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 800m Run.
Premium Content: Large Class Top Returners | Small Class Top Returners | All Returners Rankings
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Class 5 Outlook
Last week, we talked about the 400 meter dash being the deepest event on the girls' side from top to bottom. The 800 meter dash may be the deepest event on the boys' side, especially in Class 5.
A whopping 26 boys are currently listed in Class 5 under 2:00. Twenty enter the season under 1:59. Fifteen have posted a best under 1:58! The 800 meter run may be the most difficult event to break into at the moment.
Two Rockhurst Hawklets head into the 2025 season in the top three, under 1:54, as reigning State champion Andrew Davis and fifth place finisher William Hayes are back for their senior campaigns. Davis dropped a Class 5 State meet record 1:52.38, capping off an undefeated State series. He also anchored his squad to the narrow 4x800 victory with a 1:53.37 performance. With six open marks under 1:57 last spring and the only open mark under 1:53, Davis is the premier half-miler in the State. His teammate Hayes is third among returners with a 1:53.70 personal best from last year's electric State meet behind Kirkwood's Graham Stevener. Stevener finished third at State last year in 1:53.14 and, of course, is coming off a successful first cross country season so how that will translate to his track and field season will surely be interesting to watch. His 1:51.58 split in the 4x800 last May was the second-fastest of the weekend, but the fastest among non-seniors.
Nixa's Aaron Ashley makes it four returners under 1:55 with his 1:54.80 personal best from the Sectional 2 meet. A tough day at the office had him 16th at the State meet, but expect the senior who qualified for State all three distance events last year to be back in full force in 2025. Two sophomores come in at fifth and sixth after a run of seniors as SLUH's Jackson Miller and Carthage's Henry Laytham look to stake their claim to 800 meter State hardware in 2025. Miller opted for the 4x800, 1600, and 3200 last season, but left State weekend empty-handed in his freshman season. His 1:55.76 mark, though, was twelfth among freshmen nationally and has him in the driver's seat heading into 2025. While Miller has been on the radar since his incredible eighth grade season in 2023, Laytham very quietly pushed himself in to the Statewide conversation in his freshman season. A 2:06 runner in eighth grade, Laytham dropped all the way to a US Freshman No. 23 1:56.41 at his Sectional meet before finishing 14th at State.
Laytham, above left, Ashley, above center, Miller, below left,
2025 represents a shift year as several of the athletes who have turned this event into one of the toughest at the State level to earn a medal will be graduating. We should see another year in which 1:55.xx is the minimum for a medal, but after 22 of the top 30 Class 5 returners graduate, the 2026 landscape may look completely different.
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Class 4 Outlook
Like most events, there is a step down in terms of depth between Class 4 and 5, but there is still firepower at the top nonetheless.
Helias Catholic boasts the top returner as Ian Benne is back and eyeing State gold after finishing third to two seniors in 2024. Benne's first go at the open 800 went swimmingly in 2024 as he dropped from 2:18.76 in his season opener all the way down to 1:55.72 at the State meet. Expect the senior to kick off this spring as the top half-miler in Class 4.
Movement in and out of Class 4 will have a major effect on the 2025 outlook, starting with the departure of Abram Denney to Washington state. We also anticipate Webster Groves to move back into Class 4 this spring, which puts Colton Richardson and Corbin Cole in the mix. Richardson ran 1:57.58 last spring and has already run 1:58.62 this winter. He may also benefit from a first cross country season this fall as he gains an aerobic edge he had not had before. Also, expect ninth-ranked returner Chase Storman from Ladue and North Point's Alex Lacke, a 1:58.71 runner as a sophomore and all-stater as a freshman, to move into Class 5 this spring.
Webster Groves' Colton Richardson
As for the athletes who are already listed in the Class 4 ranks, and may be staying in this spring, Benton's Kruz Bigham is second with a 1:56.89, making him the closest competitor to Benne in 2025. Bigham had a stellar sophomore campaign after running 2:00 three straight times to end his freshman season. Of course, Benton did move down to Class 3 for cross country season and the Cardinals will be right on the border this spring, meaning it is not a sure thing that Bigham will be fighting for a Class 4 medal this spring. Father Tolton's John Glaude will be, though, and brings a 1:58.60 best to the mix, a mark that was only good enough for sixth at his Sectional meet last spring. He leads a crew of guys between 1:58.60 and 1:59.04 as Parkway Central's Beckett Friedman (eighth at State last year), West Plains's Carson King, Festus's Carson Driemeier, and Collegiate School's Owen Garrett all make up a formidable chase pack to the top two returners.
Friedman, King, and Garrett, pictured below.
