Check out how the first day of the Class 1, 2, and 3 State Championships panned out. It was a fantastic day for distance running with no wind and cool temperatures, but that did not mean the sprinters were not burning up the track, too. We will see many of them on the podium tomorrow.

Some upsets occurred in the field events, pushing out some interesting storylines and proving once and for all that rankings mean very little when champions are decided on the day.

Day 1 Results

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- Thomas Jefferson Independent's Boys kicked off the day with a Class 1 record 8:01.62 in the 4x800, a dominating victory as the team of Jack Twiss, Spencer Long, Liam Cook, and Will Twiss won by 20 seconds over Van Buren. They dropped 19 seconds from their runner-up performance in 2025.

- Paris senior Landen Chapman split 1:51.55 on the anchor leg of the Class 2 4x800, pulling his team from 9th to 2nd, but it wasn't enough to defeat Jefferson (Festus) who won wire-to-wire and pulled in an important 10 points early on. The team was comprised of Braeden Caldwell, Bryant Horn, Larry Lemons, and Ethan McVey.

- Penney's Emma Kanoy pulled off the first big upset of the day with a victory in the high jump. Ranked 5th heading into the weekend, she cleared 1.64m (5-4.25) to pull off the victory and put 10 points on the board for her state title contender team.  

- A pair of 1:53 splits on the anchor legs for Owen Garrett and Chris Tao make Day 2's 800 meter run very interesting in Class 3, but it was Garrett who led his Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience team across the line in 7:52.92 for the win, just narrowly missing the Class 3 meet record. John Burroughs crossed second in 7:56.66. It was the first state championship in boys track and field in their school's history and the team was comprised of Melik Pratt, Evan Moll, Clyve Cameron-Jackson, and Garrett on the anchor leg.

- New Madrid County Central phenom Amya Bills kicked off her team's three-peat hunt with a long jump mark of 5.90m (19-4.25), just a centimeter off both her personal best and the Class 3 state meet record of 5.91m.

- East Buchanan's Brooklynn Johnson defended her Class 2 shot put crown with a 13.33m (43-8.75) mark. She finished either second or first at the state meet all four years of her high school career. Butler's Kylee Dubray finished second for the second straight year, but the junior and 2024 State champion will head into 2027 as the top-ranked returning shot putter.

- Lamar's Terren Williams got the job done and defended his crown in the Class 3 Discus, throwing 56.36m (184-11) on his final attempt. He threw the four best marks in the entire field - a dominant performance.

- Dora's Hailey Perkins sealed the deal in the Class 1 Javelin, throwing 39.45m (129-5) for the victory over Newtown-Harris senior Kinsley Allnutt. Allnutt threw a massive 3 meter personal best on her fourth attempt, improving from 36.24m (118-10) to 39.23m (128-8) for a silver medal in her first ever individual event at the State championships.

- Liberal's Ben Dingman popped a big jump on his fifth attempt to move into first in the Class 1 Triple Jump. His 13.71m (44-11.75) personal best would prove good enough to secure the victory through the final round. The top-ranked triple jumper heading into the season, Dingman was ranked fifth in Class 1 heading into the weekend.

- In the Class 1 Pole Vault, Mound City's Ernest Peters defended his title by a nose over Drexel's Miles Wheeler. Both boys tied at 4.15m (13-7.25), but Peters would come out on top based on recent misses. It was Peters' first time over 4 meters since last year's State finals when he cleared his personal best of 4.27m (14-0).

- Sarcoxie's Gatlon Malotte closed out the early field events with a victory in the Class 2 Pole Vault. He cleared 4.25m (13-11.25) and made attempts at what would have been a new personal best of 4.57m (15-0). It was the first career state title for the now three-time state medalist in the pole vault. Adrian freshman Chaz Davis continued his late season rise with a 4.15m (13-7) personal best for the second place medal. He has risen from 3.60m (11-9) to 4.15m in the final four weeks of the season.

