Many of the faces on this year’s Centralia boys track and field team were recognizable.
That is because several of them competed in a variety of events, including at the Class 3 state meet …
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Many of the faces on this year’s Centralia boys track and field team were recognizable.
That is because several of them competed in a variety of events, including at the Class 3 state meet Friday and Saturday at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City. The Panthers tied Lutheran North for third with 38 points to secure the program’s first team trophy since 2021.
Ethan Ross, Wesley Robertson, Peyson Bryson and Nolan Spickert each medaled in multiple events. Head coach Ben Sontheimer said he thought this year’s boys team had a good shot at the podium after missing it by half a point last year. With many returning this season, Centralia won most of the meets they competed in, including districts and sectionals.
“The kids have been very focused and team-oriented,” Sontheimer said. “We’re really pleased with the outcome.”
Centralia had a couple schools breathing down its neck with the 4x400 relay and javelin left. Ross medaled in both of those events to give him four medals for the day and weekend: third in the 400 and 200 with school-record times of 47.45 and 21.41, fifth in the javelin with a throw of 49.63, and sixth in the 4x400 relay with teammates Robertson, Bryson and Cody Prater at a time of 3:28.22. Sontheimer said Ross might not have been 100 percent because he started the season with an injury.
“Ethan Ross was an animal today,” Sontheimer said. “He had a great two days. The events really got piled up at the end of the meet with the javelin, the 4x400 and 200 all piled up on top of each other. He was exhausted after the 4x400.”
Ross said Saturday definitely felt like a lot, especially due to not having as much time to condition. He said he pulled his hamstring in his first meet, so that caused him to miss a lot of time. For the 200 and 400, Ross said offseason lifting helped him while other things helped him to adjust to the javelin after not doing the event much prior to this year.
“This is pretty much my first year throwing javelin, but coach (Keith) Davis is a really good coach,” Ross said. “I was learning from the best. He always had good advice for me, and it’s a lot of consistent practice.”
Sontheimer said Robertson had a busy end of day on Friday when he ran the 3200 and 4x400 preliminaries close together. The senior finished seventh to medal in the 3200 with a personal-best time of 9:26.51 and broke the 4x400 relay school record, which had initially stood since the 1980s, for the third straight meet with a time of 3:25.93 to advance to the second day.
“I’m not sure how many kids in the history of state track meets got a medal in the 4x400 and two-mile,” Sontheimer said. “Those are back-to-back events. He was an absolute beast in both of those events. We wouldn’t be where we’re at without him.”
Sontheimer said he and distance coach Jason Watermann thought about Robertson’s workload going in districts, wondering if he could handle the quick turnaround. Robertson allayed their concerns.
“He is a very good sprinter, but the two mile and 4x400 are back-to-back events,” Sontheimer said. “You worry about recovery and safety. He ran a 4x400 split of 51 seconds, and he wasn’t even breathing hard.”
Robertson said he is grateful for running in individual events at state track after not competing individually at state in previous years. On Saturday, Robertson finished sixth in the 1600 with a personal-best time of 4:18.89. He said he was grateful to have a training partner like Spickert, who finished fourth in the 3200 with a personal-best time of 9:18.47 and was also fourth in the 1600 with a personal-best time of 4:16.68.
The pair competed together when they medaled in the 4x800 relay along with Bryson and Lane Chancellor. Centralia finished eighth with a time of 8:09.22, which wasn’t far off from its second-place time of 8:06 last year but Robertson and Spickert said the field was tougher this season. Even during individual races, though, those two are usually not far from each other.
“To be able to have a race at this big of stage and run with a teammate, it makes a huge difference,” Robertson said. “It kind of feels like a practice.”
Spickert said he was happy with his performances but was even happier to do it this year with Robertson.
“We’ve been running everything together,” Spickert said. “Workouts, long runs, easy days, races and anything you can imagine. He’s a great guy to be with because he will support you and himself at the same time.”
Along with the relay medals, Bryson finished sixth in the high jump with a height of 1.89 meters. He also qualified for the triple jump but didn’t advance to the finals. After having to duck out of the triple jump early on Friday, the senior Bryson enjoyed his Saturday better by earning his first individual state medal and was confident when he came close to his personal-best 1.93 meters.
“Going into it, I was hoping to get at least eighth place,” Bryson said. “It’s really how you feel in the head. You can’t go into going like, ‘This is too high.’ You’ve just to think you’re going to kill it.”
