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 Boys 400m Dash.
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Class 5 Outlook
The Hickman Kewpies have dominated the sprint previews with Langston Thomas boasting the top marks in the 100 and 200 and now sophomore sensation John Moss holding the top spot in the 400 meter dash heading into the 2025 season. Moss lived up to the hype in his freshman season, running 10.72, 22.29, and 48.96 before the calendar even hit April. He would eventually finish the season with 21.89 and 47.98 personal bests, and while he was unable to earn an individual state medal in any of the three events, he was a key part of Hickman's all-state 4x200 relay and State champion 4x100 relay.
Only one of the top eight finishers from last year's Class 5 State meet is back for the 2025 season and it is the eighth place finisher, Jude Leicht from CBC. As a sophomore, Leicht snuck into the field of almost exclusively seniors with a personal best 48.39 mark in prelims, only his second career mark under 50 seconds up to that point. In a loaded field with 13 boys at 49.28 or better and 11 under 49 seconds, earning a medal in 2024 was an impressive feat.
Hazelwood Central's Deontea Anthony came across tenth in prelims with a 48.88 mark, though this was a half-second behind his career best 48.38 from the Sectional 2 meet. He was sandwiched between the Jackson brotherly duo of Barrett Reagan and Blayne Reagan. The only two brothers in the state under 49 seconds with 48.66 and 48.94 respective bests, the Indians have a solid 1-2 punch in the bridge event between sprints and distance. Get used to them, too, because we will be seeing the name Reagan near the top of the state rankings for at least three more years. Rock Bridge's Justin Giles is the sixth athlete under 49 to be mentioned here, though he is fifth among returners with a 48.86 best. He will be a key contributor as Rock Bridge hopes to return to the top of the team ranks in Class 5.
Finally, Melvin Sledge may have only ran 49.10 as a junior last season, but was the Class 4 State Champion in 2023, running 48.16 and anchored his Hazelwood East squad to State gold, as well, in a blazing fast 46.90 split. The Spartans will most likely stay in Class 5 again this season after just barely making the leap last year so watch for Sledge to be fully in the mix in 2025.
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Class 4 Outlook
Movement out of Class 4 will play a major role in both the Class 4 and Class 5 outlook heading into the 2025 season as three of the top ten returners should find themselves in Class 5 this year. They are No. 2 man Rylan Wilson from Ladue (49.61), No. 3 returner Alex Lacke from North Point (49.63), and No. 9 returner Evan Via (50.23), also from Ladue. Wilson was seventh at the Class 4 State meet and paired with Via's older brother Gavin to run legs on Ladue's State champion 4x400 relay which won by a whopping four seconds. Lacke has been battling injury since earning all-state honors in the 800 meter run as a freshman, but he does now have all-state medals in the 4x100 and 4x400, as well, after rejoining the fold in the State series. A healthy Lacke could and should push his way into the sub-49 club in Class 5.
St. Charles' Salamone, above, and Parkway Central's Brown, below
The top returner who will be staying in Class 4, though, is St. Charles senior Jadon Salamone. Salamone was a consistently strong presence for the Pirates last spring, contributing significantly to their team success along with their distance core. He finished fourth in the Class 4 400 last spring and posted a personal best of 48.85 in early May. Parkway Central's Stanley Brown was eighth at last year's State meet and posted a 49.72 career best in prelims to get there. After breaking 50 for the first time in early May, he remained consistent in the high 49s, but has the 200 meter chops to push the envelope in 2025. Sixth place State finisher Rowan Jackson from Rockwood Summit is back for his junior season after running a personal best 49.80 in finals. He dropped nearly 5 seconds from his freshman year and started the season at 54.14 before dropping all the way down to his State mark. Also keep an eye on Warrenton's Chance McPike, who posted a 50.00 mark in his freshman campaign on the heels of a stellar middle school career. He was eleventh at the 2024 State meet. Cardinal Ritter's Antonio Parker is just a tick behind him, as well, with his 50.01 career best and twelfth at the State meet.
