Class 1 Boys
Jacob Querry Repeats In 200/400, Leads Rich Hill To Team Title
After pulling in golds in the 200 and 400 in 2018, Rich Hill's Jacob Querry returned for his senior campaign to defend his titles. He would turn in the top marks in prelims (22.62 and 50.73), he would leave no doubt in sealing the deal on Saturday.
"I was real nervous coming into today," Querry remarked. "Six guys in the 22's in the 200, and a couple within a couple hundredths [of a second] in the 400, so I was real nervous.
It ended up being a busy weekend for Querry. In addition to the victories in the 200 (22.42) and 400 (50.63), he also posted anchor legs on the third place 4x100 relay (44.87) and fifth place 4x400 relay (3:35.72). His 49.15 split was the fastest 400 of the entire weekend and pulled the Tigers from 7th to 5th in the race.
Querry contributed to the scoring of 30 of Rich Hill's 47 points, helping them take their first team title since 1997 when they scored 103 points and won by 54.
Also coming up big for the Tigers was sophomore Clifton Bridgewater, whose 177-5 mark in the javelin also broke the Class 1 record. Though it stands as the state meet record, Bridgewater has also thrown a MO No. 4 overall, US No. 11 mark among sophomores of 184-2. A young man of few words, Bridgewater remarked that he put all his faith in his coach and that's how he was able to "get it done."
The other seven points were picked up by Taron Mumma's fourth place finish in the javelin and Adam Bridgewater's seventh place finish in the shot put.
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Evan Smith Wins Distance Treble
Chadwick's Evan Smith took Class 1 by storm this spring.
After finishing 6th at the state cross country meet, even though he was the 2nd fastest performer in Class 1 during the season, Smith came back for track season with a vengeance.
He kicked off his weekend with a victory in the 1600, going wire to wire for the victory in 4:28.25. He took it out in a brisk 2:09 through the first 800, but succumbed to the heat of the early afternoon and came back in 2:19 to close out the win. School of the Ozarks freshman Titus Thompson used a late kick to grab second.
Smith spoke with us after the 1600 win:
The Southwest Baptist University commit was far from finished, though, as he came back for another victory in the 800 later that day. Unaware of what the time was until nearly a half hour after crossing the line as the starter had neglected to attach the FAT sensor to the starting gun, Smith eventually found out that he had run 2:02.4 for the victory. He was able to hold off a late charge from Meadville's Dillon Seckington.
Finally, Smith capped off the treble with his victory in the 3200. Clopton's Donovan Denslow took out the pace hard with back-to-back 1:09 laps and a 4:48 first mile, but the rest of the group, including Smith, who were 8 seconds back at the mile, caught up to him as they entered the sixth lap and pulled away.
Smith would go on to win the 3200, holding off Princeton's Preston Thomas, to finish in 10:07.01. Thomas came across in 10:12.63 and Denslow was able to hold on for third in 10:14.53.
This capped off a career in which Smith earned 12 all-state medals in track and cross country and 4 state championships.
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Gage McAdams Repeats In Pole Vault, Narrowly Misses Own Class Record
Tarkio/East Atchison's Gage McAdams was a man on a mission on Saturday.
After breaking the Class 1 State Record in the event in 2018 in 15-0.25, the senior was looking to further that mark this year. He cleared a new personal best of 15-3 at the Sectional meet, but topped out at 14-6 this weekend.
"I didn't have a pole big enough for me today, but I was still able to come out on top so that's what was important for me," he said of his day.
McAdams also finished second in the javelin in 162-6 and placed 11th in the high jump. He is moving on to the University of Missouri and says he has plans of potentially walking on to the track team there.
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Cameron Jones Scores 26 of 2nd Place Pattonsburg's 33 Points
Quiet as a mouse, sneaking past the media tent throughout the weekend, Pattonsburg sophomore Cameron Jones, had one of the best weekends of any individual performer in Class 1.
Jones single-handedly grabbed a second place finish for the Pattonsburg Panthers. The champion in the triple jump with a mark of 43-8.75 (-0.3), Jones also added a third place mark in the long jump, going 21-6.5 (+4.7).
With the 16 points in hand from the jumps, Jones proceeded to add 10 more points with his fourth place finishes in both the 100 (11.55, -0.1) and 200 (23.14, +1.7).
But, he needed help from his teammate, senior Trevor Ireland to earn the second place team trophy. Ireland threw in a third place finish in the 110m Hurdles (15.74, +1.5) and finished eighth in the 300mH (41.90 prelims, 45.42 finals).
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