The Festus boys won four events and placed in the top four in nine others to win their second consecutive Jefferson County Activities Association track and field championship April 30-May 1 at Hillsboro. The Tigers easily outdistanced the host and second-place Hawks 174-127.
“We take it very seriously and have a lot of pride in that,” Festus head coach Chris Partney said. “If we win conference, great. If we don’t, we start to focus on districts on a state level. As far as the (points gap with Hillsboro), the boys and girls are buying into it and this year it all came together.”
Festus senior Carson Driemeier, the defending state Class 4 champion in the 3,200 and winner of the state Class 4 cross country championship last fall, repeated as conference champion in the 1,600-meter run in 4:17.34 and 3,200 in 9:19.99. The Tigers also captured the 4x100 relay behind the quartet of Cohen Compton, Rowan Stucke, Leuntae Williams and Hunter Bates in 43.79 and with Driemeier, Tate Uding, Aidan Cole and Luke Wacker, won the 4x800 in 8:15.47, an event in which they finished fourth at state a year ago.
“We have a freshman 4x800 team that could compete for the conference title,” Partney said.
For three straight years, Hillsboro has had the top two JCAA finishers in the 110 high and 300 intermediate hurdles. This year, junior Clayton Brown and sophomore Drake Silhavy kept that streak intact. Brown won the 110 in 15.88 seconds and the 300 in 41.51. Silhavy was second in both (15.93 and 42.22). Brown finished third in the 300 at the 2024 state meet.
Hillsboro senior Preston Brown capped his JCAA career with titles in the javelin in 61.63 meters and the long jump in 6.70. It’s the fourth year in a row a Brown has won the conference in javelin; Preston won last year and his brother, Payton, the two seasons prior. Preston Brown also took second in the JCAA in the discus in 44.76.
Windsor finished fifth with 82 points, including 30 by senior William Kalisch, who won the 100 in 11.32 seconds, the 200 in 23.10 and defended his conference title in the pole vault in 4.42 meters and was named co-MVP with Brown. Kalisch, Layton Hollis, Tim Hossey and Kevin Holman finished second in the 4x100 relay in 45.40. Either that race or the 4x200 will be Kalisch’s fourth event at the Class 4 District 2 meet.
Kalisch said he’s using a new, bigger pole and adjusted to it on the fly.
“I ran as fast as I could and took off,” he said. “Sometimes on the fly you’ve got to do it. It’s my best event.”
Hollis, a senior and the conference MVP in basketball this winter, won the triple jump in 13.36 meters and was second in the high jump in 1.82. He finished eighth in the long jump at state a year ago.
Grandview junior Ethan Smith won the conference title in the shot put in a school record of 15.59 and finished third in the discus in 44.46. Smith said he’s been consistently throwing the shot over 15 meters. Jefferson senior Alex Roth took second in the shot in 15.45.
“If it’s a good throw, I can feel it in the upper half of my forearm,” Smith said. “If I feel it anywhere else, I know it’s a bad throw. It’s a different weight distribution (between the shot and discus). Conference was a rare occasion where I had 24 hours to prepare for both.”
Smith said he’s learned a lot about throwing by watching the top athletes. “You can see what it’s supposed to look like, then video yourself and compare the two.”
Smith added that while his distance in the discus isn’t where he wants it to be, he’s got three more meets to change that.
“Personally, I don’t think one (event) is harder than the other,” he said. “It’s a switch you have to flip in your head. Different forms in the release.”
Grandview junior Brendan Martin is all-JCAA in the pole vault for the second time, placing second to Kalisch in 3.96. Junior Tucker Rhinehart was fourth in the shot in 13.98.
Herculaneum senior Nate Wright repeated as JCAA champion in the 800, clocking 1:55.38. Wright also placed third in the 1,600 in 4:20.64 and ran a leg on the 4x800 squad that came in third in 8:47.01. A two-time medalist and four-time qualifier in Class 3 cross country, Wright was third in the 1,600 at the Class 3 state meet last year. He’ll continue his running career at Pittsburg State University in Kansas.
Jefferson junior Matthew Waltman, a state medalist in the 100, 200 and 400 as a sophomore, skipped the two sprints at Hillsboro but won the 400 in 50.9.
De Soto freshman Cannon Kisner made all-conference in the 100 (fourth, 11.59) and 200 (third, 23.62). Senior teammate Austin Missey was second in the 200 (23.52) and the triple jump (12.64). For the second straight year, Dragon junior Carson Koerber came in second behind Driemeier in the 3,200, clocking 9:24.09. He also placed fourth in the 1,600 (4:22.7).
De Soto sophomore Josh Golightly was all-conference in both hurdles, coming in third in the 110 in 16.30 and fourth in the 300 in 42.49. Kisner, Golightly, Missey and David Imhoff combined to win the 4x200 in 1:32.56.