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Class 3 Outlook
The departure of Brian Burns shakes up the Class 3 ranks significantly. The top returner has moved to Arkansas, meaning Herculaneum's Nathaniel Wright and Hollister's Sinry Mendoza are the top two to watch heading into the spring.
Wright took the state by storm when he posted back-to-back sub-1:56 marks last March and one more in mid-April. He would go on to finish what was surely a disappointing 11th at the State meet, but has already showed this winter he is back in business in the half-mile. His 1:55.66 at the Mizzou Elite HS Distance Invitational is second among Missourians to only Class 1 stud Cade Nold, at least as of mid-February. He will have to hold off last year's 800 meter runner-up, Sinry Mendoza, if he hopes to pick up his first State gold, though. The 3200 meter champion in 2024, Mendoza is a football player in the fall, but shows off in the distance events in the spring. Mendoza's 1:55.72 best is just a hair behind Wright, meaning the Class 3 race should be fun one in 2025.
Should Benton High School move down, Kruz Bigham will still be the fourth best returner behind John Burroughs junior Chris Tao. Tao's 1:56.72 personal best earned him a spot at State where he would go on to fourth. He headlines a solid 1-2 punch at Burroughs as his teammate Alexander Doty comes in right behind him at 1:57.71. Doty was a hard-luck fifth at his Sectional meet in 2024 in a second straight short outdoor season, but should be among the top half-milers in the entire state in 2025. Dexter's Cameron Bell, a two-time champion in the 4x800, will come in fifth now with his 1:58.14 personal best. He was ninth at State last spring.
Tao, Doty, and Bell, pictured below.
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Class 2 Outlook
Southeast Missouri dominates the Class 2 outlook with four of the top five returners coming from this region. Woodland's Hayden Vangennip, last year's State champion, leads the way, of course, with the only mark of the field under 1:59. Vangennip had a massive junior season, running a 1:58.79 personal best, his first career mark under 2:00, when it mattered most to collect the victory over Smithton's Coby Tagtmeyer. He ended up dropping a whopping nine seconds from his sophomore to junior year.
Tagtmeyer is second among returners and, as we mentioned, was the 2024 State runner-up. He ran 1:59.60 to secure his first career state medal and cap off a sophomore season in which he dropped ten seconds off his freshman year personal best. He held off Valle Catholic's William Kuehn, who ran a career best mark 1:59.94 for the bronze medal. While the other two made a massive jump forward in 2024, Kuehn is a now two-time medalist in the event looking to cap off his high school career with a State gold. He marks the last of the sub-2:00 Class 2 returners.
William Kuehn
The fourth and fifth best returners also hail from the Southeast region as Jefferson (Festus) junior Braeden Caldwell and Valle Catholic's Joshua Fallert both make what will surely be Sectional 1 the toughest Class 2 Sectional in the 800 meter run. Caldwell finished fifth at State last year with his 2:00.46 best and Fallert fell victim to the tough Sectional meet in 2024 when he finished fifth. He ran a personal best 2:00.63 last spring. The sixth fastest returner is East Buchanan's Parker Conroy. Jefferson's Caldwell and East Buchanan's Conroy made it five non-seniors to earn state medals, as the pair placed 5th and sixth at state.
Braeden Caldwell and Parker Conroy
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Class 1 Outlook
One of the larger margins between the first and second fastest returners in a class in any event, resides in the Class 1 Boys 800 as Dora's Cade Nold heads into the 2025 season as sure a lock as any to bring home State gold. The 2024 champion in both the 400 and 800, Nold should be considered the heavy preseason favorite to repeat in both in 2025.
Nold ran 1:53.96 at the Music City Track Carnival, fresh off a 1:57.04 victory at the Class 1 State meet. He had run a Class 1 State record 1:55.14 already in 2024, but pushed the margin even further in Tennessee. The 1:55.97 Class 1 meet record set way back in 2003 is in grave danger this spring. He has already run 1:55.60 indoors in February.
Michael Parrigon is the only other Class 1 returner under 2:00 with the 1:59.03 personal best that earned him the State silver medal. He will surely give Nold a run for his money this spring, though, as track fans will be wise to remember the massive 1:55.70 anchor leg he threw down to help his squad earn the Class 1 4x800 victory last spring. He is also coming off a strong cross country season and should be among the state's best distance runners.
Gilman City's Camden Griffith (fourth), Drexel's Kolbi Nichols (fifth), and Hermitage's DeJuan Chambers (sixth) are all returning all-staters looking to add more hardware to their collection this spring. All three boys are the only three others who have posted personal bests under 2:03 in Class 1.