- St. Vincent's Reagan Meyer cruised to victory in the Class 1 Girls 1600, nearly breaking the state meet record with her 5:02.58 personal best. She won wire-to-wire and finished 18 seconds ahead of second place Insley Washer from Northland Christian. In the 800, Meyer was able to break her own Class 1 State record with a time of 2:13.46. It was an incredible 11-second victory over second place finisher Liberal's Ally Barton, who ran 2:24.32.

- Lexington dominated the Class 2 1600, as we expected, with freshman Ellie Lichte winning the title in 4:56.12. Addison Smith ran 5:06.66 and Phoebe Engelbrecht finished fourth with a 5:13.36 personal best. Reigning state champion Chevie Sharpe of Highland finished third in a 5:08.55 personal best.

- Brianna Krueger snagged her first career track and field state championship with a 5:08.36 personal best in the Class 3 1600. The two-time cross country champion held off a late charge from Herculaneum's Emerson Reeves for the victory.

- Prairie Home freshman Ruth Hodges pulled off the upset in the long jump, clearing 5.25m (17-2.75) and winning on the "next best mark" tiebreaker over Concordia's Dakota Reynolds. Hodges was ranked third heading into the weekend. It is the first ever individual state championship for the girls track and field program at Prairie Home. 

- In prelim action, the Class 3 state meet 4x100 meter relay record went down courtesy of Cardinal Ritter's crew of Joquez Beck, Bryce Clayborn, Emmanuel Ellis, and Terrance Jones. They ran 41.90 and broke the previous record of 41.95 set by Hickman Mills way back in 1999. St. Joseph Christian's girls also broke the state meet 4x100 meter relay record with a 50.65 mark, better than Stanberry's 50.82 even further back in 1981. The team was comprised of Grace Barnes, Katherine Moeck, Claire Vorderstrasse, and Adalie Dawson.

- Blair Oaks senior Tomas Gonzalez nearly joined the 5 meter club on Friday, but settled for a 4.90m (16-0.75) mark which tied his personal best from last season and was more than good enough for his first career state gold and fourth career top-2 finish. He only had to clear three heights to secure the victory and made three solid attempts at 5.00m (16-4.75) before calling it a day and career.

- It was a juggernaut battle in the Class 1 Boys Discus, but Marquand-Zion's Kolby Stafford came out on top over North Shelby's Drake Prange. Stafford enjoyed a breakthrough sophomore season after finishing 6th at last year's State championships and earned the first gold medal for Marquand-Zion in any event in school history with his 51.36 (168-6) mark.

- Clever's Valerie Cowles dominated the Class 3 High Jump and walked away with the gold medal in a new personal record jump of 1.71m (5-7.25). She was perfect at her first four heights and did not record a miss until the entire rest of the field had gone out.

- Malden's Dyentez Dobbins hit double 7s on his first two attempts in the Class 3 Triple Jump, clearing 13.77m (45-2.25) on both jumps. It would be just enough to hold off Brentwood's Demeterius Thompson for his first career individual state championship.

- It was quite the finish to a junior season for Lafayette (St. Joseph)'s Emery Omon. Omon started the season with a 12.20m throw at the St. Joseph City Time Trial, and did not clear that barrier again until it mattered most with three straight 12+ performances in the state series, capped off by a 12.17m (39-11.25) throw to win the Class 3 title.

- The Class 2 Girls Javelin involved two reigning State champions - Belle's Aubrey Rehmert and Licking's Jadyn Barnes - as well as the 2025 runner-up - St. Pius X senior Elena Ruble. Rehmert would come out on top in this heated battle, throwing 42.81 (140-5) on her second attempt to secure the victory for the second straight year.

- Though Butler's Tandee Hiser came into the weekend as the reigning Class 2 Pole Vault champion and top-ranked athlete based on lifetime best (3.77m, 12-4.5), Sherwood senior and top-ranked vaulter in 2026 Aubrey McCulloh would bring home the win with a 3.40m (11-1.75) clearance. McCulloh and Hiser flipped spots in 2026 after finishing 2nd and 1st, respectively, last May.

