Kirkwood Boys, Girls Flourish at Sectional Track Meet

It was an impressive day for Kirkwood track and field on Saturday. The Pioneers boys and girls teams each flourished at the Class 4 Sectional 1 track meet on Saturday at Lafayette High School.

Depth was the key in the second-place team finish by the Kirkwood girls. Kayla Gutierrez was the lone Pioneers sectional champion as she won the shot put (39 feet, 8 inches). But Kirkwood was able to qualify in six open events and all four relays.

The 4x100-meter relay team of Diamond Boyd, Robyn Jordan, Lindsey Leeker and Bria McWoods was third. Jordan, Leeker and McWoods also wan in the 4x200, along with Lianna Doty. They finished second. Doty and Leeker teamed with Megan Hellwege and Anne Hellwege to finish third in the 4x400. The 4x800 team of Doty, Anne Hellwege, Elizabeth King and Elizabeth Luciani finished third.

Area school Nerinx Hall was able to qualify two runners in the 100-meter dash, including champion Peyton Chaney (12.00), who edged Shawntanay Johnson of Fox (12.05). Alex Isom of Nerinx finished fourth.

Colleen Quiqley and Nicole Douglas were double sectional champions on Saturday. Quigley, a senior from Nerinx Hall, won the 1,600 (5:02.35) and the 3,200 (11:16.05). Douglas, a junior from Parkway West, won both hurdle events. She ran a 14.99 in the 100 and 45.22 in the 300.

Webster Groves and Kirkwood also each had sectional open champions.
Webster junior LaJuan Moye cleared 6-6 in winning the high jump. Kirkwood senior Quincy Sharp won the 100 (10.89). He also finished third in the 200.

There was tremendous balance among the boys teams in the Class 4 Sectional 1 field. Ladue won with 60 points, followed closely by Kirkwood with 58.5 (the Pioneers finished second in both the boys and girls), Summit with 56 and Lafayette with 54.

A one-two finish at the sectional track meet by athletes from the same school is a rare feat. It happened twice at Lafayette High School. Rockwood Summit's Daniel Mazar and Curt Wood finished first and second, respectively, in the 800-meter run.

The other time it happened was in the girls triple jump with Lindbergh's Jill Harmon winning while her teammate Jordan Yanker finished second.

Those 18 points helped the Lindbergh girls to a first-place finish as a team with 99 points. Kirkwood was second with 86.5 points and Eureka was third with 78 points.

Harmon and Yanker also qualified to the state meet in the long jump. Harmon was second and Yanker was fourth. The top four finishers in each event at the four sectional sites throughout the state move on to the MSHSAA State Meet, which will be held this Friday and Saturday at Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

A fourth-place finish at a sectional meet is in many ways as good as a first since the top four advance to state.

The Eureka girls were dominant in the relay events, winning the 4x100 and 4x200. Paige Biles, Alana Hester, Laura King and Kristin McIntyre ran both sectional champion relays. The Wildcats ran a 48.86 in the 4x100 and 1:44.28 in the 4x200.

Northwest had a pair of sectional champions. Taylor Hosna won the long jump (17-3.75) and Jennifer Sturgeon was co-champion with Alyssa Shaw of Lafayette in the pole vault (10-6).

Summit's Mazar was the standout in the boys meet as he won both the 800 (1:54.54) and the 1,600 (4:19.68) in addition to running a leg on the sectional champion 4x800 team. They broke eight minutes in running an impressive 7:57.50.

Lindbergh's Tim Hamm-Bey and Lafayette's Chris Caldwell also won sectional titles in an open and relay events. Hamm-Bey won the 200-meter dash (22.02) and teamed with Ryan Woodland, Marc Lewis and Adam Schrempf to win the 4x200 (1:28.63). Caldwell won the 100 hurdles (14.23) and the 4x400 with Chris Orange, Khahyil Moore and Devin Hampton (3:20.03).

DeSmet senior Johnel Williams was the only runner to break 51 seconds in the 400. He won with a time of 50.91. Taron Street was the Marquette sectional champion. The senior won the 300-meter hurdles (38.22). He also got through in the 110 hurdles, finishing second to Caldwell.