Over the next several weeks, Missouri MileSplit will be doing a deep dive into the top returners for each event heading into the 2025 Track and Field season. We will have premium rankings pieces highlighting the top 100 returners in each classification as well as an overall outlook for each event for all non-subscribers. Let's take a look a the Boys 300m Hurdles.
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Class 5 Outlook
Last May, Lee's Summit North's Devan Mathis (at top) had the kind of State meet you dream about. State Champion in both hurdles events going away, plus a massive anchor leg on the 4x400 meter relay, and a leg on the Overall State meet record 4x200 meter relay. Eight races, four gold medals, and, if it were a thing, he probably would have earned the "Most Valuable Athlete" award as his Broncos squad won their fourth ever team championship. His 300 meter hurdles mark of 37.24 was 7th all-time in state history and is a full 2 seconds ahead of the next closest Class 5 returner. The hurdle extraordinaire should be considered the favorite to repeat in 2025.
Lafayette's Stith left, and King, right
The next seven returners come in between 39.36 and 39.95. Lafayette's Carllion King and Santino Stith come in as the second and fourth best returners with their respective 39.36 and 39.54 bests. Stith was fifth at State last season and King was right behind in sixth. Warren Eanes from Central Cape Girardeau is third among returners with a 39.44 mark and Ft. Zumwalt North senior Aneas Smith comes in fifth among returners with a 39.63 best. He was a Sectional champion and ended up tenth at the State meet.
One major shakeup in Class 5 will come in the form of Farmington's Bryson Logan (above). He was fourth in Class 4 last season but ran 38.97 at his Sectional meet and would be the second-best returner in Class 5, assuming they move up.
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Class 4 Outlook
Two of the top five Class 4 returners will most likely be heading up to Class 5: Farmington's Bryson Logan and Capital City's Isaiah Franklin. That means only two Class 4 all-staters from 2024 are going to be back for the 2025 season: Hillsboro's Clayton Brown and Kearney's Grant Noland. Brown will be looking to continue the long legacy of 300 meter hurdle success at Hillsboro with a win this season while he builds off his 39.10 personal best. Noland has back-to-back fifth-place finishes at the State meet to his name now and should be among the contenders to win it all in 2025. He ran 39.70 last April and was under 40.7 six different times. 
Hillsboro's Brown above, and Kearney's Noland, below
Kearney's Samuel Way comes in third among returners with those two boys heading up to Class 5, making the Kearney duo the best in Class 4 most likely. Cardinal Ritter's Jadon Wright and Osage's Andrew Groos are the only other two athletes under 41 seconds among returners.
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Class 3 Outlook
There is a theme in Classes 1-3 wherein the top returner in each class is the only one coming back with a career best mark under 40 seconds. In Class 3, it is state runner-up Jaxon Engelbrecht from Blair Oaks (above). The first-team all-state wide receiver from the powerhouse football program ran 39.17 last season and was one of only two non-seniors on the medal stand in this event last May. The other non-senior was now-sophomore Trenton Powell from Notre Dame Cape Girardeau (below), but he is not the best sophomore returner on time. His 40.96 was good enough to get on the podium last season, but he is behind Eldon's Collin Brisbin on the Class of 2027 list. Brisbin ran 40.60 at his Sectional meet.
Kelly's Evan Shoaf is third among returners with a 40.75 personal best; that will round out the returners under 41 seconds. Clever's Gage Evans is fifth among returners with his 41.13 personal best.
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Class 2 Outlook
East Buchanan's Seth Spencer exploded in his junior season, winning the State championship in the 110 meter hurdles and 300 meter hurdles and dropping his personal bests significantly. Heading into the 2025 season, Spencer is nearly two seconds ahead of the next closest returner, West Platte's Alex Kinslow, and should be considered the favorite to repeat this spring. Kinslow (below) ran 40.30 and finished third last May.
Four other podium finishers return in Adrian's Colton Miller, Mansfield's Malachi Ussery (though Mansfield may find themselves in Class 1 this year), Diamond's Zachary Roughton, and New Bloomfield's Jacob Fuhriman. These four boys, plus the aforementioned two, make up the top "five" returners for 2025 (Roughton and Fuhriman are tied with their 41.36 personal bests). Miller did run 39.66 as a sophomore, so expect him to challenge for the title again in 2025.
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Class 1 Outlook
The top returner in Class 1 is in the 38s and the second best returner is in the 41s, nobody else is under 42 seconds. Mound City's August Meadows is the runaway preseason favorite to win the State meet again in 2025. He ran his only two sub-40 second marks of his career in the prelims and finals at last year's Class 1 State Championships and his 38.91 Class 1 State meet record personal best. 
Greenfield's Devin Steeley is the only other returner under 42 seconds with his 41.49 personal best. Steeley was a state qualifier in 2023, but his 2024 season was limited to only two races. Worth County's Lucas Frisch (below) was fifth last May and is third among returners with his 42.25 best. La Plata's Kendrick Hulett was seventh at State and is fourth among returners with tenth place finisher Hunter Miller from Newtown-Harris fifth.
