The rain kept falling but the runners kept running and the jumpers kept jumping Friday at the soggy De Soto Invitational.
And despite temperatures hovering around 50 degrees, many athletes set personal records. The javelin competition at the nearby AMVETS field had to be canceled, however, because the throwers’ grass runup was too soggy. The girls pole vault competition was completed, but the boys never started.
“It was a good group of (pole) vaulters and it (was bad) to have to cancel it,” De Soto boys head coach Mike Genge said. “It was mainly due to runway wetness and temperature. I didn’t want to start the event, get the kids rolling and have to stop it. The last couple of girl vaulters were doing it in the rain and it made me nervous. We had to err on the side of caution.”
Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau) won the girls competition with 130 points. De Soto was second with 119.5 points and Fox (78.5) and Seckman (77) finished third and fourth respectively.
Fox ran away with the boys side of the meet with 114 points, followed by Seckman (89) and De Soto (78). It was the Warriors’ second team championship in a week after taking the title at the Farmington Simpson Relays.
The girls team competition came down to the last event. Lillie Kaempfe’s fourth-place finish in the 3,200-meter run put De Soto half a point ahead of Notre Dame with only the 4x400 relay remaining. But the Bulldogs won that event to pass the Dragons in the final team standings.
“Cape (Notre Dame) is a fantastic track team,” De Soto girls head coach Terry Frank said. “We set up to come out and compete hard and we’re really happy with what we did today.”
De Soto senior Lamont Allen was a three-time winner Friday, capturing the high jump, long jump and triple jump. His winning leap in the high jump was a relatively low 6-0. He missed all three attempts at 6-6, during a steady downpour. The high jumpers took a splash every time they landed on the mat.
“It was my sophomore year in the exact same conditions and I didn’t have on the right spikes,” Allen said. “Today was about getting used to jumping in the rain if it happens in districts, sectionals or state.”
On Allen’s third attempt to clear 6-6, he said, “I didn’t feel the bar hit me and I was astonished that it fell.”
Allen has signed with Illinois State University to compete on the Cardinals’ indoor and outdoor track teams. He said he wants to major in criminal justice and become a police officer. His personal record in the high jump is 6-10.25, which is also the school record.
“Lamont’s a very talented kid and I’m so blessed to coach him,” Genge said. “He’s bought in to the things we’re doing differently. I hope he can get 7-0. That’s a pretty incredible number.
“He’s put more focus (this year) on the triple and long jump. Last year those two events were (just) something he did. But this year he wants to break the school records in those events. He’s on the right path and when the weather warms up, I think he’s going to put up some big jumps.”
The De Soto boys and girls both started the meet well, winning the first event, the 4x800 relay.
Besides Allen, the only other individual champ for the Dragon boys was Ja’Dan Brown, who won the 300 hurdles in a personal-best 42.65 seconds. Logan Sisson and Cole Koch placed fourth and sixth respectively in both the 800 and 1,600 and Trevor Johnson snagged fifth place in the 100.
De Soto’s girls were near the top in several events. Kaitlyn McGinnitey had a big day, finishing second in the 100 hurdles (16.97 seconds), first in the 300 hurdles (49.09) and third in the long jump (15-06). Kayleigh Eberhardt won the triple jump in 32-09.25. Allison Portell finished second in the pole vault in 9-06.
Sarah Peoples, the defending Jefferson County Athletic Association champion in the 400, is seeking her third state medal in the event. She won the single-lapper Friday in 1:02.43, edging Seckman’s Sam Stuckmeyer by eight-hundredths of a second.
“I’ve been stuck on the same time the last few meets, but today I let loose and ran free and it showed,” Peoples said. “My start was slow but when I got to 200 (meters), I let it go.”
Distance crew paces Herculaneum
Tough competition helped pull Herculaneum senior Danielle Prince to her season-best clocking in the 1,600 at 5:34.43, six seconds behind winner Katie Hanners of Cape Notre Dame.
“I knew (Hanners) ran in the 5:20’s so my plan was to hang on to her,” said Prince, who finished second. “My last lap was fast for the mile.”
