By Brock Sisney (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
MONETT — The Marshfield Lady Jays and the Lamar Tiger boys ran away from their respective fields in the Big 8 Championship track meet Wednesday at Burl Fowler Stadium.
Conference records were seemingly being broken left and right — (by our count) six of them Wednesday night, including four by the Lady Jays.
Marshfield senior Brianna Utecht alone proved responsible for setting three new Big 8 records — 12.11 seconds in the 100-meter dash, 25.05 in the 200 (she finished 2 seconds faster than second place), and 14.33 in the 100 hurdles are now the Big 8 standards of excellence.
Marshfield’s 4×200 squad of sophomore Emma Dinkins, freshman Cassie Fishel, sophomore Macie Vestal, and senior Alliyah Joiner set a new record with their 1:49.19 time, a mark again 2 seconds faster than second place.
Staying on the girls side, Mt. Vernon senior Sadie Heisner established a new record height for the pole vault with her clearance of 3.35 meters.
On the boys side, East Newton’s 4×800 made history with their 8:14.56 and they smoldered Wednesday night, finishing nearly 26 seconds faster than second place Mt. Vernon.
The Marshfield girls dominated with 166 points, 88.5 better than second place Nevada. Mt. Vernon finished third with 77, followed by Cassville at 69.5, Rogersville 67, Lamar 54.5, Monett 47, McDonald County 41.5, Hollister 41, Aurora 31, Reeds Spring 20, East Newton 20, Seneca 18, and Catholic 10.
The Lamar boys finished with 55.5 points more than second place East Newton (136-80.5) and then it was Marshfield with 68.5 points, Reeds Spring and Rogersville each with 61, Hollister 59, Monett 51, Mt. Vernon 42, Cassville 41.5, Nevada 41, Catholic 38.5, Aurora 32, and McDonald County 29.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE MEET
Out of a possible 19 events Wednesday, the Marshfield girls won nine conference titles and produced 90 of their 166 points from those individual titles.
In addition to the four conference-record performances, Utecht won the long jump with a long leap of 5.52 meters, freshman Abigail McBride won the triple with a mark of 10.81 meters on her final attempt, junior Kiana Massie cleared a winning height of 34.17 meters in the javelin, the 4×100 of Dinkens, Fishel, Joiner and Massie won in 50.25, and Joiner gave Marshfield a clean sweep of hurdles titles with her time of 47.51 in the 300 hurdles.
“It feels really good,” Marshfield head coach Roy Kaderly said, “after not being able to come out here and compete last year. We were pretty solid last year too and we had some girls that didn’t have a chance to come here and compete. Just going to some big meets this year, it’s paid off. We PR’ed in a lot of events today. It’s been awesome for them. Perfect weather today and the kids were geared up for it.”
Kaderly and the Lady Jays seemed to remember exactly where they finished last time they competed for the Big 8 title.
“We came in second two years ago,” Kaderly said. “I want to say that we came in second to Lamar. We had some kids step up and climb several spots for us today. We preach everybody contributing, first places are just as important as eighths or sevenths or whatever. We’re all here to compete.”
Marshfield will compete in the upcoming Class 4, District 5 meet hosted by Union and other schools in the formidable field are Camdenton, Father Tolton, Fulton, Helias Catholic, Pacific, Rolla, and Sullivan.
“I feel strong about us headed into the postseason,” Kaderly said. “Today helps solidify that. Like I say, we had some girls climb some spots and get some PRs. Maybe not our No. 1s, but our 2s in events climbed up in spots and that’s going to bode real well for us come district.”
The Lady Jays have a strong possibility for points — 40 of them Wednesday, for example — starting with their four-time conference champion.
“Brianna’s special,” Kaderly said. “She’s one of the hardest-working athletes I’ve ever been around. During COVID, she was out on the track by herself. She never took a day off and it shows this year. Her times are all faster than they’ve ever been. She’s a competitor, she’s the leader of our girls.”
Meanwhile, on the boys side Wednesday, team champion Lamar had three individual and two relay champions: senior Rylan Wooldridge won the discus with a toss of 15.83 meters, sophomore Logan Crockett won a very tight 100 in 11.32, the 4×200 of senior Brian Griffith, Crockett, sophomore Joel Beshore and junior Thomas Gammon won in 1:32.12, the 4×100 of Beshore, Crockett, freshman Ian Ngugi and Griffith won in 43.90, and senior Joe Kremp took the 3200 in 10:09.68.
“We have good balance,” Lamar head coach Rodney Baldridge said. “Our sprint relays are good, our distance runners run well, and we have good throwers. Just a balance and to be honest, we performed really well. In a lot of cases, we outperformed our seed. We were very pleased with that.
“That’s the thing. Nobody knew what to expect because it’s been two years since we had track. We didn’t know how much some of the kids had improved. Our distance runners, we knew because we had them in cross country in the fall.
“We’re starting to hit our peak. Hopefully, we keep going and hopefully at state that’s where we hit our peak. We’re performing as well as we can right now.”
