JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A lot of time has passed since Platte County had a relay team on the top spot on the medal stand at the MSHSAA State Track and Field Champions.
That changed Friday morning and in the process, the boys 4x800-meter relay team not only won the first relay title in more than 40 years, they set the first of three new school records over the two-day weekend.
The 4x800-meter squad of sophomore Evan McPhatter, junior Keegan Cordova and seniors Nick Bjustrom and Devin Richardson won the title at Licklider Track Complex by the slimmest of margins, finishing in 7 minutes, 50.03 seconds. Horton Watkins High School from Ladue ran 7:50.06 to finish as the runner-up.
The relay championship is the second in Platte County High School, matching the Class 2A 4x880-yard relay the team won in 1974.
Cordova, who ran the last leg, said he felt Alex Cobin on his shoulder, but didn’t know it would be that close.
“Obviously, toward the end you saw it, I was getting jelly legs,” said Cordova, whose finish helped the team break the previous school record of 7:58.43 set last year at state with a third-place finish. “It was tough and I knew it would be a fight until the end. Luckily I was able to get it. It was something special.”
MOMILESPLIT/Special to the Citizen
Platte County’s Keegan Cordova, right, holds off a late charge from Ladue Horton Watkins’ Alex Cobin in the Class 4 4x800-meter race on Friday, May 25 at the MSHSAA State Track and Field Championships.
Cordova got the baton from Bjustrom, who had the Pirates in first place and that helped Cordova expand the lead and finish his two laps in 1:54.44.
“It was my job to put us in a good spot and good position,” said Bjustrom, who ran 1:57.62 split. “I was really hyped to get the baton in the pack. I knew I would catch them and I was really strong all day.”
Richardson, like Cordova, was on the 4x800 team last year that placed third and set the previous school record, breaking a mark of 8:02.
“It was great to have that in our mind to come in and get the same thing done as last year,” said Richardson, who had the second-fastest time of the group at 1:57.62. “This is great. This is what we came here to do.”
McPhatter gave the Pirates an early lead in the race before handing off to Richardson.
“That has been the boys’ goal all year and after last year, we felt like we could win it,” Platte County coach Gabe Middleton said. “We have a great distance coach (Courtland Ingram) and the boys do it all year. He got them trained perfectly to do what they needed to do. They are good kids and ended with a great race.”
Cordova also broke the school record in the 800, while Isabelle Geddes broke her own school record in the 300-meter hurdles over the weekend.
Cordova ran 1:57.04 in the 80-meter to take fifth in a race won by West Plains’ Ben Stasney, a repeat champion.
Cordova didn’t compete in the event at the district meet last year, instead attending his brother’s wedding. His first time in the event at state, he got behind early but ran 58 seconds on both laps.
“Before the race, my legs were getting heavy and I tried to everything I could,” he said. “I started the race and couldn’t find my stride the first 200. The first 200 was so slow, so my first 400 was slow. My second 400, I was able to pick it up like I needed. The first 400 was just too slow to make up for it.”
Geddes took fourth in the 300 hurdles (44.99), moving up two spots on the podium from her finish last year. She was third after the prelims heading into Saturday’s final.
“I think it went pretty good. I stumbled on a couple times,” said Geddes, who was 12th in the 100 hurdles. “I could always do better but I’m happy with it.”
Senior John Watts, who will play football and run on the track and field team at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Mo., collected three medals on Saturday.
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
Platte County’s John Watts soars in the air in the Class 4 long jump event on Saturday, May 26 at the MSHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Watts finished in second place in the event.
He opened with a seventh-place showing in the 400-meter dash (49.66) and then moved over to the long jump, where he was a finalist in that event.
But before he could compete in the finals, he had to run in the 4x400 relay team that finished seventh. He joined Matthew Phillips, McPhatter and Cordova on that team that ran 3:25.69.
After that, Watts went back over to the long jump to take his three jumps in the finals.
On the first of his three attempts in the finals, he jumped 22 feet, 5 inches and that gave him second place behind Jasean White of Mexico (22-9 ½).
“It was tough full speed in the 4x400 to catch someone then to go straight the jumping,” Watts said. “A lot of people can’t do that. I’m lucky.”
Watts entered with a goal to break NaRon Rollins’ school record mark set in 2012, but the running events in heat that spiked to 107 degrees on the track made it difficult. He leaves Platte County with eight all-state medals.
A back injury — sustained while pole vaulting in October — kept the Jacob Laures on the sideline for most of the season, but the came back late in the year and ended up taking fifth in the pole vault.
He jumped 14 feet in the finals, a foot higher than his showing at the KU Relays, his first meet of the season. He lost a tiebreaker with the fourth-place finisher.
“I was injured half the year so we weren’t sure what would happen,” Middleton said of Laures, who placed seventh last year in the event. “He has been healthy the last month and has really came on.”
The final all-state medal went to senior Erin Straubel in the 3,200 run.
She placed sixth in the event and earned her first all-state medal, a day after a 15th-place showing in the 1,600, by running 11:43.28 in the two-mile race.
MSHSAA officials turned the sprinklers toward track, as well as having officials handing water to the runners in what was the next to last event of the two-day event.
“It wasn’t that bad when you were focused on race and didn’t think about the heat,” Straubel said. “I waited for a long time for this. To be a first-year qualifier (and medalist) my senior year, it is pretty awesome and memorable.”
Platte County had two close calls as Michael Smith (shot put) and Will Hay (300 hurdles) both took ninth, one place away from a top-eight all-state finish.
Other state qualifying events: Lauren Johnson was 12th in the 3,200; Haley Luna was 15th in the 400; Abbie Schwieder was 15th in the pole vault; the boys 4x200 team of Blake Reynolds, Phillips, Watts and Dakota Schmidt was 10th and the girls 4x200 team of Britteanna Curry, Karleigh Wise, Luna and Geddes took 12th.
In the team standings, the boys finished in ninth place with 30 points in a closely-group standings. Fourth-place West Plains had 34 to grab the fourth and final state trophy, while Webb City, Rockwood Summit, Hillsboro, Willard, the Pirates and Horton Watkins rounded out the top 10.
Carthage won the title with 62 points.
The Pirates were 31st on the girls side with eight points.