Several Community R-6 and Van-Far athletes are going to the state track meet for the first time.
At the Class 1 Sectional 1 meet for Community and the Class 2 Sectional 2 meet for Van-Far on Saturday at South Callaway in Mokane, Community qualified in three events and Van-Far qualified in two events. Those top four finishes secures the schools spots in the Class 1 and Class 2 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City.
Community had a team of Lane Carter, Mason Carroll, Caden Thomas and Aaron Carter -- in that order -- finish third in the boys 4x100 and 4x200 relays to make the top four needed for state qualification. On top of that, the quartet broke the boys 4x100 school record with a time of 47.69, making the second straight weekend they set a new school record in the event. Their 4x200 record is two seconds away after time of 1:40.04.
Alyssa Beamer finished fourth in the girls 800, just beating out Higbee's Ronnie Welch by less than a second with her time of 2:43.48. Welch ran a 2:43.64.
McKenna Engh-Hoffman and Gaven Gaston are both going to state for the first time for Van-Far, which is sending its first athletes to state in five years. The most recent time Van-Far had kids at state was in its first Class 2 season in 2019, when Verlyn Johnson was an all-state runner after taking second in the boys 400.
Engh-Hoffman had the fourth-best throw in the javelin at 32.16 meters, which is her second-best throw of the year. Gaston finished fourth in the boys 100 with a time of 11.7 -- just ahead of Harrisburg's Carter Bremer with his 11.74.
Other sectional Community finishes includes Drake Welch with sixth-place throw of 36.72 meters in boys javelin; the boys 4x800 relay team of Mason Rohan, Brett Beamer, Houston Hogan and Nicholas Henke finishing eighth with a time of 10:37.80; the girls 4x800 relay team of Peyton Schafer, Lydia Hoyt, Kat Meyer and Alyssa Beamer finishing fifth with a time of 12:31. 82; and Lane Carter's sixth-place time of 55.72 in the boys 400.
For Van-Far, Garrett Hopke missed state in the boys 3200 by 0.33 hundreths of a second with a fifth-place time of 10:53.42, which was the first time he had a time below 11 minutes. Evan Utterback set the school's boys javelin record for the second straight weekend with a seventh-place throw of 42.02 meters.
Community's boys relay quartet compete on state's first day on Friday, with the 4x200 relay starting at 12:30 p.m. and the 4x100 relay starting at 1:50 p.m., and Beamer runs the girls 800 at 4 p.m. Gaston and Engh-Hoffman both compete on state's first day with the boys 100 starting at noon and the Class 2 girls javelin starting at 1 p.m.
Look for the full stories in the Wednesday, May 15, 2024, edition of the Mexico Ledger.
