By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Carthage’s girls track and field team opened the season with a first-place finish last week, while the Joplin boys were in action on Thursday for the first time this spring. Both came away with wins over a competitive field at a cold and sometimes rainy 41st Carthage Invitational.
“Our field events is really what carried us,” Carthage coach Jared Cristy said. “Our throwers did really well out here and our jumps did really well. Those aren’t things people see when they’re looking at the track, and that’s where we got a lot of our points. Our 4×1 did better than last week and our 4×4 was better, as well.”
The Tigers didn’t win any events, but scored big points in events like the 100 hurdles, where Elsie Willis finished 2nd, Jaidyn Brunnert was 3rd and Alexis Patrick was 6th, and triple jump, with Ada Roughton placing 2nd, London Shepherd 3rd and Emmy Stark 7th. Chasity Straw placed 2nd in the discus, Olivia Jones was 4th and Karlie Nichols 8th. Carthage had three more scorers in the shot put, with Straw 2nd, Nichols 5th and Jaycee Bayless 8th.
Other second-place finishers for the Tigers were Elsie Willis in the 300 hurdles, the 4×800 relay (Maggie Boyd, Jenna Calhoon, Lauren Carney, Evelyn Carrol), the 4×100 relay (Ashleigh Rowden, London Shepherd, Elsie Willis, Leigha Youngblood), and the 4×400 relay of Boyd, Carrol, Shepherd and Lexa Youngblood.
Webb City finished a close second, just 8.5 points behind Carthage, and won five events.
Chase Stilley took first in the high jump at 1.50 meters and Selah Shewmake placed second in the event for a combined 18 points. Jaylee VanBecelaere won the triple jump with a distance of 10.51 meters. Brooke Hedger earned first in the 400 with a time of 1:00.22.
In the relays, the 4×800 team of Emma McKinzie, Olivia Klotz, Kristina Bundy and Araceli Perez won with a time of 10:16.04, 30 seconds ahead of Carthage. The 4×400 team also placed first, with Jaleigh Brinegar, Chase Stilley, Tatum Christensen and Olivia Klotz finishing in 4:24.30.
Joplin’s girls led all other schools with wins in six events. Ava Doll won both the 1600 and 3200 with times of 5:33.24 and 11:26.07, respectively. Micah Holden won the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.51 seconds. Kendall Nyarango was first in the long jump with a distance of 4.95 meters.
The Eagles also came away with wins in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays.
The Carl Junction girls won four events. Sydney Ward’s time of 12.35 seconds was tops in the 100-meter dash. Madilyn Olds won the javelin throw with a distance of 40.78 meters. Brooke Jesperson took first place in the pole vault at 3.01 meters. And Bella Montez won the 300 hurdles with a time of 49.96 seconds.
Gracelyn Bull led Marshfield with wins in the discus and shot put with distances of 37.65 meters and 12.14 meters.
Central’s Karlee Siperko (2:26.94) won the 800-meter run, and McDonald County’s Samantha Dowd (25.47) won the 200-meter dash.
Joplin boys start season on a high note
Eagles coach Kenneth Peters said his squad winning five events and the team title in Joplin’s first meet of the spring was better than expected.
“It actually was a lot better than we thought it was going to be,” he said. “We were thinking two, maybe three coming in, but we had some kids coming in hurt and we had some others come in and fill in and the events went better than we thought they would.”
Peters said he just wanted his athletes to “get a mark for the year, get something started and set a goal for the rest of the season. We’re racing for May, we’re not racing for April. It was just come in and get started, get some times and figure out how we need to get better.”
But, starting the year with a first- and third-place showing against good competition was “a great start,” he said. “It was a great all around day for them.”
Joplin totaled 120 points to best Carthage (114.5) and Carl Junction (105), with those two teams each winning four events.
Brennen Washington provided one of the highlights with his first-place finish in the discus with a throw of 47.0 meters. Neil Barstow earned the win in the shot put with a distance of 14.80 meters.
Avarus Kuhn-Wofford won the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.52 seconds, and picked up another first-place finish in the 300 hurdles, where he won in 40.82 seconds, ahead of teammate Isaiah Thom in second.
Joplin’s boys also won the 4×100 relay.
Carthage’s boys were led by a huge day from Henry Laytham, who won the high jump (1.80 meters), the 1600 (4.27.89), the 800 (1:58.26) and ran the second leg of the winning 4×400 relay team, which finished in 3:34.76 to best McDonald County.
“Both teams are moving in the right direction,” Carthage coach Braden McBride said. “They won the Carl Lewton Award tonight which is the combined scores, boys and girls and that’s very special because Mr. Lewton was a wonderful man who did a lot. Our boys are getting better and they competed in some not so great weather and finishing second just a few points behind Joplin was a big surprise and I’m just real excited about the direction we’re going. I can’t say enough about Henry Laytham. He scored a lot of points for us tonight and he’s got a lot of potential as a young man.”
Carl Junction’s Ryder Pyles was first in the long jump with a distance of 6.56 meters. Quincy Thomure won the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.15 seconds, while teammate William Coats followed in second. Thomure also won the 200 with a time of 22.53 seconds, and Coats was third. Isaac Willoughby won the 3200 with a time of 9:58.52.
McDonald County’s Aidrian Short won the triple jump with a distance of 12.80 meters, and the Mustangs’ 4×800 relay of Breck Rubeck, Anthony Wilkinson, AJ Mead and Reyes Mendoza Garcia won in 9:08.43.
Neosho’s 4×200 relay of Isaiah Keezer, Jack Brill III, Phoenix Rhatigan and Noah Soriano won in 1:32.61, and Rhatigan added a first-place finish in the 400-meter dash (52.25).
Marshfield’s Carson Rockwood was first in the pole vault (4.18 meters) and Webb City’s Cooper White won the javelin throw with a distance of 45.28 meters.
Girls team scores
Carthage 138
Webb City 130.5
Joplin 122
Marshfield 88.5
Carl Junction 80
McDonald County 61
Neosho 43
Monett 40
Central 26
Boys team scores
Joplin 120
Carthage 114.5
Carl Junction 105
Webb City 93.5
Neosho 87.5
McDonald County 72.5
Central 65
Marshfield 36
Monett 31