Rockwood Summit's Rowan Jackson
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Class 3 Outlook
The top overall returner in the State resides in Class 3 as Lutheran North's Michael Clark boasts a 47.88 best and looks to earn another State gold in the quarter mile.
Clark, a sophomore last season, stormed to victory over two juniors, posting a massive career best after breaking 50 second for the first time in the season (and second time in his career) in prelims the day before.
The 47.88 mark was necessary as William Seitz (above) of El Dorado Springs and Fair Grove's Canyon Crowley (below) were both under 48.5 and hot on his heels in a hotly contested race. A rematch of that impressive competition will surely be in the offing this spring as all three are back and two of them have been running well in the indoor season so far. Seitz and Crowley's personal bests stand at 48.27 and 48.49, respectively, after that burner of a State finals.
The fourth best returner is Borgia's Harry Mitchell (below) who had a front-row seat to that fast race while he crossed the line in fifth in a time of 49.78, just off the 49.76 he had run in prelims. The rest of the field comes in over 50 seconds, led by Lutheran South's Ike Fronabarger, though he may have eclipsed that barrier had his season not have ended in late April. His 50.41 stands as his personal best now, but a 36.54 300 meter time in mid-January shows that he is already on his way to sub-50.
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Class 2 Outlook
Three boys in Class 2 head into the season with marks under 50 seconds, but unlike the first three classes, none of them are under 49. Charleston's Kamirion Wiley is very close, though, as the 2024 Class 2 runner-up boasts a personal best 49.01 which he ran in the State prelims. It was a 49.10 in finals that earned him a silver medal ahead of fellow sub-50 returners Matthew Waltman (Jefferson Festus) and Mason Rusow (Adrian). Waltman was third overall and Rusow fourth, both running their respective personal bests of 49.31 and 49.41 in the State finals.
Kamirion Wiley
Matthew Waltman
Mason Rusow
Coming in after those two was Tipton's Riley Walters whose 50.74 personal best earned him fifth overall. St. Vincent's Clayton Gremaud would be the fifth-best returner in Class 2 with his 50.89 personal best and seventh place State medal, but we project that St. Vincent's slight enrollment dip will drop them down to Class 1, projecting him as the second-best returner there, instead. Moving up is Lafayette County senior Labron Jennings, who was ninth at the State meet and boasts a 51.05 personal best. University Academy Charter sophomore Christian Davis comes in next based on his freshman year outdoor personal best of 51.15 (the only outdoor time he posted last season), but lest we forget the 49.68 mark he ran at the 2024 New Balance Nationals Indoor meet, putting him right there with Class 2's best in yet another event.
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Class 1 Outlook
Gremaud's movement into Class 1 will only shake up the outlook in that there will now be at least one returner within two seconds of reigning State champion Cade Nold. The Dora senior is the heavy favorite to repeat in 2025 after running a Class 1 meet record 49.15 in 2024 and winning by a full second.
The next closest non-senior in that race was Dekalb's Blake Norton in 51.83. Nold has already shown that he means business once again in 2025 with indoor marks of 22.76, 49.79, and 1:55.60 already in early February.
Norton may be the next best returner based on State place, but he is fifth based on time. His 51.79 best is still behind three returners who finished behind him at State, led by seventh place finisher DeJuan Chambers of Hermitage. Chambers is a three-time all-state finisher for the Hornets, a key piece to their three-peat from 2021-2023, and a now two-time all-stater in the 400. He boasts a 51.53 personal best from the State prelims. Concordia's Lane Hass had a rough go of it in the State finals, but advanced nonetheless with his 51.65 personal best and still pushed his State medal count to two after finishing sixth in the 800 as a freshman. Fourth among returners is Appleton City's Hayden Bock, the tenth place finisher at State, who boasts a personal best just a tick ahead of Norton at 51.78.
Hermitage 400/800 All-Stater DeJuan Chambers