Team Missouri had a pair of strong showings in the Great Southwest Track and Field Classic at the University of New Mexico late last month thanks to some standout performances from some Park Hill School District athletes.
Park Hill South’s Chris DuPree and Park Hill’s Kolby Heinerikson helped the boys team from the Show-Me State to a win and Park Hill’s Taiya Shelby, Teresa Thomas and Manuela Ngo Tonye Nyemeck helped the girls to a second-place finish.
The boys claimed the win with 190 team points, 63 ahead of Colorado. DuPree helped his 4x400 team to a win, running the lead leg. The team finished in 3 minutes 12.01 seconds to pace the field by nearly two seconds. Dupree also finished fifth in the 400 individually running it in 48.12, just under a second slower than his finish at the Class 5 Missouri State Track and Field Championships, where he finished second.
Park Hill’s Kolby Heinerikson just missed out on scoring team points, finishing seventh in the decathlon. Heinerikson tallied 6055 points, 42 behind the sixth-place , and final point earner. His best finish came in the javelin where he entered as a three-time all-state performer for the Trojans. His heave of 177-5 was a new personal best, but 15 feet behind the event winner from Texas who set a new meet record.
The girls squad came in 11 points behind Texas, which claimed the win with 170.
Shelby had two strong performances, placing fifth in the 4x400 relay and helping the 4x800 foursome to a win. The Vanderbilt signee ran the anchor leg in the two-mile relay and the team finished in 9:03.85. Nyemeck was on the seventh-place team, just missing out on valuable points.
Thomas also grabbed a pair of point-scoring finishes as a member of the 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams. The one-lap circuit saw Thomas’s group finish fourth and they grabbed a bronze in the 4x200.