Mexico track and field is getting stronger in several areas.

The Bulldogs competed Friday at the Class 4 track and field state championships at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City, having five events on the boys schedule. The 4x400-meter relay team of sophomore Evan DiBlasi, freshman Tyler Grimes, junior Anthony Shivers and junior Morgan Grubb raced to the sixth-best time to make the finals Saturday; senior Haden Frazier ran in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, finishing 10th in each race; junior Thomas Peuster was 16th in the 3,200-meter run; and Shivers was 15th in the 100-meter dash.

Mexico head coach Buck Green described his all-state relay team as “blue-collar” because they have been willing to put much work in and prove expectations wrong. The rest of the Bulldogs that made it to state had this quality just to earn the trip even if some didn’t finish high in the standings.

“When you come to the state meet, you throw everything out,” Green said. “It’s kind of that rule of thirds. Some kids are going to do what you expected, some kids are going to do more than you ever thought they could and some kids are going to crash and burn. These kids are in that third not so much as more than you expected but you know they’re going to give it everything they got.”

The relay team has gotten used to being told they weren’t good enough, going in as the fifth seed in districts and the eighth seed in sectionals. The quartet didn’t let that stop them as it finished fourth at districts and sectionals before taking sixth amongst a field that had it ranked last out of 16 teams.

DiBlasi shot out to an early lead in the second heat of the preliminary round before handing the baton off to Grimes before he gave way to Shivers. Grubb anchored the team with his “refuses-to-lose-unless-you-beat-him” attitude, Green said, to Mexico’s season-best time of 3:29.03, improving on the previous one of 3:31.07 set at sectionals and earning fifth place in its heat.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am and how good it feels for them,” Green said. “We just didn’t come to the dance, we actually got to dance with somebody.”

Green said the Bulldogs hadn’t had a hurdler in a while, with all-state athlete Cameron Holman being the last to qualify in 2018, so he was happy to see Frazier take that role and run with it despite not having much experience.

Frazier has played soccer at a level to earn the privilege of playing college ball at NJCAA Jefferson College but hadn’t participated in track until this season, Green said. The senior had even less experience with the hurdles as Green said Frazier was asked to run in the 110-meter hurdles event about a month ago at the Mexico Ron Whittaker Bulldog Classic, where Frazier finished first. Green said Frazier was part of the 4x100-meter relay team early in the season that was disbanded despite earning medals because Mexico realized it could earn more points in the big meets if Frazier ran the 110-meter hurdles and relay teammate Shivers was moved to the 4x400-meter relay.

With all this being considered, Frazier making it to state and then coming close to a medal in each hurdles event is something to marvel at, Green said.

“It’s phenomenal that he could come out as a senior and do two events that are highly technical that you spend years getting the mechanics down and perfecting,” Green said. “He’s an amazingly coachable kid. He learned to hurdle, and we taught him to high jump and it looked like he’d been doing it forever.”

At districts, Frazier won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.35 and was victorious in the 300-meter hurdles with a mark of 41.28. One week later at sectionals, he took fourth in the 110-meters with a personal-best time of 15.89 and earned his second state berth with a personal-best runner-up time of 40.09.

Frazier finished fifth in the first heat of the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.08, which was good enough to rank 10th overall and .15 seconds off the eighth finals qualifier. He then took fifth in the first heat of the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 41.71, finishing .52 seconds away from the eighth-place mark.

“Hurdling in the 300s is different,” Green said. “You can get away with somewhat bad form if you can go faster in between and you got more time to get ready for the next hurdle. In the 110s, it’s three steps, three steps, three steps, three steps and you better hit them. That takes time. He’s had a month.”

Peuster made his first trip to state as the first Bulldog to compete in a 3,200-meter run event since Alex Dukes in 2018 when he finished all-state with a school record time of 9:27.37. After winning districts with a time of 10:39.44, Peuster finished 16th on Friday with a time of 10:59.24.

Green said Peuster fought through the race and did finish in what was already a good year for him after the appearance at Adkins Stadium.

“Thomas works his heart out,” Green said. “I know he was really frustrated where he kind of hit the wall at the sixth lap.”

Shivers’ 15th-place time of 11.70 put him .14 out of the eighth-place mark, but Green said that is the nature of event. At districts, Shivers finished fourth with a time of 11.55 and then improved that mark at sectionals with a fourth-place time of 11.19.

Green said Shivers went in to state with the slowest time, and it is hard to make up ground in a quick race like the 100-meter dash as opposed to longer races.

“In the sprints, in the 100, that’s kind of where you are. You just can’t crank that much more,” Green said. “The 400, you can crank.

“We tell our kids when you come down here, ‘No regrets. You leave it on the track, and you give your best performance. That’s what you got to go home and be OK with.’”