Park Hill junior Brooke Boehm improved from last season to take fourth place in the long jump in the Class 5 State Meet.
The Park Hill track and field team made the most of its trip to Jefferson City High School in the Class 5 State Meet, earning seven all-state honors out of its nine chances on May 26 and 27.
Brooke Boehm spent the last year motivating herself after missing out of all-state honors in two events last spring. As a sophomore, she took 10th place in the high jump and the long jump and ended her junior campaign with a fourth-place medal in the long jump.
“I really wanted to PR this year; I had been stuck in the same place,” Park Hill junior Brooke Boehm said. “I just prayed about it right before I went, and it worked.”
The junior mistimed her steps on her first attempt and had a fault but followed that up with a jump right over 18 feet. On her final attempt of the preliminaries, Boehm jumped 18.7.25-feet, which ended up being her longest of the day and her career.
“Last year was my first year long jumping and I started almost mid-season, so this year I had been hitting around 5.4 meters (17-7 feet) and I wasn’t really expecting anything. I hit one PR at 5.49 meters (18 feet) and then I got an adrenaline rush and finally hit that 18 (foot) mark with an 18-7 (feet),” Boehm said.
Callie Richards hands the baton to Alyssa Ball on the fifth-place 4x100-meter relay team at Jefferson City High School as the senior duo have placed in the event in each of the last three seasons.
The Lady Trojan had two more jumps over 16 feet, but neither of them reached 17 feet. That put her in fourth place out of the 16 long jumpers.
The Park Hill girls’ 4x100-meter relay team of Jamari Ervin, Cali Richards, Alyssa Ball and Mackenzie Moretina have impressed all year and that didn’t change on the biggest stage. In preliminaries, they took fourth place in their heat and sixth place overall with a time of 48.62 seconds and ran 0.11 seconds slower to end in fifth place in finals.
This is the third consecutive year that Ball and Richards were on this relay and ended with a state medal. Park Hill ended in fifth place in 2022 and fourth place in 2021.
Ball made it to state in the open 100 and 200-meters but was just shy of making it out of prelims in both. Ball ran the 100-meter in 12.4 seconds, 0.3 seconds too slow for finals, and crossed the finish line in 25.91 seconds in the 200-meter, which was 0.61 seconds away from being in the top-8.
Moretina was in the slower heat in prelims of the 100-meter hurdles, but she was still able to rise to the occasion to qualify for finals. She ran a time of 15.126 seconds to be in eighth place to qualify for the finals, which was 0.002 seconds faster than Rock Bridge senior Grace Parsons who was in ninth place.
“It feels amazing because last year I had a rough hurdle season,” Park Hill junior Mackenzie Moretina said after the finals. “The setback versus the comeback made me appreciate it so much more.”
Moretina ran a PR in the finals, crossing the finish line in 14.82 seconds. She ended in eighth place as the final five finishers were within 0.51 seconds.
Jordan Rider was the runner-up in the javelin after having a 178-1-foot heave on May 26.
“I wanted a PR; I actually wanted 14.9 and I ended up getting 14.82, so I was just happier than ever. I actually thought I didn’t make it, I thought I got a 15 (seconds) and then I look at the board, and I’m top-8, so I was just on top of the moon,” Moretina said.
Grace Hodge qualified in the pole vault and ended in 15th place. The sophomore vaulted 9-01.75 feet.
The Park Hill boys had four state qualifiers, all of which walked away with all-state honors. In the high jump, Desire Tonye-Nyemeck, Kendrick Bell and Legend Freelon all finished in the top-8 and Jordan Rider earned second-place in the javelin.
Rider recovered from a slow start before ending up bringing home a silver medal. The senior had a fault on his first throw but bounced back with a 156-8-foot throw and a 178-1-foot throw to close out the first flight strong.
Rider’s final attempt in the first flight ended up being his best – and the second longest one among all 16 javelin participants – with his final three throws still being solid. The senior threw the javelin 176-1-feet, 161-6-feet and 175-1-feet in his final three tries.