2022 MSHSAA State Track & Field Championships Class 1 Boys
The Virtual State Meet from sectional performances proved to be close to what played out in Jefferson City and the virtual meet top-4 teams placed as expected from their sectional results. St. Louis County's Principia, led by junior sprint superstar Issam Asinga and senior distance standout Rex Heath, produced a dominant win. Principia totaled 73 points to win the Class 1 Boys title after moving from Class 2 last year, when they finished 6th, just seven points from a team trophy.
Asinga, who won and set the Class 2 State meet records in the 100, 200, and 400-meter dashes last year, won the 100 and 200-meters while anchoring Principia's 4x100 and 4x200-meter relays to 3rd and 2nd-place finishes. After a wind-aided 10.41 100-meter prelim clocking, Asinga set the Class 1 State meet record with a 10.69 in the final. Asinga blistered the track with a 21.25 200-meter prelim with virtually no wind (0.1m/second) for the Class 1 State meet record. He followed that in the finals with a 21.95-seconds time, running into 1.5-meters-per-second wind, to earn his 5th individual state title.
Principia senior Rex Heath, who can never be accused of not giving his all as it's visibly evident he pushes himself to his physical limit ever race, ran to runner-up finishes in the 1600 and 3200-meter runs, while anchoring the runner-up 4x800 squad and 4x400 squads. Heath's most impressive moment may have come on the 10th of his 16th laps of the meet. Trailing West Nodaway's Riley Blay by almost 4-seconds at the bell lap of the 3200-meters on a hot and humid Friday afternoon, Heath dropped a 65-second last quarter, pulling within a stride of Blay on the homestretch before Blay picked it up the last 50-meters to hold on for a 1.72-second win, 9:47 to 9:48.
Principia - 1st
Principia scored in nine of 12 track events and one field event to cruise to the team title. The Worth County Tigers earned the 2nd-place team trophy, scoring 47 points to edge Green City and their total of 44 points. Asinga and Principia beat the field and Worth County, but Asinga also knocked Worth County's Eli Mullock off the top spot in the state meet record book in the 100-meter dash, a record Mullock set in 2011 of 11.01.
Worth County was led by their sprint and hurdle corps. Seniors Aydan Gladstone and Jace Cousatte took 4th and 6th in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.19 and 16.21. The duo teamed up with Levi Cassavaugh and Braxton Hightshoe to take 3rd in the 4x200. Cassavaugh and Hightshoe were joined by Tyler New and Alex Rinehart to take 8th in the 4x100. Gladstone added a 3rd-place finish in the pole vault with a 13-1'' clearance.
Jase Latham added a 4th-place shot put finish with a best toss of 14.43m/47-04.25''. Rinehart was 4th in the javelin with a best of 46.86m/153-09''. After a 6th-place finish in the high hurdles, Cousatte earned the bronze medal in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 41.31. The Tigers leapfrogged Green City in the final event of the day. Worth County captured the 4x400 easily in 3:33 to pass Green City for the 2nd-place team trophy.
Worth County -2nd
Green City was led for the second straight year by Asher Buggs-Tipton. Last year Green City racked up 87 points to win the state title and beat the runner-up by 39 points. Sophomore superstar Buggs-Tipton kept his state meet undefeated streak going, capturing his 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th state titles. Buggs-Tipton won the 110 and 300-meter hurdles in 14.41 and 39.43-seconds.
Buggs-Tipton took just two attempts in the long jump before passing Friday morning. His second attempt 6.56m/21-07.25 won the event by 4 inches. After 3.5-hour delay to the meet for Day 2 on Saturday, athletes were limited to four attempts each with no final round. Buggs-Tipton again took just two of his possible four attempts as he had the two hurdle race finals ahead of him. His second attempt 13.11m/43-00.25'' was good enough for another gold by more than a foot. Green City's other four points came from a 5th-place 4x100 finish.
Green City - 3rd
West Nodaway, wearing their Nodaway Valley uniforms, took 4th place scoring 39 points, led by distance star Riley Blay. The sophomore Blay completed the distance sweep, winning the 800, 1600, and 3200-meter state titles. Blay won the 3200 in toasty conditions in 9:47.21. He's still got two years to break big brother Tyler's meet record of 9:34 set last year. Saturday, Blay won the 1600-meters in a 4-second personal record (PR) 4:25, impressive for a sophomore no matter what classification or school size.
Blay kicked past Principia's Sam Omware on the homestretch to win the 800-meter title in 2:02.01. Senior James Herr finished in 3rd for West Nodaway, adding 6 more team points. Fellow senior Dawson Fast sprinted to a 6th-place finish in the 400-meter dash to earn three more team points.
West Nodaway - 4th
The King City boys earned a state meet record and finished 5th in the team standings scoring 30.5 points. They bested Skyline's 2015 meet record, running 43.93 in the 4x100 prelims before wining the finals on Saturday. They made it a sweep of the short sprint relays, claiming the 4x200 title with a 1:32.13 finals victory, after taking 2nd to Principia in the prelims on Friday. Ty Mooney took 6th individually in the 100-meter dash. King City also got points from Levi Hittle in the High Jump where he took 3rd. Landon Wells added a 7th-place finish in the long jump.
Stanberry was 6th with 27 points. Princeton and Wellington-Napoleon tied for 7th with 22 points. Mound City, Hayti, and Lakeland tied for 9th with 21 points while Santa Fe was 12th with 19 points.
Men - Class 1 - Team Rankings - 19 Events Scored
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1) Principia HS 73 2) Worth County HS 47
3) Green City HS 44 4) West Nodaway HS 39
5) King City HS 30.50 6) Stanberry HS 27
7) Princeton HS 22 7) Wellington-Napoleon HS 22
9) Mound City HS 21 9) Hayti HS 21
9) Lakeland HS 21 12) Santa Fe HS 19
13) Atlanta HS 18 14) Appleton City HS 17
15) Newtown-Harris HS 16 15) Marion C. Early HS 16
15) Hermitage HS 16 15) Sacred Heart HS 16
19) Humansville HS 15 20) Tri-County HS 14
20) College Heights Christian 14 20) Orrick HS 14
20) Crystal City HS 14 20) Galena HS 14
25) Thomas Jefferson Independe 13 25) Winona HS 13
27) Tina-Avalon HS 10 28) Albany HS 9
28) St. Paul Lutheran (Farming 9 28) Macks Creek HS 9
31) Viburnum HS 8 31) Liberal HS 8
31) South Holt HS 8 31) Gilman City HS 8
35) Bell City HS 7 36) Leeton HS 6
36) Knox County HS 6 36) Jasper HS 6
39) Chadwick HS 5.50 40) Greenwood HS 4
40) Hardin-Central HS 4 42) Dora HS 3
42) Wheaton HS 3 42) Norwood HS 3
42) La Plata HS 3 42) Norborne HS 3
42) Midway HS 3 48) Tarkio HS 2.50
48) Richland HS 2.50 50) Glasgow HS 2
50) Madison HS 2 50) Northeast (Cairo) HS 2
50) Rich Hill HS 2 54) Paris HS 1
54) Stoutland HS 1 54) Crossroads College Prepar 1
54) Braymer HS 1 54) Pattonsburg HS 1
54) Slater HS 1