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 110m Hurdles.
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Class 5 Outlook
As we mentioned in the 300m Hurdles outlook, Lee's Summit North's Devan Mathis (above)had a State meet for the ages last year, picking up gold medals in the 110m Hurdles, 300m Hurdles, and 4x400m Relay, and a gold and overall State meet record in the 4x200m Relay. These wins accounted for 40 of the 63 points the Broncos used to win the Class 5 State team title. Well, Mathis is back for an encore this year as he looks to build off his breakout junior campaign.
Mathis was a state medalist in the 300m Hurdles as a junior but finished fifth at his District meet in the 110m Hurdles in 15.25, one of only two marks he posted under 16 seconds. Fast forward to 2024 and Mathis would go under that mark all ten times he competed, culminating in a dominant State victory in 14.13 (-0.1). He and Park Hill's Braylon Agee are well ahead of the third best returners in Class 5.
Agee crossed the line at State in fourth last season, capping off a breakout sophomore campaign on a similar level to Mathis. After entering the season with a 16.78 personal best, Agee worked his way all the way down to 14.29 (-0.1). He broke the 15 second barrier a whopping nine times and is the best junior in the entire state.
The Francis Howell duo of Tomas Foreman and Curtiss Witt enter the season third and fourth on the performance list. Witt was ninth at State last year and Foreman eleventh, but both Vikings return with personal best marks of 14.69 and 14.71, respectively. Liberty's Femi Nilson, the third of three non-senior all-staters in 2024, is fifth among returners with a 14.73 (+0.3) personal best from State prelims. He is another one who enjoyed a major breakout last season, after having run a previous best of 16.27 in 2023, his only career mark under 17 seconds up to that point.
Francis Howell's Curtiss Witt and Liberty's Femi Nilson
Finally, he won't show up as high on the 2024 returner rankings, but Staley's Jeremiah Kelley will be looking to re-enter the conversation in 2025 after "only" running 14.90 in what appears to be an injury-shortened 2024 season. He posted a 14.18 (-0.9) personal best his sophomore season and appears to be back in his stride already with an 8.18 60m Hurdles mark already this winter. We are also watching to see if Joshua Guyton, who ran 14.88w for St. Mary's in 2023 but plays football for Cape Girardeau Central now, will be back for his senior track and field season. Overall, as it stands now, 11 Class 5 runners are returning under 15 seconds, including three from Willard High School.
Staley's Jeremiah Kelley
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Class 4 Outlook
The 2024 State runner-up is Class 4's top returner; Parkway North's Jon'David White is looking to pick up a gold medal in 2025 after just narrowly missing out last year. His 14.64 (+1.3) personal best was 0.09 seconds behind the champion. He is one of five returners under 15 seconds in Class 4 as it stands now, and the best of the three returning all-staters based on performance and place.
Second on the performance list is Cardinal Ritter's Jadon Wright. The Ritter boys should find themselves in Class 4 once again this year while the girls go for the five-peat in Class 5, though this will be their last year in Class 4 unless they can build off last year's third place performance at State. Wright is a catalyst for the Lions with his marks in both the 110 and 300m hurdles from last year, his debut season. He ran 14.79 (+1.3) for third at the State meet and is not too far off the top mark and a crucial ten points for Ritter's trophy defense.
The next two returners punched tickets to the State meet, but missed out on the podium in 2024: Hannibal's Chance Whiteside and Hillsboro's Clayton Brown. Whiteside ran his 14.81 personal best at the Sectional 2 meet and Brown, who was third in the 300m Hurdles, ran his personal best 14.88 at the District 1 meet. Capital City's Isaiah Franklin ran 14.85 as a sophomore in 2023 and 14.96 last spring, but we are projecting Capital City being the lowest enrollment squad in Class 5 and Farmington's Bryson Logan should find himself comfortably in Class 5 with his 15.01 personal best, so it is De Smet's Liam Russo, the seventh place finisher in 2024, who is fifth among returners with his 15.04 (+1.3) mark.
