Valle Catholic dominates Class 1 boys, girls

 

JEFFERSON CITY – Valle Catholic not only repeated as the Class 1 state track champions, but this year the girls matched the boys to give the Warriors a sweep of the state trophies.

Valle Catholic entered the second day of the state meet Lincoln University’s Dwight T. Reed Stadium with a 20-point lead in hand. The Warriors continued to swarm the medal stand on Saturday to roll up 81 points.

“Throughout the whole season we kept looking at other teams to see where we would match up at the end, and we pulled it off,” senior Cory Kertz said. “We just wanted to win meet after meet, win districts and come here and win state.”

Valle took note of coach Jason Martin’s challenge following a half-point loss to Farmington in the conference championship.

“He kept asking us, ‘What else can you push to get that half point,’” Valle’s Damian Jokerst said. “That would’ve been our first conference win since 1999.”

Concordia was second in the team standings with 51.

It was Valle Catholic’s second girls’ title. The Warriors also won in 1997.

The Warriors started Saturday off with a quick start, adding 10 points with a victory in the 3,200-meter relay. Kylie Meyer broke away from Marion County on the third leg and opened a sizeable lead for anchor 440 to work with.

“We were really working for this because we had three new girls this year that hadn’t run state,” Meyer said. “We got 10:13 earlier in the season. We really wanted to get under that and PR.”

The relay squad lowered its PR to 10:09.14. It was the lone victory for the Warriors, but Valle placed in eight other events, including Kamrie Meyer and Neve Cavanaugh both scoring in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs as Valle tallied 66 points to runner-up Midway’s 39 1/3.

 

 

Blake Goodin not only secured a record 11 state titles with his victories in the 800 and 1,600 on Saturday, but he also took away the last record his father, Bill, still held over him. The two joked about the family bragging rights while Blake posed for his celebratory pictures after winning the 800-meter in a family-record time of 1:56.15.

Goodin took over the lead of the 800 on the second lap and pulled away over the final circuit. Earlier he had used a similar strategy in the 1,600-meter run. Goodin didn’t move to the front of the field until the start of the third lap after running a split of 2:15. He quickly opened up a 15-meter lead heading into the final lap before crossing the finish line in 4:31.44.

“That was the last open race of my high school career, and I couldn’t be happier right now,” said Goodin, who will run at Kansas State next year.

Kylynn Sisk of South Holt earned his state meet redemption twice over. Sisk missed the state meet last year after breaking his pelvis in a fall practicing the pole vault prior to the district meet. He came back on a sprinter’s mission Saturday and captured first place in both the 100 (11.11) and 200 (22.47).

“Just to come back from what happened to me last year, I was thankful to be down here,” Sisk said. “And then to get this, it means a lot to my family. It’s an incredible feeling.

“I knew today if I didn’t get a good start I wasn’t going to have a chance. Last week at sectionals I fell at the start of the 100 and managed to get third place, and I was thankful for that.”

Sisk wasn’t sure if his grandfather’s offer still stood for this year. Previously his grandfather had tried to entice him to perform by offering to buy Sisk a new truck for a state victory. No such offer was made prior to this state meet.

“This year he kind of expected me to win so I didn’t get any bribes,” Sisk said.

St. Joseph Christian senior Alexa Taff knew what it was like to stand on top of the state meet podium. She had seven state titles to her name entering this year’s meet, including three consecutive victories in both the 100 and 200.

She could not make it a fourth gold medal in the 100, as she took second (12.59) to Lutheran sophomore Maria Rains (12.40). That spurred Taff to dig just a little deeper in the 400 and 200, and she won both in 59.44 and 25.57, respectively.

“After that 100, it was really discouraging not to win it, but this one (200) felt great. It was even better,” Taff said. “I was worried after the 100, ‘What if I don’t win my other ones?’ But I had to get that out of my head and tell myself that I’m the fastest girl at state right now and keep my confidence up.

“My track career has been such a blessing. Coming in my freshman year I never expected to have all this. I’m just grateful that God has given me the ability to do this.”

Wheaton senior Bubba Galvan also added to his state medal collection and will have to clear a little more room on the wall. Galvan picked up three more first-place medals with victories in the long jump (21-5 ¼), the triple jump (45-0) and the 300-meter hurdles (39.98).

Galvan just missed repeating as champion in all four events when he slipped to third (15.50) in the 110-meter hurdles after catching one of the last hurdles and disrupting his stride.

“I tripped over the third from last and it really messed me up,” Galvan said. “It still feels good (winning three events).”

Santa Fe senior James Dahl-Hines said he could tell the rest of the field was clipping a lot of hurdles, but he was able to get through his set cleanly to win the 110 in 15.18.

“I knew I was going to medal, but I didn’t think I’d win state,” Dahl-Hines said. “Everybody else was hitting them and I wasn’t, and I just started pulling away at the end. You definitely hear it, and you can tell people aren’t as far ahead as they should be. It’s more like a motivator. You hear it and you’re like, ‘They’re doing worse, so I’ve got to do better.’”

Wheaton junior Darrell Burns picked the perfect time to find a little more spring in the high jump. Burns had only cleared 6-4 once before in his career, but he went sailing well beyond that and won the title after topping 6-9.

“My legs have been getting tired usually, but they didn’t get tired today,” said Burns, who made three attempts at the record at 6-10 ¼. “I don’t know how I got 6-9. I don’t know how. It’s crazy. It felt like I was jumping 6-2. Coming in, I was really worried I wasn’t going to place.”

Kaiyla Goodlet earned McKinley Classical Leadership Academy’s first state title with her win in the 100-meter hurdles in 15.83. The relatively young St. Louis school had state qualifiers last year, including Goodlet taking sixth in the 400, but none were able to climb to the top of the podium until Goodlet’s performance.

“It feels amazing; I can’t believe it,” said Goodlet, who started the season running 18.39 and was down to 16.26 in Friday’s prelims. “I PR’d so much better than I thought I could. Nobody really knows who we are, and now I think they’re starting to figure that out.”

 

Complete Coverage of the Class 1-2 State Championship