By Richard Polen
rpolen@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Neosho, which placed third in the boys division, captured the Carl Lewton overall points award and won the girls division of the 26th annual Carthage Invitational track and field meet Thursday at K.E. Baker Stadium.
Joplin won the boys team championship with 120 points, followed by Carthage (112). Neosho clipped Webb City 80-79 for third place.
Neosho ran away with the girls’ title, followed by Carthage, which edged Joplin by one point for second place.
Neosho’s performance in the boys’ meet came as a pleasant surprise to head coach Harry Lineberry.
“Marcus Middleton in the shot put was a huge surprise,” Lineberry said. “Then our finish in the 110 and 300 hurdles was huge.”
Middleton won the shot put with a toss of 48 feet, 8 inches, and teammates Chet Hall and Zack Ward finished 1-2 in the 300 hurdles and 2-3 in the 110 hurdles.
Will McDaniel of Neosho was second in the 100 and 400 meters and third in the 200 meters.
Joplin’s boys were led by sprinters Gates Sanders, who won the 100 and 200 meters and the long jump, and Sanquez Moss, who was third in the 100, second in the 200 and fourth in the 400.
“I suspected where we would be strong,” Joplin head coach Paul Chambers said. “Relay-wise, we’re still looking for the right people.
“I’m trying to put our top runners in individual events. The first half of the season is kind of an evaluation to see where things are at.”
The Eagles won the 1,600-meter relay and had first-place finishes from Nathan Fisher in the 800 and 1,600 and Sam Yount in the pole vault.
Carthage’s boys were led by a 1-2 showing from Billy Mendell and Joel Williams in the 3,200 meters. Adam Evans won the 400 and was second in the 800, and Stefan Stokes won the 110 hurdles. The Tigers won the 3,200 relay and were second in the 1,600 relay.
“This is always a very competitive meet,” Carthage head coach Andy Youngworth said. “Some of the Class 3 schools are well-prepared and have great coaching staffs.”
Thaddeus Foley of Seneca won the discus over Nick Wolfe of McDonald County and Beau Bounous of Monett.
Webb City’s Boo Rogers won the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 2 inches and ran on the Cardinals’ winning 400- and 800-meter relay teams. Slade Byford of Webb City outdistanced Hayden Vaughn of Carthage in the triple jump.
“I felt bad for our pole vaulters,” Webb City head coach Mike Smith said. “We just got our new pits in and they had one day of practice. That’s overcoming adversity.”
Braxton Baker of Webb City was second in the pole vault at 12-0 and teammate Collin Sigars was one of five vaulters who cleared 11-6.
“I told Coach Youngworth that this is the first meet I’ve been to at Carthage where we haven’t had a tornado warning, a rainstorm or was really cold,” Smith said. “You want to escape injury and I think we have. I’m estatic.”
Said Youngworth, “It has been a few years since we’ve had decent weather.”
In the girls’ competition, Neosho freshman Morgan Rathman won the 100, 200 and 400 meters and ran the anchor leg of the Wildcats’ winning 1,600-meter relay.
Jessica Jackson broke her own meet record by winning the 800 meters in 2:20.99, eclipsing her mark of 2:22.1 set last year. She also won the 1,600 meters although teammate Courtney Wood, who was second in the 800, crossed the finish line just a half-second later.
The Wildcats’ Jayde Thomas and Emily Paullus were 1-2 in the 300 hurdles, and Paullus won the triple jump by an inch and a half over Hailey Roderique of Webb City. Katie Box of Webb City won the 100 hurdles.
Ashlee Shimmin of Joplin won the shot put and discus, Mackenzee Roberts took first place in the pole vault and Miriah Johnson won the high jump. The Eagles’ Shelby Fowler was second to East Newton’s Lindsey Bragg in the long jump.