Hillsboro's Clayton Brown
DeSmet's Liam Russo
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Class 3 Outlook
Graduation has completely flipped the Class 3 110m Hurdles landscape on its head as the top seven and eight of the top ten runners from 2024 have moved on to the collegiate ranks, leaving Lawson's Blaize Vaughn at the top of the rankings. Vaughn was the only non-senior on the podium last spring, finishing seventh in 15.02 (+1.8). He is a three-time all-stater now with a Class 2 medal in his freshman season and a sixth place medal in Class 3 in 2023 and will lead the way for this group heading into 2025.
While the podium was almost exclusively seniors, the bunch that did not qualify out of prelims was almost exclusively non-seniors. Ninth overall at State last year was California's Jackson Hensley, the second-best returner based on marks. Hensley nearly finished his sophomore campaign undefeated with his only loss coming at the State meet. He ran 15.13 at the District 5 meet. Lutheran North's Zahir Harvey ran 15.41 (+0.8) at last year's State meet, finishing tenth, and is third among returners. Maryville's Sadler Viau and Blair Oaks 300m hurdles star Jaxon Engelbrecht are fourth and fifth on the list with respective 15.58 and 15.61 bests. Engelbrecht was eleventh last year and Viau fourteenth, with Notre Dame Cape's Trenton Powell between them in twelfth. Powell was the sixth best in the entire State last spring.
Blair Oaks' Jaxon Engelbrecht above and Notre Dame's Trenton Powell below
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Class 2 Outlook
The only returner in Classes 1-3 under 15 seconds is East Buchanan's Seth Spencer, one part of a dynamic duo for the Bulldogs. Spencer is the reigning Class 2 champion after running 14.76 (+1.2) to hold off the now-graduated Camden Mayes from Crystal City. His next closest competitor is nearly seven-tenths of a second back, making Spencer a heavy favorite to pull in the repeat victory this spring.
Diamond's Zachary Roughton is the best bet to challenge Spencer this season with his 15.41 (+1.2) personal best. He was third across the line at State last year after finishing ninth in 2023.
Russellville's Keaton Schrimpf (sixth) and Malden's Elijah Beckett (eighth) are the other two returning all-staters, but it is Adrian's Colton Miller who is third among returners with his 15.44 best. A sub-40 second 300 meter hurdler, Miller has been fifth at his Sectional meet in this event in two straight years now, but appears ready to assert himself as one of the State's best.
Adrian's Colton Miller
Russellville's Keaton Schrimpf
Gatlon Malotte from Sarcoxie and Louisiana's Jamal Blackwell are fourth and fifth among returners with their 15.54 and 15.80 bests, with Schrimpf and Beckett coming in sixth and seventh. Only seven boys enter the 2025 season under 16 seconds so expect some new faces to emerge as podium contenders this spring.
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Class 1 Outlook
Five Class 1 boys are back for the 2025 season under 16 seconds in the 110m Hurdles. Four of the five are defending podium spots and Mound City's August Meadows is looking to take the final step up to the top. Meadows was the runner-up last May, running 15.65 (-1.2), but boasts a career best of 15.46. He is tops among Class 1 returners based on marks, but not too far behind is Worth County's Lucas Frisch. Frisch ended up going from 18.02 to 15.57 in his first season giving the 110m Hurdles a shot and climbed all the way to third at the State meet.
Mound City's August Meadows above, and Worth County's Lucas Frisch below
Northwestern (Mendon)'s Tyler Robinson was among the top freshmen in the entire state last season, running 15.62, but ended up eleventh at the State meet. He is the only of the top five returners without a medal to their name. Everton's Lane Wood earned a fifth place medal and is fourth among returners with the 15.69 (+0.8) mark that earned him Lane 5 for State finals. Cooper Henderson out of Wellsville-Middletown and Meadows' teammate Chauncey Brown are also returning all-staters and stand fifth and sixth among returners with respective 15.94 and 16.00 personal bests.
Mound City's Chauncey Brown, left and Everton's Lane Wood, right
