College Heights' Savannah Beaver wins 800 meters in Class 2 state track meet

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May 20, 2012

College Heights' Savannah Beaver wins 800 meters in Class 2 state track meet

Anonymous From staff reports The Joplin Globe Sun May 20, 2012, 01:25 AM CDT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Savannah Beaver won the 800 meters Saturday at the MSHSAA Class 2 Track and Field Championships at Jefferson City.

Beaver, a junior, won with a time of 2 minutes, 18.64 seconds, two seconds ahead of second-place Audrey Cooper of Crystal City. Beaver placed second in the 1600 meters on Friday with a school-record time of 5:17.23.

“We had a great day,” said College Heights head coach Daniel Lewis. “I thought she ran very well. She had the lead at 110 meters and never relinquished it.”

In Class 1, Bubba Galvan of Wheaton won the 300 hurdles and long jump and placed third in the 110 hurdles. He won the triple jump Friday.

Galvan, a senior, has won seven gold medals at the state meet in the last two years.

Lamar’s boys placed second in Class 2 and took home a state plaque for the first time since 1983.

Beaver became the first girl in College Heights history to win an individual event at the state meet. “We’ve won a couple of relays, but we had never won an individual girls title,” Lewis said.

Beaver missed breaking the school record in the 800 by .36 seconds. The record is held by her sister, Emily Beaver, a 2008 College Heights graduate who is a distance and cross country runner at Missouri State University.

Younger brother Ryan Beaver placed third in the 1600 after a seventh-place showing in the 3200 on Friday. His time of 4:30.80 in the 1600 was a personal best, Lewis said.

“He looked real good and real strong for a sophomore,” Lewis said. “We trained a little more for the 1600. There were three guys who beat him yesterday who did not beat him today.”

College Heights brought home a medal in the 400 as well. Adam Lewis, son of the coach, was seventh in 52.17.

Lamar’s boys were runner-up in Class 2 with 50 points, one point behind state champion Cleveland NJROTC. Ben Bailey led three Lamar medalists in the discus with first place. Austin Boice was sixth and Sam Bailey was seventh.

Nick Jeffries was second in the 300 hurdles and third in the 110 hurdles. Lamar was third in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

Cedric O’Hara of Pierce City was fifth in the 200. In the girls division, Pierce City won the 4x200 relay with a team of Emily Ashley, Shania Hogan, Bailee Hayward and Krishna Merriman.

Merriman was sixth in the 400 and Sara Stearns was seventh in the discus.

Wheaton’s boys, led by Galvan, were third in Class 1. Wheaton’s Darrell Burns won the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 9 inches, one inch higher than second-place Mike Spicer of Jasper.

Liberal was sixth in the 4x100 relay and seventh in the 4x200. Chris King was third in the 800.

Liberal won the girls’ 4x200 relay, placed second in the 4x100 and eighth in the 4x200 with a team of Kacey Ayers, Megan Rose, Kacia Fry and Kori Dodson.

Ayers was third in the 300 hurdles and eighth in the 200. Brittany Ayers was fifth in the 800.