West Platte won a state championship on Day 2 of the MSHSAA Class 1 Track and Field Championships, when the girls 4x800-meter relay team cruised to a win.
The victories and championships just piled up from there.
The girls scored 50 team points and tied with Worth County for the Class 1 championship.
Title No. 3 — in a roundabout way — followed when the two schools played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would leave Jefferson City High School with the plaque that said first place.
West Platte senior Sikoya Richard drew the honors to represent the Bluejays in the final battle of the state finals. Both schools had scissors twice and on the third try, Richard’s paper beat Worth County’s rock.
DANA ZEMBLES/Mound City News
The West Platte 4x800-meter relay team of (from left), Sikoya Richard, Lindsay Goodwin, Sophia Rush and Rachel Heili won the Class 1 state championship in that event and later won a share of the team championship in the MSHSAA Track and Field Championships held May 18-19 in Jefferson City, Mo.
The MSHSAA official suggested a coin flip, but Worth County passed, which led to that method to break the tie. Worth County will get a plaque that says state champions at a later date.
This is the second state championship this year for West Platte, which also won the Class 1 cross country title. This is the first state championship for the girls track and field program.
It also kept the winning streak alive for the Bluejays, who won the KCI Conference title, followed by high-point totals in districts and sectionals.
“Every win after conference was just icing on top of the cake,” West Platte coach Bailee Giger said. “It was always a goal of ours to have a reason to put up a banner in the gym and now they have to put up two. I knew we were going to be good this season, but I did not anticipate the level of success that was to come. I’m blessed to work with hard working, dedicated girls and coaches that love to compete.”
The 4x800 team of seniors Richard and Rachel Heili, junior Lindsay Goodwin and freshman Sophia Rush finished in 10 minutes and 07.17 seconds to win by more than eight seconds.
The girls 4x200 team was second, running 1:49.55. The team featured senior Ciara Davies, sophomores Tori Norman and Faith Stevens and freshman Gretchen Raney. The team was third after prelims.
MOUND CITY NEWS/Special to the Citizen
West Platte’s Max Davies claps while being on the medal stand on Saturday, May 19, at the MSHSAA Class 1 Track and Field Championships in Jefferson City, Mo. Davies was the runner-up in the 1,600 run and was third in the 3,200 run.
Rush added two runner-up finishes for the Bluejays. In the 3,200-meter run, coming in behind district foe Ashley Riley of Platte Valley and the same was true in the 1,600-meter run with Riley winning by two seconds.
MiKenna Peters was third for the Bluejays in the 300-meter hurdles. The freshman was second coming out of prelims and actually dropped her time in the finals — 47.52 — but Abbie Hale of Rock Port passed both Peters and Green City’s Katelyn Conner, the No. 1 seed entering the finals.
West Platte made it 3-for-3 in terms of relays earning all-state medals when the 4x100 team of Peters, Gracie Raney, Gretchen Raney and Davies ran 52.83 in the finals to take fourth.
When Giger took over the program from current West Platte athletic director Brad Basel, the program featured eight girls on an four-lane track at the old stadium.
A new stadium brought energy and numbers to the program, but Giger knows the four seniors on this year’s team helped build the foundation for this championship.
The Bluejays finished 11th overall with 20 points, part of a three-way tie with Liberal and Knox County on the boys side.
The highest finish came from Max Davies, who was the runner-up in the 1,600-meter run. He ran 4:35.22 and came in behind Chadwick’s Evan Smith, who ran 4:32.29.
Davies was the third-place finisher in the 3,200-meter run. He ran 9:55.27 and had his second fastest time in his eight laps on his final one, finishing in 1:09.75. He came in just behind Kansas City Lutheran’s Jesse Schultz for second, at 9:54.49.
Davies’ time in both events were the best marks of the season.
“Watching Max run is inspiring,” West Platte boys coach Steve Feiden said. “He gives you all he has every single time he runs a race and he never gets complacent in his training. He has been a dominant force all season long and to see that he was a factor at the highest level against the strongest runners in Class 1 was an exclamation point on his junior year. I can’t wait to see how next season plays out.
The boys 4x200 team of Sam Davis, Gavin Raney, Drake Stelljes and Cole Vandel ran 1:36.07 in the prelim to reach the finals and jumped from being seeded eighth to finishing fifth — running nearly two seconds faster on Saturday, May 19.
Another all-state performance came from the 4x400 team of Max Davies, Stelljes, Vandel and Gavin Raney, who took seventh place.
West Platte’s 4x800 boys team was ninth, just missing an all-state finish.
“We had a great showing in Jeff City, taking seven boys events to the state championship and I am proud of our efforts finishing near the top of the meet, with only six scores higher than ours out of 56-58 teams represented,” Feiden said. “To have those boys earn medals at the state meet in two of the toughest races (4x200 and 4x400) to qualify for finals, was very rewarding.”