JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — There have been 21 state championships spread around five different sports at Webb City.
Boys track and field, up until Friday had never brought home the state’s most coveted team award. That changed thanks to a balanced and deep lineup that accumulated 64 points to win the Class 4 MSHSAA Track and Field Championship at Jefferson City High School.
It has been a long time since the track program has been dominating, you have to go back more than 70 years to see any semblance of team success.
The school’s previous best finish came as a runner-up in 1938 in Class B in a then three-class system.
“It wasn’t much of a track culture when I got here,” said Webb City coach Dustin Miller, who ran at Carthage and then Missouri Southern. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. I’m a competitive guy and I see softball, basketball, boys basketball, girls basketball and of course, football, all have their own state titles. You feel like if you don’t win, you don’t match up. To get this done, I’m proud of our kids. We have been in the shadows of baseball and girls soccer this year and I kept telling them to keep your head down and when you earn your recognition, you will get it.”
The group posed for plenty of photos with the state trophy after winning, beating Kearney by seven points – a usual rival on the gridiron. Fellow Central Ozark Conference school Willard tied for fourth.
The meet was the last for a number of those on the roster for state for both the team and coaching staff. Seniors included Luke Brumit, Caleb Cook, Joseph Dawson, Mekhi Garrard, Pryce Mason, Zetthew Meister, James Morgan, Owen Weller and Samuel Winesburg.
“First time ever winning the state championship and to be able to do it, we do it in football and basketball, first time in track means a lot,” Garrard said.
Miller’s staff will also lose Corey Roy and Josh Baker to different gigs, while Caleb Hoover is headed to medical school.
“It is just surreal,” Miller said. “We knew going into the 800 what would have to happen and Festus didn’t do what they needed to do and we knew Willard was out of points; then Kearney didn’t score. Then it came down to the 200 and by the 4×400, we knew no one would catch us. This is a good-character group of guys that every time I asked them to do something, they did it.”
The Cardinals set school records in the pole vault (Grayson Smith, 14 feet, 10 inches) and discus (Zetthew Meister/165’11).
Garrard, once known for a grand slam he gave up in the Little League World Series, added his name to the history books by winning the long jump with a distance of 23-3 ¼.
He is the school’s second ever to win that event and the first was there as an official at the meet: Alan Spencer who won it in 1968, long before becoming a successful football coach in the area. Garrard added a runner-up finish in the triple jump and was winning before getting knocked to second on the last attempt for Myles Norwood of Trinity Catholic in St. Louis.
In the event that Smith broke the state record, he finished second. Mason was fourth with a jump of 13-8 ¼, giving the Cardinals 13 points in the event.
“It is definitely interesting,” Mason said of dueling with Smith. “As a team, you want him to do his best, but as a competitor, you want to win.”
The team’s 4×400 (Mason, Garrard, Morgan, William Wolfe) had the 16th best time in prelims out of 16 teams and was in the first of two heats. The Cardinals, though, finished third in the meet once all the times for the two races were combined.
Brumit placed third in the high jump and sixth in javelin and Morgan placed in both the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles. Incidentally, the 110 were run going the opposite direction as normal as a strong, consistent breeze would’ve meant running head-on into a gust blowing from the west.
“I did it a few times,” said Morgan of running the opposite direction. “In Missouri we are used to all the wind. It wasn’t too different. I was happy I was closer to the turf than the concrete, though. I was ranked seventh, so I thought if I got through, I will place and it will be fine.”
He was third in the 110 and eighth in the 300.
Webb City’s Weller, Dawson, Winesburg and junior Roman Borboa took fourth in the 4×800 and Borboa added points in the 1,600-meter run.
The Webb City girls got three medals from seniors Emily Beres and Haidyn Berry.
Beres became the sixth female to win a state title and the first to do it in the shot put, where she won with a putt of 39-11 ¼.
Her best was her final one, but she took the lead on her third attempt. However, the day ended on a bad note as she suffered an ankle injury on her way to get her first-place medal and had to be taken to a Jefferson City hospital to check for a possible fracture.
Beres added a sixth in the discus earlier in the day, the same place Berry took in the javelin.
Jewell wins state title
The last time there was a state track meet in 2019, Carl Junction’s Brendan Jewell secured a tie for fourth place. Flash forward to this year only two of those eight medalists that spring were still in school. Jewell and Savannah’s Ben Schneider, who placed one spot ahead of him.
Jewell entered this competition seeded second, trailing St. Charles West’s Braden Goellman and just ahead of Schneider. As the field narrowed itself down from 16, it eventually got down to only two: Goellman and Jewell.
Jewell cleared 6-7 ½ in his second attempt and Goellman missed all three to give the Bulldog senior the title.
That accounted for all 10 points scored by Carl Junction, which placed 23rd in the standings.
The victory makes Jewell the second in school history in the high jump, joining Paul Shouse, who won the event in 1984. Overall, Jewell is the seventh individual Bulldog to take first place in an event since Grant Dennis won the 1,600-meter run in 1996.
The girls team didn’t have a state title but had a handful of all-state showings to take 14th place overall with 21 points. The last time at the state meet in 2019, the Bulldogs scored only five points and were part of a seven-way tied for 37th place.
Junior Ally Montez had a part in both of them, first by running the second leg of the 4×100-meter relay with Olivia Vediz, Salma Lewis and Shiloh Sluder.
In a close finish, St. Teresa’s Academy’s Leah North held off Sluder down the straightaway to win the dash in 49.68. Carl Junction’s time was 49.80.
The Bulldogs were favored to win the race based on seed times and the No. 4-lane assignment.
“It was really frustrating … it sucks we didn’t get first and we wanted to get first,” said Sluder, who took 16th place in the 200-meter dash later in the day. “I’m proud of everyone. We were hoping to break the school record again today, but with this weather it’s hard. I’m proud of how we did all year but we really just wanted the first place finish.”
Montez was the runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles (45.46), while taking fourth in the 100-meter hurdles (14.87). She missed a medal in the 100 as a freshman in 2019 by one spot and by four spots in the 300.
Winnetonka’s Amyah Davis won both of the hurdle races this year. This marked only the second time this year that Montez lost – the other foe to beat her was Brianna Utecht of Marshfield, who was the runner-up in the 100.
“It was a pretty good day doing my races,” Montez said. “I was really wanting to win first, because why not, a state championship is a pretty big deal. I know Amyah, we run against each other in the summer and we always see each other and she is such a good person too.”
4×4 finishes 3rd!#WCPride pic.twitter.com/V1HAIAy2Ew
— WEBB CITY XC/TF (@wcxctf) May 28, 2021
