Another April week down and we are one more closer to the State Series. One big meet after another this week seemed to produce one big performance after another. We did our best to sift through all of the eye-popping marks.
As we get further into the season, we are still looking for athletes who have not been featured as nominees yet, which is difficult when so many Missourians are putting together the top marks in their respective events week in and week out. So here are five nominees from the week of 4/21-4/26.
Voting ends May 2nd at 12:00pm.
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Shout out to last week's winner: Francis Howell's Amelia Ward! The junior earned four victories and three personal records in Jefferson City at the Licklider Relays on Friday. Ward won the triple jump with an 11.86m/38-11 leap to put her 5th on the state performance list. She followed with a win in the 100 hurdles in a state #16 time of 15.38 seconds. Ward then helped her teammates earn gold medals with a blazing 4x100 anchor leg to give the Vikings a come-from-behind victory in 49.32 seconds, the 11th-best mark in the state. Ward capped her day with a 4th gold in the 300 hurdles in 44.78 to put her 6th in the state. She will be a part of our end-of-season poll where we crown the Athlete of the year!
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Past winners:
Week 1 - Penelope Hansen - Sparta
Week 2 - Polly Fendler - St. Teresa's Academy
Week 3 - Naila Kerr - Cardinal Ritter
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Havyn Smith - Pattonville
The freshman phenom raced twice Saturday at the Ladue Brusca-Strohbach Invitational, earning two victories.. She opened with a MO#4 55.88 second finish in the 400 before a blistering 200-meter dash. In the 200, Smith edged Ladue's Delaney Brinker to win the 200 in 23.90.
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The sophomore had an eye-popping performance at the Ladue Brusca-Strohbach Invitational in St. Louis County. Briles earned the victory, a 12.6-second personal record (PR), and put herself 2nd in the state with a 4:58.24 1600 meter run. The mark also puts her just outside the top-200 in the U.S.
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Addyson Brown - Francis Howell
The senior took third in the shot put before winning the shot put with a big PR at Parkway North's Fred Lyon Invitational. Brown put the shot 12.81 meters (42-0.5'), breaking a 37-year-old school record at the original Howell. The effort moved Brown to third on the 2025 season performance list.
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Annabelle Gardener - Pattonsburg
Gardner earned a victory in the high jump at the Worth County's Tiger Relays. Gardner cleared 1.75-meters (5-8.75'). The performance puts her 2nd on the 2025 season performance list, ties her for fourth on the All-Time Missouri MileSplit State Meet performance list, ties her for first on the Class 1 all-time list, and ties her for 17th in the country on the season.
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Lucy Rines - St. Joseph's Academy
The sophomore ran to an 8.5--second PR, winning the GISL Conference 3200-meters in 10:58.65. The performance makes her the second fastest in the state.
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