West Platte senior Charlie Kinslow leans over the podium to catch his breathe after collecting one of three Class 2 State Medals at Jefferson City High School on May 19 and 20.
One of the most talented long-distance high school runners in northwest Missouri put on his West Platte uniform one final time in the Class 2 State Meet as Charlie Kinslow coughed up three more medals at Jefferson City High School on May 19 and 20.
In addition to helping West Platte bring home its first team plaque since 2014, Kinslow ran career best times in each race. Counting cross-country, the senior has officially collected a double-digit number of state medals after finishing in the top-4 of the 1,600-meter run, 800-meter run and the 4x800-meter relay.
“It’s been a long week just preparing for it,” West Platte senior Charlie Kinslow said. “You think about everything, I’m thinking about the past and everything like that, but it’s nice to have number 10 and a double digit of state medals.”
State track is a 2-day affair and Kinslow had both of his individual races on the first day. Starting off with the mile, he rose to the occasion to not only earn a silver medal but set a new PR by almost 15 seconds and broke the West Platte record.
West Platte senior Charlie Kinslow was in a tight finish down the final stretch of the 800-meter run at the Class 2 State Track & Field Meet
“I was just going to see how the mile went and just have fun with it. I got to the third lap and halfway through, I was just like, ‘well, you’re this close, you might as well go for it,’” Kinslow said.
Going into the meet, Kinslow had the fifth best 1,600-meter time in all of Class 2 in 4:37.75. He ended up crossing the finish line in 4:22.23, only trailing Steelville senior Conner Diaz who had a winning time of 4:20.56.
“It was pretty interesting just to see how it unfolded and I really wasn’t nervous for that race. I was more nervous for the 800 just because that’s my race and, me personally, I love that race more,” Kinslow said.
The Northwest Missouri State commit gave it his all in the mile and needed some time to regroup before joining the other seven all-state runners on the podium. Less than two hours later, he had to run in the 800.
“The recovery from the mile took so long and it was pretty tough. I barely got a warmup before I had to go do the 800, so I was probably on my feet for about maybe 15 minutes before the 800 just trying to recoup from the mile,” Kinslow said.
Charlie Kinslow poses with his third-place medal in the 800-meter run after crossing the finish line in 1:58.74 at Jefferson City High School.
Going into the 800, Kinslow was tied with Diaz with a state-best time of 2:00.17. The Blue Jay broke the 2:00 barrier for the first time in his career – doing so in 1:58.74 – but took third place, 0.22 seconds behind Stover senior Blaine Brodersen who was in second place.
Kinslow’s final race of his West Platte career, the 4x800-meter relay, happened early on in the second day at state track. The senior was the anchor and ran even faster than he did in the open 800 – having a 1:58 split – to lead West Platte to fourth place with an overall time of 8:23.44.
“I’m super grateful for everything; for my coaches, my family and all you guys that support West Platte means a lot. Throughout my high school career, I’ve had this family of people with my friends, family and teammates so it’s awesome and I’m just grateful,” Kinslow said.
The West Platte senior got to share the final moment as an all-state athlete with his brother who is a freshman, Alex Kinslow, who was the third leg of the 4x800-meter relay team. Kinslow has a bright running future at Northwest Missouri State University where he also will be studying kinesiology.