- Gilman City's Khloey Sperry and Pattonsburg senior Annabelle Gardener were separated by fractions of an inch heading into the weekend with Gardener at 1.68m and Sperry at 1.66m in the Class 1 High Jump. Sperry would come out on top this year, though, as she was the only girl on the day to clear 1.62m (5-3.75). Gardener will hand over her Class 1 crown to the junior who won her school's first individual state champion in girls track and field since 1987.

- Fayette's Carter Vroman not only won the Class 2 Discus, but set a new Class 2 meet record in the process with a 53.62m (175-11). He won 11 of his 13 tries at the event this year and was second in his only two losses. Jefferson (Festus) picked up 8 important points with Troy Edwards just 5 inches behind Vroman in 175-6 for second.

- New Madrid County Central's Ja'Kwon Jones held off the dynamic Med/Bio duo or Maxwell McFarlane and Moses Mugenyi to bring in his first career individual state championship in the Class 3 Triple Jump. The 14.32m (46-11.75) mark on his last attempt just eclipsed the Owls and pushed him to the top of the podium right at the last second.

- Fayette sophomore Rylan Roberts impressed in the Class 2 Long Jump, clearing 5.56 (18-3) on her fifth jump to secure the victory over Valle Catholic's Ella Bley and East Buchanan's Kourtney Keling.

- Vienna's Aubrey Schwartze used the new MO #1 mark in Class 1 to secure the victory in the Shot Put, throwing 11.28m (37-0.25) on her third attempt to best Calvary Lutheran's Sydney Volmert.

- Perhaps the biggest upset of the weekend so far belongs to Oak Grove's Keiyana Lamell who entered the weekend sixth-ranked in the Class 3 Javelin and leaves it as the Class 3 State champion. Lamell threw a personal best of 40.22m (131-11) to secure the win. Macon's Auburn Glover was ranked 13th heading into the weekend, but finished second overall with a 39.67m (130-2) personal best.

- North Platte's Farrah Williams kept the late season breakout rolling with a 2:16.35 personal best for the win in the Class 2 800. In her first year running the event, she is now a state champion and dropped 10 seconds from her debut in late March.

- Fatima's Brie Massman dropped a massive season best of 2:14.55 - 8 seconds better than her previous best mark in 2026 - to defend her Class 3 State title in the 800 meter run. Bayless sophomore Gabrielle Campbell narrowly missed the first of what could have been multiple state titles this weekend with a 2:15.97 personal best of her own.

- The 3200 meter races proved to be some of the fastest the smaller school classes have ever seen, thanks in large part to cooler-than-normal temps and heavy cloud cover. In the Class 1 race, Thomas Jefferson's Will Twiss picked up his second straight championship and could be on a crash course for four straight if the Cavaliers remain in Class 1 (to be determined). He ran 9:34.02 and held off a late charge from St. Joseph Christian's Austin Hill. The top four boys were all faster than last year's winning time. 

- The Class 2 race featured an intense battle between Lexington's Chael Lichte, North Platte's Drake Keraus, and Clark County's Mason McDaniel. In the end, Lichte was able to sprint away from the field with a killer final lap of 1:05.49 and secure his first career track and field state title in a new personal best of 9:24.23. Keraus crossed in 9:29.27, McDaniel 9:31.57, and Hermann's Nolan Kopp ran 9:31.86 for fourth. With Paris's Chapman in fifth at 9:37.65, the entire top 5 ran a mark that would have earned them first in 2025.

- The first of three stellar showdowns between Hollister's Sinry Mendoza and El Dorado Springs junior Wyatt Klaiber took place Friday afternoon with Mendoza taking round 1 in 9:10.35. It was a 59.68 final lap that secured him the victory over Klaiber (9:13.92) in what proved to be the fastest field Class 3 has ever seen. Never have we ever had 9 boys under 9:30 in a Class 3 race and 12 under 10:00. It was quite the impressive finish to the day of finals before the 4x400s brought everyone home for the day.

Stay locked in to MoMileSplit for more updates on a wild weekend of State Championships!