Platte County junior Andrew Johnson passed three runners in the final lap of the 3,200-meter in the Class 5 State Meet to take sixth place at Jefferson City High School on May 27.
Platte County junior Andrew Johnson was the only Pirate to walk away from the Class 5 State Track and Field Meet with all-state honors, taking sixth place in the 3,200-meter run at Jefferson City High School on May 27.
Johnson was one of four Platte County individuals who made it to state – not counting the two relay teams – and was the final one to compete. The 3,200-meter run was the last individual racing event of the weekend and the junior took sixth place, crossing the finish line in 9:25.46.
“In the first lap you always feel good – sometimes too good – and I got a little bit trigger happy, and I took a faster first mile, which is never good,” Platte County junior Andrew Johnson said. “It played out that way because I ended up going a lot slower in my second mile, but I was still able to get a medal.”
Johnson came into the meet ranked as the No. 1 runner in the race but sat in fourth place early on. The top-3 runners – led by Rock Bridge senior Ian Kemey who won in 9:13.14 – slowly separated themselves from the Pirate as the race progressed.
Andrew Johnson was the only Pirate to end up on the podium at Jefferson City High School, taking sixth place in the 3,200-meter run.
“I was well aware of the talent of the guys out there, especially the Rock Bridge guy, and their talent to definitely beat me in any given race. It was basically me telling myself that I need to keep it cool out there and not to see that number one (ranking) and have a high head,” Johnson said.
The Platte County junior fell all the way back to ninth place ahead of the final lap, but he picked it up in the final 400 meters. With the top-8 finishers earning all-state honors, Johnson passed three runners late to take sixth place and become the second Pirate to bring home a Class 5 state medal, joining 2022 senior Chandler Steinmeir who did so in the 300-meter hurdles last spring.
“Part of my development this season has been speed because we’ve realized that I haven’t had much of a kick. This year, we’ve spent time specifically on speed and kick drills, like 150-meter sprints. Today, I wasn’t in a place to medal, but I was able to have that kick at the end and get into sixth place,” Johnson said.
This was the second season that Platte County has been bumped up to Class 5 and that kept some talented athletes from bringing home any hardware. Platte County senior Reese Pickett has left a mark in her career and qualified in all three jumping events but fell just short of the top-8 in each.
TaKayla Lawson ended her Platte County career with a 13th place finish in the shot put on May 27.
The Lady Pirates had a pair of throwers, led by Addyson Schlake who threw the discus 117-01 feet to earn 12th place. Senior TaKayla Lawson took 13th place in the shot put with a 36-02.25-foot throw.
The Platte County girls’ 4x800-meter relay took earned 13th place, crossing the finish line in 10:08.4. Sisely Mitchell was the first and fastest leg in 2:26.87, the only one who ran under 2:30.
Carmen Gentilia had a 2:35.76 split and handed the baton to Addison Ayers who ran two laps around the track in 2:32.12. Maddison Palmer was the anchor and completed the 800 in 2:33.66.
The boys’ 4x400-meter relay team of Joshua Fraker, Aaron Cordova, Brayden Eschliman and Jackson Goodale failed to get out of preliminaries. The four Pirates took 15th place in 3:28.24, which was 4.65 seconds too slow to qualify for finals.