practice hard and get along and that helps when you’re a team,” Keath said. “I knew I had a lead. Allison’s handoff was good and I wanted to keep the lead.”
Grace Steed was St. Pius X’s lone winner, capturing the high jump at 5-3. Herculaneum’s Danielle Prince (11:53.33) and Emily Enghauser finished 1-2 in the 3,200.
“Coach (Kyle Davis) does a great job with all of our distance runners, getting them ready to compete,” Herculaneum head coach Dave Cook said. “(Prince and Enghauser) have run really well all year together. Danielle is one of our few seniors and Emily is just a sophomore and she has a really bright future.”