Last week on May 23, the Notre Dame boys and girls track and field teams competed in respective sectionals to see which athletes could qualify for state.
The Bulldogs boys team ended up having six athletes place in the top four of events to reach the Class 3 State Meet, while their girls team will have four representing Notre Dame in Class 4.
Notre Dame qualified for state in a total of nine events and won four sectional championships. This earned the Bulldogs a third-place finish in the sectional meet with 88 points behind first-place St. Mary’s (99 points) and meet runner-up Herculaneum (92).
Bulldogs junior Greg Dennis came away with two Class 3 Sectional 1 titles as he first won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.38 seconds (tied school record). Dennis also repeated as the sectional champion in high jump with a leap of six foot, three and a half inches.
Dennis will also compete at state as a member of Notre Dame’s sectional third-place 4×100-meter relay team, along with juniors Cole Bruenderman and Davis Dow, and sophomore Jacob Brown. These Bulldogs took third with a time of 44.07.
Like Dennis, Bruenderman and Dow also took home individual sectional titles as Cole broke his older brother Evan’s long jump school record with a mark of 22-0.25 to win this year’s event. As for Dow, he won an individual sectional championship in the 300-meter hurdles by recording a time of 42.27.
The two final athletes for Notre Dame’s boys track team heading to state are juniors Mason Morris and Zach Ochs. Morris was the runner up in both the 1600 and 3200-meter runs with times of 4:37.91 and 10:13.74, respectively. Ochs advanced to state with a fourth-place finish in pole vault at 11-5.75 at the sectional meet.
Both Bruenderman and Dennis competed in last year’s Class 3 State Meet as Greg garnered all-state honors in high jump with a sixth-place finish (6-2.25), and he also competed in the 110 hurdles. Cole was a member of last year’s state-qualifying 4×200 team.
As for Notre Dame’s girls team, the Bulldogs will compete in six events at state as they also won one event at sectionals. This earned Notre Dame seventh place by scoring 45 points as Rockwood Summit took home the meet championship at 105.5.
Winning the Bulldogs only individual sectional title was junior Jenna Givens, who repeated as the triple jump champion with a mark of 35-9.25. Givens didn’t repeat as the Class 4 District 1 Championship in triple jump after taking third to Cape Central junior Ki Bogan on May 14, but she beat her by more than a foot for the sectional title.
Givens competed at state in three events last season — triple jump, the 4×100 and 4×200 — taking fifth overall in triple jump (35-5.25) and seventh as a member of the 4×100-meter relay team.
Two other athletes for Notre Dame reached state in two separate events, which were sophomores Emma Duenne and Lauren Eftink. Duenne was the runner-up in shot put (34-5.5) and took fourth in discus (97-4.5), while Eftink finished third overall in the 1600 (5:16.36) and fourth in the 3200 (11:40.07).
The final Bulldog to qualify for the Class 4 State Meet was junior Katy Turner, who did so in pole vault by taking fourth overall with a mark of 9-0.25.
The Class 3 and Class 4 meets were held this weekend in Jefferson City. Look for results in next week’s issue!
