From staff reports

sports@joplinglobe.com

LAMAR, Mo. — College Heights Christian School’s track teams exceeded expectations at Saturday’s Class 2 sectional meet at Lamar High School.

The Cougars qualified a total of 26 entries — 12 boys and 14 girls — for next weekend’s state meet at Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

“It was a great day, better than expected,” Cougars coach Daniel Lewis said. “We got both of our kids through in the 300 hurdles (Tim Hedger third and Rachel Calandro fourth) in the 300 hurdles. I wasn’t sure about that.

“We had multiple PRs. We cut six seconds off our girls 4x400. We ran a 4:12 after running 4:18 at district. I was very pleased with what we did.”

And, on a personal note, “My daughter (Brittney Lewis) ran the best time of her life in the 400 meters (1 minute, 0.4 seconds to win the event),” Lewis said. “I was excited for both Coach and Dad.”

Lightning halted the meet after the first running final. The competition resumed about 30 minutes later and continued uninterrupted the rest of the day.

“There were a couple of sprinkles off and on, nothing approaching severe,” Lewis said. “There was a little wind, at times gusty. It turned out to be not too bad.”

As expected, the Cougars dominated the boys distance events.

Caleb Hoover, Alex Moore, Josh Carter and Ethan Beaver finished 1-2-3-4 in the 3200 meters. The Cougars’ pack was separated by eight seconds and finished 11 seconds in front of the fifth-place finisher and more than a minute in front of the seventh- and eight-place runners.

Beaver, Carter and Hoover went 1-2-3 in the 1600, separated by less than two seconds, and Alan Good and Beaver placed second and third, respectively, in the 800 behind Stockton’s Lucas Manring.

College Heights also qualified two boys relay teams, taking first in the 4x800 and second in the 4x400.

The Cougar girls won two events — Brittany Lewis in the 400 and the 4x400 relay. In the sprints, Lewis and Hannah Braeckel placed 3-4 in the 100 and 200.

In the distance events, Emily Beaver was second in the 1600 and third in the 800, and Lacie Sparlin took third in the 3200 and fourth in the 1600.

The 4x800 relay team placed second, and in the field events, Lea Sorrick finished third in the pole vault, and Braeckel was fourth in the long jump.

McAuley Catholic advanced five entries to state, headlined by second-place performances by Brielle Lakey in the 400 and Kevin O’Keefe in the high jump.

The Warriors finished third in the girls 4x400, and fourths went to Kristin Wilmes in the 800 and Arvie Kilongkilong in the triple jump.

Other first-place winners from the area were Diamond’s Kenny Newman in the discus, Lamar’s Brian Main in the high jump and Pierce City’s Amanda Miller in the pole vault.

Main also qualified for state in the 110 high hurdles, taking fourth. Other multiple-event qualifiers were Sarcoxie’s Nate Freeland (second in the 200, fourth in the 100) and Pierce City’s Kara Rosebrough (fourth in the discus and shot put).

Pierce City also qualified its 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams, giving the Eagles five entries.

Southwest’s boys also have five state qualifiers — a second place in the 4x100 and fourths by Caleb Mitchell in the 800, Codie Harmon in the long jump and the 4x400 and 4x800 relays.

Also headed to state are Sarcoxie’s Jeff Pedigo in the discus and the girls’ 4x100 relay and Lamar’s Justin Rutledge in the shot put.

Class 1 sectional

ARCHIE, Mo. — Spring River Valley Conference athletes won 10 events in the Class 1 sectional track and field meet at Archie.

Lockwood senior Danielle Parker had three of those victories, in the high jump, long jump and triple jump. Parker is the defending state champion in the long jump.

Miller junior Taylor Rivera, another defending state champion, doubled in the 800- and 1,600-meter runs. Rivera won the 3,200 at state last spring.

Jasper junior Candice Talbot scored a sectional double in the shot put and discus.

Jasper’s Megan Stump won the 100 hurdles, Liberal’s Kylie Brown won the 3,200 and Miller’s Hailey Johnson won the 400.

Bronaugh sophomore Vanessa Langford earned a return trip to state by winning the pole vault.

Jasper sophomore Jeff Piepenbrink sparkled in the boys division, winning both the pole vault and 300-meter hurdles and finishing second in the 110 hurdles to Dylan Revelle of Viburnum.

The Liberal team of Corey Braker, Ethan Bray, Jordan Meadows and Alex Short won the 4x100 relay. Braker also qualified for state in the 800 and Bray qualified in the 110 hurdles.

The top four finishers in each sectional event qualified for the Class 1 state meet, which begins Friday at Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

District postponements

The Class 3 district meet at Nevada High School was halted because of severe weather and will resume Monday at 11 a.m.

About half of the field events had been completed when the meet was postponed.

The Class 4 district meet at Kennedy Stadium in Springfield also was postponed until Monday.

The meet will resume at 11:55 a.m., with 35 minutes remaining in the time allotted for the preliminary throws. The preliminaries for the boys 110-meter hurdles and girls 100-meter hurdles had been completed.

Joplin’s Logan Simon had qualified for the finals in the 110 hurdles while Taylor Tyrelle had qualified for the 100 hurdle finals.