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Track and Field

Jackson track and field teams each take second at districts

The Jackson girls track and field team poses with the runner-up Class 5 District 1 plaque following Saturday's meet in Poplar Bluff. Submitted photo

Despite neither team coming away with an overall meet district championship, the Jackson boys and girls track and field teams are both sending numerous athletes to sectionals after both teams took second at the Class 5 District 1 Meet Saturday.

The Indians girls team won four events and placed in the top four of a total of 12 times to qualify for sectionals. Jackson’s boys took first in three events with 13 top-four finishes to move on to sectionals.

Jackson’s girls team had two athletes win multiple district titles, which were juniors Mallorie Metzger and Lillian Gibbs. Metzger won the 800-meter run (two minutes, 19.61 seconds) and was a member of the championship 4×800-meter relay team (9:52.94) with seniors Layla Fliege, Maite Mendez and Brooklyn Burgess.

Gibbs, who is in her first year on the track and field team, won both the discus and javelin throws with heaves of 114 feet, one and three quarter inches and 120-3, respectively.

Winning for the boys team individually were senior Collin Havill (pole vault; 13-6.25), junior Tony Terry (shot put; 54-10.75) and sophomore Bryce Gentry (1600-meter run; 4:29.34).

The Indians girls team had a total of five runner-up finishes as Fliege took second in both the 800 (2:19.64) and 1600 (5:35.24). She also finished third overall in the 3200 (12:53.85) behind Mendez, who took second place with a time of 12:44.63. Burgess will also run individually at sectionals as she finished in third behind Fliege for the 1600 (5:42.69).

The Jackson’s girls final three top-four finishes all came on the field as junior Stormee Rutherford (shot put; 33-3.25) and freshman Kimmora Carothers (javelin; 102-11.5) each took second. Lastly, sophomore Felicity Pingkian took third in pole vault at 10-0.

The Indians had four runner-up finishes on the boys side as the 4×800 team comprised of junior Cade McCadams, Gentry, junior Cole Puls and sophomore Zach Brazel took second with a time of 6:11.46.

Puls also took third place in the 800 by crossing the finish line at 2:00.97, while junior Hunter Wendel finished fourth in the 3200 (9:57.34) to round out Jackson’s sectional qualifiers on the track.

Moving back to the field events, Indians junior Conner Matthews placed in the top four of two events by taking third in triple jump (40-3.75) and fourth in high jump (6-1.75). Senior Joshua Wehren-berg finished fourth behind Matthews in triple jump with a leap of 39-6.5.

Other second-place finishers for Jackson’s boys team included senior Nolan Chrusciel and juniors Braeden Cain and Noah Gibson. Chrusciel recorded a throw of 144-2 to be the runner-up in discus, while Gibson finished third behind him in the event at 123-5.5.

Gibson took second overall in shot put by recording a throw of 46-8.25, while Cain was able to match Havill’s vault of 13-6.25 for a second-place finish in pole vault.

All of these athletes will competed in the Class 5 Sectional 1 Meet this Saturday at Kirkwood High School.

Nick McNeal covers high school sports, college sports and community events for The Cash-Book Journal. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in multimedia journalism and has lived in Cape Girardeau County for the past five years. He can be reached at cbjsports@socket. net.

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