CARTHAGE, Mo. — Athletes from Carthage and Neosho punched their tickets to the state track meet with their respective performances on Saturday at the Class 5 Sectional 3 meet at David Haffner Stadium.
The top four in each event advanced to compete at Thursday’s Class 5 state track meet in Jefferson City.
Carthage had three entries advance on the boys’ side.
“Our goal is always to get half of our athletes from sectionals to state,” Carthage coach Andy Youngworth said. “We got three out of nine… I was hoping to get a couple more out. We’d like to have more, but I’m really glad we got the 4×800 out to go along with the 800 and javelin.”
Carthage’s Caleb Calvin won the javelin with a heave of 175 feet even.
A senior who has signed with Pittsburg State, Calvin has won his signature event at every meet this season.
“He’s a good athlete and a good kid,” Youngworth said of Calvin. “He’s had a little bit of a side muscle issue and I don’t think he threw as well as he would have liked to today. He moved here in September and he’s been a great addition to our team. There are a couple of really good throwers he’ll go up against at state, so I’m excited to see how he does.”
Sophomore Miguel Solano finished second in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:57.
Carthage’s 4×800 relay team of Malcolm Robertson, Solano, Ty Lewis and Richard Contreras finished fourth in 8:13.
The Tigers just missed qualifying in the 4×100, finishing fifth. Carthage was sixth in the 4×400 and seventh in the 4×200.
Youngworth noted both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays recorded personal-best times.
For the Carthage girls, Joey Hettinger just missed qualifying in the high jump after finishing fifth. She cleared 5-1.
Neosho had three athletes advance in four events.
Neosho junior Kaden Cole was fourth in the boys 1600 in 4:22, while classmate Tristen Linders placed third in the discus with a toss of 140-5.
The Neosho boys finished fifth in the 4×400 relay, less than a second behind fourth place Kickapoo.
For the Neosho girls, Jayden Browning qualified in two events, as she finished fourth in the triple jump (36-0) and was also fourth in the long jump (17-4.25), tying the school record.
A senior, Browning was the lone NHS girl to advance.
Riley Kemna finished fifth in the 3200, while the NHS girls were sixth in the 4×400 and Bailey Miller was sixth in the pole vault.
It was Youngworth’s final home meet as the man in charge of the Carthage track and field program.
The veteran coach, who will lead McAuley Catholic’s program in the future, noted he was pleased to host a sectional event in Carthage again this year.
“We hosted sectionals in 2018, districts in 2019, we would have hosted sectionals last year and we hosted again this year,” he said. “We have a great facility here. I’m really happy that we were able to host it here. We’ve got great workers and we’ve got a great group of people that volunteer. I really appreciate all of their support. And this is my last one here. It’s kind of bittersweet.”
