The Rohrbachs turned in strong efforts in the field events at the Eastern Missouri Conference meet on May 5 at North Callaway. Drew, a senior, won the pole vault, in 10 feet, 10 inches. Caleb, a sophomore, came out on top in the shot put in 43-10.75.

The Rohrbachs were the only North Callaway athletes who won individual titles at the EMO meet. Both set season-best marks.

“They worked really hard,” head coach Reid Randolph said. “It’s really good to see it pay off for them.”

North Callaway hosted the EMO meet for the first time since 2018, the same year its track was built.

Drew Rohrbach won the pole vault by three inches over senior teammate Joseph Crawford and Louisiana’s Shawn McBride. He came into the EMO meet as the No. 2 seed in the pole vault.

Caleb Rohrbach, who is competing in high school track for the first time, won the shot put by over two feet over Louisiana’s Ryan Capps at the conference meet. He also finished seventh in the discus in the 115-1.5.

Five days before, the sophomore won the shot put at the Centralia Freshman/Sophomore Invitational.

“He’s a monster,” Randolph said. “He works hard. He has become a student of his event. He studies it. He looks at videos. He works hard in the weight room. He does everything exactly what he needs to do to be good.”

Besides Crawford and Rohrbachs, the Thunderbirds earned all-conference honors in five events in the boys division and eight in the girls division. The top two finishers in each event receive an all-league award.

In the girls meet, North Callaway got second-place finishes from Pressley Schumach (3,200), Makenna Allen (100-meter hurdles), Ryelle Schumach (pole vault), Trinity Brush (discus), Hayley Kimbley (javelin) and the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x800 relay teams.

The Thunderbirds got second-place finishes from Dakota Cash in the 100 and their 4x100 team in the boys meet.

North Callaway will compete in the Class 3, District 4 meet at Montgomery County High School on May 15.

Wright, Sanders lead Van-Far

Even though he didn’t win the triple jump at the EMO meet, Latrell Wright still had reason to be excited.

The Van-Far senior finished with a personal-best jump of 40’2 inches in the triple jump. He also came up one place short of getting an all-conference award in the event.

“I’m happy that I gave it my best,” Wright said. “I PR’d for my senior year, so it was fun.”

Wright’s senior teammate, Dayton Sanders, also received a third-place medal at the conference meet. He finished third in the shot put in 41’0.5.

Wright and Sanders turned in the top finishes for the Indians, who placed eighth in the boys division with 26 points and 11th in the girls division with three.

The Van-Far boys team also got a fourth-place finish from freshman Brayden Lay in the long jump, a sixth-place finish from Sanders in the discus and eighth-place finishes from Lay in the 100 and Gage Gibson (110-meter hurdles).

In the girls meet, juniors Makenna Unglesbee and Alayna Bryan scored the Indians’ only points, finishing seventh in the javelin in 73-6 and eighth in the 800 at 2:48.20, respectively.

Wright had his sights set on winning the triple jump for the second straight meet. The week before, he placed first in the event in 39-8.5 in the Louisiana Invitational.

“I was hoping to win it,” Wright said. “I saw some of the competition. It didn’t discourage me at all. I still could have won, but I had mishaps in a couple of my jumps which put me down.”

Sanders earned his second third-place finish in the shot put at the EMO meet. He also placed third in his sophomore year.