The strength of the league showed in Platte County’s results at the Suburban Conference Blue Division Meet. Despite a handful of record-setting performances, the Pirates were fourth in both the boys and girls team standings Wednesday, May 4 in Belton, Mo.
Case in point: Platte County senior Hilary Mathurin broke a 23-year-old school record in the 300-meter hurdles but still settled for second place. Mathurin posted a 47.69-second time to break Heather Potts’ mark of 47.8 set in 1993, but Kearney sophomore Emma Couch won the race in 47.67 seconds.
Kearney took the team title with 152 points, while Raytown South came in second at 125. Winnetonka was third at 106 with the Pirates at 92 in the six-team field.
While Mathurin’s record didn’t lead to victory, Tianna Daniel-Dalton’s did.
The breakout sophomore cleared 5 feet, 4 inches in the high jump to set a personal best. No other competitor cleared higher than 4-9, but Daniel-Dalton continued on and came up just 2 inches shy of Shelley Laures’ school record set just last season.
Jaycie Stubbs, a freshman, won the javelin, held for the first time at conference, with a throw of 98-0.
Platte County’s other two wins both came from standout sophomore Rebekah Geddes, a returning state medalist from the Class 4 Missouri State Track and Field Championships. She dominated both the 1,600 (5:26.93) and 3,200 (11:29.76).
Grace Lewis set a personal best in the pole vault for Platte County at 7-9, good enough for a second-place tie, while Rachel Gilbert set four personal records, including a fourth-place finish in the 800. She came in at 2:30.65, just more than half a second back of second place and 0.08 of a second behind third-place Sydney McIntire of Kearney.
Platte County’s boys scored 95 points but were well back of Kearney (176), Grandview (144) and Raytown South (118).
The lone victory for the Pirates came from an unexpected spot with freshman Xavier Keith going 47-10 in the shot put — his new personal best — to edge out senior teammate Christian Encarnacion for the title. Mac Leet also set a season best at 6-3 in the high jump and tied for first, but ended up third on criteria.
Platte County’s duo of Payton Sheehan and Bryce Bearden tied for second in the pole vault at 12-3. Sheehan took the runner-up spot on a tiebreaker.
Some of the Pirates’ best performances came in loaded fields. Okwar Jale, a junior, posted a 42.35 in the 300 hurdles but ended up third behind Grandview’s speedy duo of senior Maliek Kendall (38.68) and freshman D’Monte’ Blanks (41.57).
In addition, two of Platte County’s relays posted solid times only to finish behind Grandview and Raytown South.
The Pirates’ 4x200 team of TJ Guillory, Tyler Clemens, Lloyd Lockett and Jacob Mundell was second to Raytown South, while the 4x400 team of Guillory, Clemens, Lockett and Jon Watts ended up third in a loaded field. Raytown South won with Grandview second in a race that featured three of the top five quartets in the state for Class 4.
Platte County sophomore Evan Edwards rounded out the medalists for Platte County, coming in third in the 3,200 behind two runners from Kearney.