Prince ran the third leg of the 4x400 relay with teammates Alex Becker, Chloe Richardson and Emily Fischer as the Blackcats finished second in 4:25.87.
Emily Enghauser (12:11.77) and Haley Damkroger (12:28.34) came in second and third respectively in the 3,200.
The Herky boys foursome of Jacob Arnold, Corben Clubb, Blake Cobb and Kyle Vinyard placed second in the 4x800 in 8:35.74. Clubb took second in the 400 in 52.77 seconds.
Loki Cortner and Jonathon Coffman finished 1-2 in the 3,200, as the two ran side-by- side most of the race. Cortner clocked 4:36.08 to edge Coffman by four-tenths of a second. It was the first time the two Blackcats had run together since cross country season.
“The first lap I was pushing fast,” Cortner said. “In the third lap, (Seckman’s Nathan Glasstetter) took off and I went with him and I felt Jonathon behind me the whole time. I said, ‘let’s go buddy.’”
Football standout L.J. Nelson joined the Blackcats recently and gives them a strong presence in the 200, where he finished fifth Friday in 24.38. Nelson, a senior, had to miss time after getting his wisdom teeth removed.
“He’s a natural athlete and got here a little later than we wanted, then he had oral surgery,” Herculaneum head coach Dave Cook said. “That set him back a couple of more weeks. He’s got some conditioning to do and hopefully we’ll get him caught up here in the next couple of weeks.”
Eagles have solid hurdle combo
Owen Johnson and Sam Huskey give Grandview a solid one-two punch in the two hurdles events. Not even bad weather slowed them down much on Friday at De Soto.
Despite the rain-slickened track, Johnson breezed to victory in the 110-meter high hurdles, skimming the sticks in 15.86 seconds. Huskey came in fourth in 16.48. Then Huskey turned to the 300-meter intermediate hurdles and took second (43.63).
Both Johnson, a junior, and the senior Huskey qualified for the state Class 3 meet last year in the 110 hurdles but did not make the finals.
“It isn’t (Johnson’s) best time of the year, but in this weather you can’t ask for anything more,” Grandview head coach Mike Loyd said. “He came out of the blocks well and he had a little stumble toward the end, but we’re happy with where he’s at.
“(Huskey) could have finished higher (in the 110 hurdles) but he had a misstep over the third hurdle and then had trouble clearing the sixth hurdle; I think his footwork was off. He can finish higher. We could have a real bang-bang finish with the both of them in the 110s.”
Noah Richardson finished sixth for the Eagles in the long jump with a distance of 18-07.5. He made it a triple-medal day in the jumps, placing fifth in the triple jump (39-06), and sixth in the high jump (5-4).
Loyd expressed disappointment in the cancellation of the javelin throw because of the poor weather conditions.
“Sam scratched on a 130 (-foot throw) earlier this year,” Loyd said. “We were hoping to see him throw the javelin today, but the weather’s a bear.”
Hillsboro boys finish fourth, girls sixth
Both the boys and girls field teams provided much of the scoring for Hillsboro at Friday’s meet.
Ashleigh Wick had the winning throw in the discus for the Hawks at 104-07, a foot better than Fox’s Alyssa Sipes. Hillsboro’s Jake McNees came in second in the discus at 144-02.
In the shot put, the Hawks had the champion on both sides when Kelsey Boyd threw it 32-09 and McNees had a winning toss of 45-07.
Other medalists included Isaac Readnour, third in the boys triple jump (40-05.75), Emma Hirstein, second in the girls 800 (2:28.79) and Ethan Schlegel, third in the boys 800 (2:07.34).
Joe Garner won his heat in the 100 but finished seventh in the finals. Garner came out for track this season to improve his speed as a fullback in football.
“I’m seeing lots of results, speed-wise and being able to run on my toes more,” Garner said. “Being able to see results feels good.”
Instead of competing at De Soto, Hawk junior Isaiah Martin went to one of the most prestigious meets in the country last week – the Kansas Relays. Martin finished eighth in the 300 hurdles (40.60 seconds), eighth in the javelin (169-7) and fourth in the 110 hurdles (14.61).