It wasn’t deja vu for Mexico track and field last Saturday.

Mexico District Track Photo Gallery

The Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs were back in the Class 4 District 4 meet at Helias Catholic in Jefferson City against the same schools but collected eight all-district nods one year after only sending one to sectionals last year. The Mexico athletes who finished in the top four of their respective events will compete this Saturday in the Class 4 Sectional 2 meet at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia. 

Head coach Buck Green said Class 4 District 4 is such a tough district including Helias, Capital City, Hannibal, Father Tolton, Osage, Holt, Kirksville, Fulton and Warrenton. The district proved to be last year for Mexico when Andrew Peuster was the only one to qualify for sectionals in the boys 3200 while Charlie Fisher, Alexandra Terry and the boys 4x400 relay team narrowly missed sectionals with fifth-place finishes.

“We pointed to this district meet the whole season,” Green said. “We talked about ending it big. Quit looking at the rankings, and quit looking at what the people say what and where you should be. We’re just going to go down and run fast, throw far and jump high.”

Fisher accounted for three all-district nods, finishing second in the boys 200 with a personal-best time of 22.27, fourth in the 100 with a time of 11.19, and third in the 4x400 relay with Damarion Williams, Davontae Frame and Tyler Grimes with a time of 3:29.89. Grimes finished second in the 800 with a time of 1:59.35. Jacob Quinlan had a “huge last jump,” according to Green, and finished third in the triple jump with a distance of 12.97 meters, and Peuster was fourth in the 3200 with a time of 10:40.30 to finish just ahead of fifth place.

For the Lady Bulldogs, Maggie Ramsey was  “a Bulldog just chipping away,” according to Green, when she finished third in the girls 3200 with a personal-best time of 12:16.22. Terry won a tiebreaker for fourth place in the girls pole vault with a personal-best jump of 3.04 meters. 

Green said the kids were disappointed with their one of the worst performances at districts last year but reiterated it is a tough district. He said the 4x100 boys relay team (Marquise Anyaeto, Fisher, Frame and Grimes), for example, finished fifth with a time of 43.52 — only 0.12 behind Father Tolton — and was good enough to advance in other districts in the state.

“It was their season-best time,” Green said. “They ran well. Handoffs were good.” 

The senior Grimes went from eight in the boys 800 a year ago to second this year. He had a time around 2:07 last year but finished just south of 2:00. Green said Grimes needed to do that well with the top three in the race finishing just below 2:00 and the fourth- and fifth-place times being just above 2:00.

“There was a lot of pressure because that was the hot-rod race,” Green said. “You knew you would have to run pretty much under 2:00 to get out. You get out of here, you’ve got a good shot at getting out of sectionals.”

Peuster is another senior who became an all-district runner once again, but it wasn’t an easy repeat. Going into the last lap, Peuster sat in fifth place more than 10 feet behind Hannibal’s Rhett Hayes before passing and edging out Hayes for the last spot. While Peuster won’t be able to run sectionals so he can compete for Quiz Bowl at nationals, Green is proud how he ended his season and career.

“I told coach (Kevin) Krietemeyer that he’s exhausted because he’s done so much this spring,” Green said. “I think he’s ready for the season to be over. Then here he comes.”

Peuster had a race comeback while Terry had an emotional comeback in the girls pole vault. Green said Terry thought she missed sectional qualification by one place again, but Green said she beat Capital City’s Miriam Abbott in the tiebreaker after comparing their amount of misses and was ecstatic. He said her continual work with coach Arien Gilmore has paid off.

“She went away in tears,” Green said. “Then she came down and was jumping up and down. She had some really pretty vaults today.”

Emma Seibert finished ninth in the girls 300 hurdles with a personal-best time of 50.22. Tyler Stone finished fifth in the boys javelin but broke the school record for the third straight meet with a throw of 45.67 meters.

Green said Stone is a junior who keeps improving a little each time in the javelin and his routine record-breaking demonstrates that. While his season ended, Green said Stone is one of the Bulldogs who finished strong going into next season. 

“He’s starting to recognize within himself the confidence to say, ‘I’m not just another kid. I’m one of the good throwers,’” Green said.