It's that time again! The Missouri Class 3-4 State Track and Field Championships are this weekend in Jefferson City and as always you can count on Big River Running Company for full and comprehensive coverage of the meet. We'll be on-site Friday and Saturday teaming up with runningfever.com to provide full video coverage of all event finals. We'll also have video interviews and a full meet recap.
Typically we do a top ten list of things to look out for at the Meet but Yael, of milesplit message board fame, stole our thunder by doing his own list and doing a darn good job of it. So we switched it up and decided to do an in-depth analysis on what is always one of the most intriguing stories of the weekend, that being the Class 4 boys and girls team titles. We'll try to give you a spectators guide to what each team needs to do to win and try to predict just how it might shake out come Saturday afternoon. Enjoy!
THE GIRLS
As we predicted way back in March in our 2009 Track and Field Preview this could be the year that someone finally puts an end to the Jefferson City Lady Jays run of four straight State Titles. Of course don't expect coach Dennis Licklider's squad to just roll over, especially after his announcement that this will be his final year at the helm. That might just be the extra motivation his girls need to get the job done for a fifth year in a row.
Looking to change that final chapter of a would-be storybook ending will be strong squads from Parkway Central, Rockwood Summit and perennial track powerhouse Ladue Horton Watkins. The Lady Rams made the jump to Class 4 this year after several top four finishes in Class 3 including a championship in 2005. Central, Summit, Ladue and Jefferson City all bring squads capable of scoring a lot of points in different areas which should set things up nicely for a two-day long, four-way battle where every single point will matter.
In our minds the co-favorites coming in are Parkway Central and Ladue. With the strength of juniors Emily Sisson and Diane Robison in the distance races Central has the opportunity to score as many as 46 points from only three events; the 1600, 3200 and 3200 relay. Of course, that would be an ideal situation with 1-2 finishes in both individual events and a championship in the relay. Liberty 's Megan Yohe may have something to say about that in the 1600 and 3200 and the ladies from Neosho look like they will give the Lady Colts all they can handle in the relay. Still, a worst-case scenario, barring an injury or a DQ, would give Central around 40 points from those three events. Add to that the fact that they have the top-ranked 4 x 100 meter and second-ranked 4 x 400 meter relays coming out of Sectionals and the Lady Colts could be looking at over 60 points come Saturday afternoon.
The problem for Parkway Central is that the Ladue Lady Rams might top the 60 point barrier as well. Right now Ladue is to Missouri girls track what the Baylor Bears have been to men's collegiate track for decades; a 400 meter machine. There will be no more sure thing all weekend than the Class 4 girls 4 x 400 relay on Saturday afternoon at 3:55 pm. Ladue ran 3:52 at Sectionals, a full six seconds faster than any team across the State in Class 4. That wasn't even their most impressive stat though. It was the fact that they managed to qualify four runners through to State in the open 400. That's right, the top four spots in Sectional One all belonged to Ladue. Lynette Atkinson, Montenea Roye, Samantha Levin and Lauren Atkinson went 1-4 and finished within a second and a half of one another. According to the form charts all four could finish in the top eight at State earning Ladue somewhere between 18-24 points. Their real chances of winning the overall title though will come down to how many points those girls can score in their other individual events. Roye has a serious chance to win the 100, Levin is the favorite to win the 800 and Lynette Atkinson should score in the 200. You can also count on their 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays to score big points.
The team that seems to have the next-best chance after Parkway Central and Ladue are the Lady Falcons from Rockwood Summit. They lost distance ace Aimee Bonte from a year ago but they have tons of top talent in the sprints and in the field. There is a strong chance that their pole vaulters, Bethany Buell and Nikki Buchheit could go 1-2 and kick the weekend off with 18 points as the vault is the first event of the meet for the Class 4 girls. Keeping it in the field on Friday afternoon they will look for ten more points from long jumper Jamese Williams who had the State's longest jump at Sectionals. A perfect Friday would send Summit into day two with a solid 28 points and a legitimate chance to win. The key will then be to get big points from sprinter Crystal Harris in the 100 and 200 and from Williams in the 300 hurdles. Their other chances for points will come in the two short relays. Summit is seeded fifth in the 4 x 100 and second to Ladue in the 4 x 200. Of the three top teams Summit is the one that will need to do better than expected to take the title. The 4 x 100 might be their opportunity to do just that. It's a short race and anything can happen. A surprise win could put them in position for an upset.
So where do the Lady Jays stand? Well, they really stand on the shoulders of one very talented athlete, Erin Alewine. Alewine is seeded in the top four of four different events with a very real chance to win three of those four (all three jumps) and an outside chance to take top honors in the fourth, the 100 hurdles. Should Alewine somehow score in the neighborhood of 40 points all by herself than the Lady Jays could at least hope for a miracle by scraping together a few other points here and there and hoping that the other top teams don't quite put up the big numbers the form charts say they will.
