Although no trophies were handed out, North Platte’s girls topped the team standings in the Class 2 Sectional 4 meet held Saturday, May 16 at Wayne & Doris Guess Sports Complex in Albany, Mo. The Panthers qualified four individuals and two relays for this week’s Missouri State Track and Field Championships, totaling 65 points along the way to finish two points in front of Hamilton.
The previous week, North Platte won the District 8 championship — the first in school history.
Regan Nash again leads the way for the Panthers, qualifying in the 100- and 200-meter dashes for the fourth consecutive season. She won the 100 in 12.88 seconds to top Hamilton’s Morgan Prather, who took the 200 in 26.79 to finish about a half second in front of Nash — the defending state champion in the 100 with six career state medals.
North Platte’s 4x100 team (Nash, Abby Fisher, Emmie Lee and Callie Pataluna) and 4x400 team (Gracie Roach, Baylie Wilson, Emmie Lee and McKenna Fulton) both recorded third-place finishes. The Panthers last qualified a relay in 2013 when the 4x800 and 4x400 both made the cut.
Wilson (100 hurdles, 17.59) and Pataluna (16 feet, 8¼ inches; long jump) both recorded third-place finishes, while Katie Parkhurst, a sophomore, ran 13:51.71 in a seven-competitor 3,200 field to take fourth and make the state cut. All three will be first-time state qualifiers.
West Platte’s Sydney Oberdiek, a sophomore, will have two events as the Bluejays’ lone qualifier. She placed second in the shot put at 34-2, while notching third in the discus 104-1. She will also make her first trip to state.
On the boys side, Jerry Copenhaver recorded the lone top-four finish for North Platte or West Platte.
The North Platte senior ran 17.49 in the 110 hurdles to come in as runner-up behind Brookfield’s Michael Casebolt (16.50). Copenhaver is also a first-time qualifier and the first for the Panthers boys to reach state since Charles Stubbs in 2005.