Centralia decisively defended its home turf.

On Thursday at the Centralia Open, the boys and girls each won the team competition with team scores north of 200 as the boys finished with 206 points — ahead of Boonville’s 141 — and the girls had 219.5 points — better than Moberly’s 190.

The girls won 10 events while the boys were first in nine events along with 20 more top-three finishes for Centralia athletes.

On the girls side, Jozelynn Bostick won the 400-meter dash and the 800-meter run, Shelby Lewis was first in the 200-meter dash, Rylee Palmer won the 3,200-meter run, Autumn Hawkins won the long jump, Kaylie Ensor was first in the pole vault, and Annie Robinson won the javelin. The 4x100, 4x200 and 4x800 teams each finished first in their races.

The 4x400 team was the runner-up in its event as so was Kenedee Moss in the 400 and 800, Rebecca Erisman in the 200, Ellie Berendzen in the discus and Cora King in the shot put. 

Coming in third were King in the discus, Harper Sontheimer in the 300-meter hurdles, and Palmer in the 1600.

For the boys, Wesley Robertson was a two-time winner in the 1600 and 3200, and Cayden Dunn won the 110- and 300-meter hurdles. Jacob Beard came in first in the pole vault, Jameson Cooper won the discus, Evan Brumback finished first in the javelin, and Payton Mabrey won the shot put.

Taking second for the boys were Dryst Bostick in the javelin, Jesse Shannon in the pole vault, Logan Rosenfelder in the triple jump, Zane Deckard in the 3200 and JR Lesher in the 800. 

Finishing third were Rohan Holiman in the 400, Rosenfelder in the long jump, Bostick in the triple jump, Josh Russell in the discus, and the 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams.

Baseball loses 11-1 to defending state champion Southern Boone

Southern Boone demonstrated why it was the Class 4 defending state champion on Thursday.

Centralia hosted the Eagles and lost 11-1 in five innings after the Panthers (1-4) allowed 12 stolen bases and steady scoring from the Eagles (7-1).

Mason Presley and Jack Romine had a tough time controlling the Southern Boone offense as Presley allowed six earned runs in his 3⅔ innings as the starter and Romine allowed four unearned runs in his 1⅓ innings of relief.

Centralia had its lone run score in the second inning to make it 3-1 at the time after Micah Danielson, who drew a leadoff walk against starter Austin Evans, crossed the plate. After that, Evan finished four innings with six strikeouts, two hits, two walks and one run.

Southern Boone extended its lead to 6-1 in the third inning after a steal of home and then 11-1 following a four-run fifth inning that included Chase Morris’ third hit and fifth RBI.

Centralia (0-1 CCC) played at Clarence Cannon Conference foe Highland (2-2, 2-0 CCC) on Tuesday before hosting conference foe South Shelby (4-1) at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Golf wins home meet with close individual scores

The Centralia boys were balanced on Thursday despite the windy and rainy conditions. 

Cullen Bennett and Travis Brooks each shot a 45 to lead the Panthers to a nine-hole team score of 184 to beat Kirksville and Russellville in their home meet.

Bennett’s and Brooks’ score were good enough for a three-way tie for second-place along with Kirksville’s Sam Wilson to finish behind medalist Hunter Combs, of Kirksville, and his 41. Carter Moss followed close behind with a 46, Josh Bowne had a 48 and Tyler Hawkins shot a 50.

Kirksville finished with the second-best team score of 187, and Russellville had a 267.