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 at the Girls 200m Dash.
Premium Content: Large Class Top Returners | Small Class Top Returners | All Returners Rankings
--
Class 5 Outlook
Class 4 Outlook
Class 4's top returner is McDonald County's Samantha Dowd. After transferring from one corner of the state (Poplar Bluff) to another, Dowd picked up a silver medal at the Class 4 State meet behind Parkway Central's Skyye Lee, running 24.05 (+2.2). She was under 25 seconds 6 other times over the spring and summer seasons and has run 26.01 this winter so far.
Jahmeshia Patterson lands in the outlooks for the third time - the first athlete to do that so far - as she is second among returners with a 24.29 (-0.5) personal best from last year's State prelims. She was fourth overall in Finals the next day.
A hurdle specialist, she was the key to the Tigers' fifth place finish in 2024 and will surely be their front-runner as they go for the win in 2025. McCluer North's Jordyn Buckley ran 24.58 last April and ended the season with a 24.59 (+2.2) mark for fifth at the State meet. She had a busy spring and summer with 43 performances to her name across the 100, 200, and 400 meter dashes.
Bourn, left, and McCluer North's Jordyn Buckley, right,
Desoto's Neoles Bourn and Pleasant Hill's Brooke Beck (one of the most well-rounded runners in the entire state) will be among the state contenders, as well, with respective 25.23 and 25.32 personal bests. North Point's Alyssa Anderson ran 25.37 last spring, but the senior should be joining Class 5 as well, adding yet another strong long sprinter to the Class 5 mix.
Beck, Buckley, and Anderson in the 2024 Class 4 State 400 prelims
--
Class 3 Outlook
Class 3 State Champion Amya Bills is back for her sophomore season and looking to build off a debut season for the ages. Bills won golds in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, as well as the long jump, and is the heavy favorite to repeat in all three this spring. In the 200, she was undefeated in 13 attempts after her March 16th opener and her 25.14 (-0.8) personal best has her in the driver's seat in the pre-season.
Coming across after Bills and two seniors was Miller Career Academy's Angel Mimes. The 25.94 (-0.8) she posted at the Class 3 State meet capped off an impressive breakout junior season in which she dropped all the way from a 27.27, the only sub-28 mark of her career at that point, all the way down to that 25.94 podium finish. Alexis Kinney's 25.73 came after her unfortunate ninth place finish at the State meet and has her second among returners.
Alexis Kinney of Ewing Marion Kauffman School
Ava Tobias is listed fourth with a 26.01, but expect Incarnate Word Academy to move up to Class 4 this spring, pushing her out of the Class 3 mix.
Incarnate Word's Ava Tobias
No other returners boast an all-state medal or sub-26 mark to their name, but Fair Grove's Sage Crowley was not too far off in both her 8th grade season in 2023 and last year's freshman campaign. Crowley ran 26.10 two years ago and hit 26.13 last spring. Lauren Waldron is also close based on a mark from 2023: her 2s6.07 personal best came two years ago, but last year's season best of 26.13 still has her right in the mix with the state's best.
--
Class 2 Outlook
The Class 2 girls' field is staadscked with talent and depth as it features a whopping ten girls under 26 seconds return for the 2025 season. The top 12 returning marks were posted at the Class 2 State Championship meet in either prelims or finals.
North Platte superstar sprinter Lindsay Ramsey leads the way, of course, as she eyes repeat of her sprint treble. Ramsey ran a meet record 24.32 (0.2) to secure the victory over Lutheran North's Genesis Garner. She ran under 25.20 seconds seven times last year. Garner's 24.64 (0.2) was one of 12 marks under 26 seconds across the spring and summer and earned her second 200 meter silver medal in two tries.
The chase pack is led by a cavalcade of all-staters. In fact, only one of the medal winners and three of the sixteen state qualifiers from 2024 has graduated. Jefferson (Festus)'s Margaret Wrigley was third overall and is third on time among returners with a 25.27 (0.2) best.
Wrigley, left, Reece center, and Pahl, right
Penney's Teagan Ford also boasts a personal best mark from the State finals: 25.30 (0.2). She was under 26 seconds seven times and is tied from Zoie Bradley for fifth among Class 2 returners after finishing sixth at State. West Platte's Sam Baker and South Callaway's Reece Pahl are the other two returning all-state runners with personal bests of 25.54 (0.8) and 25.69 (0.8).
--
Class 1 Outlook
Like the Class 2 field, seven of the eight State medalists in 2024 are back for the 2025 season, led by the reigning champion Emma Spencer of Worth County.
She is the only returner under 26 seconds with a 25.91 (0.0) personal best. Carley Klima of St. Paul Lutheran (Farmington) is second among returners on time, though her 26.13 personal best came in the first meet of the season and was her only sub-28 second mark. Addison Grossenbacher finished second at last year's State meet in 26.14 (0.0) and should be the best bet at an upset if there is one.
The other five returning all-staters all Clare Staley, Audrey Gibson, Olivia Cross, Penelope Banta, and Harper Copenhaver. Staley is fourth among returners on time with her 26.59 personal best and Banta and Gibson come in with 26.75 and 26.76 bests. These seven are the only ones who ran 27.00 or better last spring.
Left to Right: Gibson, Cross, Staley, and Grossenbacher