We dare not make any final predictions except for this one; we predict the team title will not be sewn up before the 4 x 400 relay begins on Saturday. Ladue is the top seed in that event and Parkway Central is the second seed. Should be fun!
THE BOYS
Not to be anti-climactic but the boys battle seems a bit more easy to predict. The Spartans from Hazelwood East look poised to take home yet another State title. However, in the sport of track and field nothing is certain. Especially when a team has its hopes strongly tied to relays like Hazelwood East. That baton becomes a little tougher to get around the track with thousands of screaming fans in the stands and the hot sun beating down with a State championship on the line.
The path to success for East certainly runs through the relays where they have a legitimate chance to win all four. They appear to be locks in the 4 x 400 where there is talk that they may even challenge their own State Record of 3:14.04 set way back in 1986. They are also strong favorites in the 4 x 200 relay. Their toughest tests will be in the 4 x 100 where they will have to contend with McCluer North and their stud anchor DaMonte Bell and the 4 x 800 where SLUH brings in a squad that ran 7:55 without one of their top guys at Sectionals. Still, even losses in those two events give East somewhere between 30 and 40 points from just four events. In some years, forty points will win the whole meet.
Of course you cannot have a 4 x 400 team capable of a 3:14 without outstanding quarter-milers. East could very well go 1-2 in the 400 with the duo of Michael Hester and Tarrel Downing. We could stop the preview right here as the 400 combined with the relays might be enough for them to win. For good measure though they should get points from distance ace Charles Johnson in the 1600 and the 800. Banjo Jaiyesimi should score in the 800 as well. Laron Cook in the jumps and Walter Powell in the hurdles could throw a few more points on the pile. When it is all said and done Hazelwood East could go north of 70 points, rarified air at the State Meet.
In track and field there are always what-if scenarios and they are pretty darn fun so let's have some fun! If East has a slip-up here or there and scores in the low 60s or even the 50s instead of the 70s then there are a couple of teams that could jump up and grab the title. One is Lee's Summit West who will look to add a track title to the cross country championship they won in the fall.
Speaking of cross country if LSW had a healthy Kevin Colon, the State champ over hill and dale, they would have a much better chance this weekend. Unfortunately, Colon has a stress fracture and will have to wait until next fall to compete. That leaves LSW's chances mostly in the field events. Senior Brooks Mosier has a good chance to win the shot and the discus while fellow senior Drew Phoebus could do the same in the pole vault. After that LSW will hope to garner points in both hurdles races courtesy of junior Zach Gray as well as in both short relays. A great couple of days should put them somewhere in the 50s with an outside chance to hit 60.
After LSW, the Junior Billikens from Saint Louis U. High are probably the only other team with a real chance for an upset. SLUH has one major positive going for them and that's the fact that they have serious chances to win several events. Adding ten points on top of ten points and so on can really boost your overall score in a hurry. Their best chances for wins are in the 100 and 200 where senior Ronnie Wingo appears to be the class of the field. Wingo, fourth in the 100 way back in 2006 when he was just a freshman, has yet to win an individual State Title but with no Maurice Mitchell this will be his best chance yet.
Their next best opportunity for a win is in the 4 x 800 relay where for most of the year they have been the best squad in the State. That was until they ran against Hazelwood East at Sectionals and were handed a four second loss. They did, however, hold out junior Caleb Ford, a state qualifier in the 1600 and 3200. We think it will take a sub 7:50 to win the race and with two guys who have gone 1:56 for the open 800 in Nick Seckfort and Austin Cookson SLUH should have a very good chance to do just that.
The rest of their points will come from the aforementioned trio of Ford, Seckfort and Cookson. Seckfort is one of the top seeds in the 800 and has been incredibly consistent all season long, running several races at 1:56 or 1:57 . It doesn't appear Seckfort would be able to beat Ozark's Sam Jones but a runner-up finish appears possible. In the 1600 and 3200 Cookson and Ford will be counted on for major points. Cookson has the fastest 1600 time coming in and Ford has gone under 4:20 . In the 3200 Cookson has gone 9:20 and Ford 9:28. Do the math and a great point total for SLUH would be right around 60 which would put them in the hunt with LSW for second.
While we were afraid to make predictions on the girls side we'll go ahead and say we think the Hazelwood East Spartans will hoist the championship trophy on Saturday afternoon. It's track and field though so you never know. Best of luck to everyone and be sure to check out bigriverrunning.com for complete coverage of the meet!
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