As the calendar has officially turned to May, we have already started to see the adaptation of all those months of training take shape with teams across the state. Most notably, several relay teams had stellar performances even with tinkers to their lineups. Saturday's Ladue Brusca-Strobach Invitational may have been Exhibit A.
Ladue and Helias Catholic seemingly both put their A squads on the line in the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x400 meter relays. In the first of the three, Ladue ran the second fastest time in State history: 1:38.23. This is, of course, the fastest time in the state so far this year and a US #30. Helias Catholic's A squad gave us all a preview of what two pieces of the state finals may look like with their own 1:39.42 time.
Later in the 4x100 meter relay, Helias ran their same team of four - Nicki Frank, Deaven Duemmel, Leah Polley, and Isla Alfultis - ran the top time of the week in Missouri, 47.68, taking down the current state leader Cardinal Ritter who were notably down two of their top sprint/hurdlers on the day. They were still able to put together the second fastest time of the week: 47.94.
The 4x400 meter relay brought even more fireworks between the Rams and Crusaders, with Ladue running their own A squad and donning their usual highlighter uniforms. It was a heavyweight battle between both teams and the Ritter Lions, with Ladue coming out on top in 3:48.39. Senior star Alfultis nearly brought the Crusaders back with an insane 54.93 split, but Zoe Coleman's 55.49 split was enough to hold them off. Helias crossed in 3:49.98 and Ritter's 3:58.55 was good enough for third in a star-studded field.
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On the boys's side SLUH impressed all day in the distance events, putting their depth on full display even without some big names. Most notably, Jackson Miller had the day off as the team prepares for a Wednesday date with the area's largest Catholic schools in the MCC. Head Coach Joe Porter noted that of the four boys who ran their 7:59.87 time on Saturday, he thinks only one of them might be on the state series team. It's a believable sentiment as, even though the second through fourth legs were impressively between 2:00 and 2:01, neither of them were Miller (1:53.96 open this season), Nicholas Ahlheim (who won the open 800 in 1:54.88), Warnicke Beatty (1:56.09 personal best last summer, 1:56.54 so far this season), or even Hendrix Fyvie (1:57.59). In fact, Benjamin Yoffie, who ran the leadoff leg in 1:58.05 and has run 1:57.94 open, may be on the outside looking in depending on how they concoct the lineups.
But Yoffie may be okay because he is currently a part of a slew of SLUH boys under the district standard in both the 1600 and 3200. In fact, at this point, the Jr. Billikens now technically have five boys under the standard in the 1600 after Beatty and Fyvie finished 1-2 at the Brusca-Strobach Invitational, and four in the 3200. While our rankings will only show three under the 4:20.05, Miller ran 4:09.20 in the full mile at the RunningLane Kansas City Relays and Ahlheim posted a 4:19.01 mark. Unfortunately, neither of those will count toward the standard since there was no 1600 camera and MSHSAA has decided not to honor the longer distance, but it is surely only a matter of time before both boys hit the 1600 mark.
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More relay teams who showed out this past week include Platte County and Lee's Summit West, who continued to dominate the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, respectively. Lee's Summit West now has the first and eighth fastest times in state history after running 1:25.59 at Wednesday's Al Davis/Mike Lillis Invitational. Platte County posted a 41.11 mark at their home Platte County Invitational, the sixth fastest time in state history. Over the last two seasons, they own four of the five fastest times in state history.
The Liberty girls ran a state-leading time of their own, this time in the 4x800, displaying their depth across all four relays. Their 9:09.10 mark at the Rockhurst Invitational on Wednesday is the fastest time we have ever seen in April by five seconds and fifth all-time. The team is led by sub-2:15 runners Lily Hurt and Tessa Perdue.
Blue Springs boys popped off a state-leading time in the 4x400 meter relay, running 3:17.46 at the Joe Falcon Invitational. The quartet of Brady Redding, Devin Jackson, Jayden Franklin, and Richard Haase, three juniors and a sophomore, broke the school record. They, Devin Staley, Lincoln Herring, and others, appear to be carrying the torch for the Wildcats.
