For the first time since 2021, Centralia track and field has two district titles in one season.
The Panthers won with 158 points -- ahead of Blair Oaks' 131 points -- and the Lady Panthers won their fifth straight district title with 124 points, finishing ahead of Moberly's 97 points on Saturday at the Class 3 District 4 meet in Centralia. The Centralia boys and girls hadn't won a district title at the same time since 2021, which was the first year of the Lady Panthers' current streak and the end of a four-season streak for the Panthers (2020 is excluded to COVID-19 cancellations that season). Centralia won 10 events, and the girls had 14 entries advance to sectionals across 11 events while the boys had 17 entries advance across 12 events.
North Callaway had two girls also advance to the Class 3 Sectional 2 meet on Saturday at Montgomery County by finishing in the top four. Jocelyn Siegel finished second in the triple jump with a mark of 10.37 meters, and Grace Rasmussen finished third in the 1600 with a time of 5:45.97.
Missouri Military Academy had Alexander McBride advance to sectionals by finishing third in the 400 with a time of 52.16. McBride and the 4x800 relay team of Ryan Miles, Jesus Robinson and Christopher Song finished fourth with a time of 9:06.76 to advance to sectionals. McBride and the 4x400 relay team with Ryan Miles, Luis Sass-Zaragoza and Grayson Hanson finished seventh but set a new school record of 3:45.04.
For Centralia, Ethan Ross won the boys 100, 200 and 400 with respective times of 10.95, 22.18 and 51.06 and also qualified in the long jump in third place. Nolan Spickert won the boys 1600 and 3200 with respective times of 4:36.05 and 10:02.20 and was on the winning 4x800 relay team with Dryst Bostick, Carter Moss and Wesley Robertson. Tilmon Sontheimer won the boys discus with a throw of 44.65 meters.
Cora King won the girls shot put and discus with respective throws of 10.72 meters and 35.23 meters, and the girls 4x800 relay team of Katelynn Asbury, Elizabeth Romine, Becca Erisman and Kenedee Moss won with a time of 10:07.21.
Other Centralia boys sectional qualifiers included Bostick (third) and Lane Chancellor (fourth) in the boys 800, Robertson (second) in the boys 1600, Moss (second) and Robertson (third) in the boys 3200, Jacob Beard (fourth) in the boys pole vault, Josh Russell (second) in the boys discus, Bostick (fourth) in the boys javelin, and the third-place boys 4x200 relay team of Jesse Caballero, Peyson Bryson, Cody Prater and Logan Rosenfelder.
Other Centralia girls sectional qualifiers included Sadie Bohlmeyer (fourth) in the girls 100, Asbury (second) in the girls 400, Kenedee Moss in the girls 1600 (second) and in the girls 3200 (third), Claire Brinkman (fourth) in the high jump, Erisman (third) in the girls long jump, Claire Page (third) in the girls pole vault, Kassena Ridgel (second) in the girls discus, Addison Reynolds (second) and Emery Auck (fourth) in the girls javelin, and third-place girls 4x400 relay team of Avery Adams, Erisman, Romine and Asbury.
"I appreciate everybody who put this track meet on today," Centralia head Ben Sontheimer said. "The amount of volunteers that we had, the administration and my coaching staff did a nice job making sure this meet went smoothly. I think we did a great job. I think everybody left here feeling like it was a well-run meet. That couldn't happen without everybody that contributed."
Look for full story in the May 14, 2025, edition of the Mexico Ledger.
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