The Festus girls track and field team exerted total dominance at the Jefferson County Activities Association meet April 24-25 at Hillsboro, amassing 228.5 points for their third straight league championship.
The Tigers had all-conference (top four) finishers in all 19 events and swept the four relays, and freshman sensation Jahmeshia Patterson claimed the girls most valuable athlete award, winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes and finishing second in the 100 hurdles and the long jump. In the 100, she broke the JCAA record twice, clocking 12.05 in the preliminary heats and 12.03 in the final.
Festus outscored the next two teams combined, Hillsboro (90.5) and Jefferson (82). De Soto was fourth with 62.
“We wanted to come here and compete well and the girls have been up to the challenge so far,” Festus head coach Wes Armbruster said. “I’m really proud of what they’re doing.”
Patterson, the breakout star of the track season not just in the county but in the St. Louis area, appears hungry for more.
“It might look like I’m the fastest girl out there, but my times aren’t where I want them,” she said. “I just worry about me and my times.”
Adding to her motivation, she’s often reminded about being a freshman when she finishes behind upperclassmen.
“All the time,” she said. “You don’t know how many people are telling me that. I don’t care if I’m a freshman or not, I want to do better.”
The Tiger 4x400 relay team of seniors Makayla DeClue, Amiah Pittman and sophom*ores CeCe Hawkins and Jessica Hawkins (not related) capped the meet by winning in a conference record 4:05.15. Festus also smashed the league standards in the 4x100 (49.86), featuring CeCe Hawkins, sophom*ore Elsa Muellersman, junior Olivia Gillam and DeClue, and the 4x200 (1:45.90) with Pittman, Gillam, DeClue and CeCe Hawkins.
A quartet of Tiger underclassmen blew away the field in the 4x800. Freshmen Lucy Boyer, Ella Jo Jokerst and Bailee Tolbert and sophom*ore Katelyn Thurman clocked 10:11.36, not a conference record but still 30 seconds faster than second-place Herculaneum.
The 4x100 team, which could plug in Patterson at any point, has set the school record the last two meets without her.
“We’re not a one-person show with Jahmeshia or Jessica (Hawkins),” Armbruster said.
The other conference champions for Festus were senior Jeannie Thornborrow in the 3,200 (11:53.09) and sophom*ore Leinna Smith in the discus (36.51). Pittman was second in the 400 in 1:00.73. Boyer and Thurman ran 2-3 in the 800 (2:27.98 and 2:28.89), right behind sophom*ore Reagan Meyer of St. Vincent (2:27.48).
Festus freshman Kendall Counts was second in the 3,200 in 12:01.05 and Jesscia Hawkins placed second in the 300 hurdles in 46.82, nosed out at the finish line by Grandview junior Catherine Wakeland (46.79).
The Tigers scored just as heavily in the field. Sophom*ore Ella Moser tied Hillsboro sophom*ore Maizy Sabourin in the high jump at 1.47, but Sabourin won the event in fewer attempts. In the triple jump, Tiger freshman Kenzie Kerr (10.47) and sophom*ore Jayleigh Fitzgerald (10.04) finished second and third behind champion Krysta Miller (11.08), a Hillsboro senior, whose winning leap set a new JCAA record.
Festus also cashed in at the pole vault with sophom*ore Addison Walden (third, 2.90) and junior Alexandra Yates (fourth, 2.74). Senior Ciara McDonald was a three-time medalist – fourth in the javelin (36.70), third in the discus (34.57) and fourth in the shot put (10.04).
St. Pius X sophom*ore Elana Ruble won the javelin in 38.49 and Jefferson junior Megan Wood took the shot put in 10.51.
“It gets messy over there because the varsity shot put and javelin were going on at the same time,” Armbruster said. “(McDonald) got a little rattled. That’s not saying she would have won (javelin) because the Ruble girl put together an awesome throw. Mentally as an athlete that’s something we’ve got to work through, but she’s ready to focus on the jav.”
Miller, fifth in the long jump and eighth in the triple jump at the state meet in 2023, had a goal of 5.9 in the long jump at the JCAA meet. She won it handily in conference-record 5.51, more than a foot ahead of Patterson. Miller also ran in the 100 (seventh) and was part of the Hawks’ 4x100 relay (sixth).
“I was behind the (takeoff) board on all of my (long) jumps, so they were marked 5.2s, but really they were 5.6s,” Miller said. “Same goes for my triple jump distances.”
Hillsboro junior Emily Wright, a state medalist last year in the 100 hurdles (fifth) and 300 hurdles (eighth), won the JCAA 100 hurdles (15.34) and placed third in the 300 hurdles (48.74) and the javelin (37.55). She also competed in the long jump but didn’t medal.
Wakeland is one of the top playmakers and shooters in the JCAA during basketball season. Her winning time in the 300 hurdles was a personal best. She was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 16.95.
“I hit the last hurdle (in the 300) and I heard them coming, and I was getting a little nervous,” Wakeland said. “But I stuck my head out more than (Hawkins), and I thought I was going to fall, but I didn’t.
“It was the best competition I’ve had all year. I want to thank Maggie Boker (2023 Grandview graduate) for helping me. I’ve improved so much.”
Herculaneum senior Eddyson Reeves won the pole vault in 3.05, the only vaulter to clear 10 feet. De Soto senior Jailey Pigg won the 1,600 in 5:26.84.
No holding fire for state champion Tigers
Chris Partney likes to play his cards close to the vest.
The head coach of the Festus boys track and field team usually doesn’t field all of his top athletes in the same meet until the district competition in mid-May. But he was curious to see how his talented Tigers, the defending state Class 4 champions, would stack up against the best from the rest of the Jefferson County Activities Association at the JCAA meet April 24-25 at Hillsboro.
So with the exception of some younger sprinters, Partney put his A-team on the line and the result was the conference title with 182.5 points, powered by medal winners (top four) in 17 of 19 events, including six champions.
Hillsboro, led by their hurdling trio of seniors Dalton Ross and Nick Marchetti and sophom*ore Clayton Brown, finished second with 161 points, followed by Herculaneum (96) and Jefferson (60).
“We had a good opportunity to check out how everyone was doing, so we were able to do well enough to win,” Partney said. “We weren’t fully healthy and 100 percent as we’d like to be.”
If there was any doubt Carson Driemeier could replace his graduated teammate Ian Schram in the distance events, the Festus sophom*ore put that to bed for good, setting the JCAA record in the 1,600 in 4:14.74, winning the 3,200 in 9:16.61 and joining seniors Bryson Rhine and Jimmy Wacker and junior Tate Uding on the winning 4x800 relay team, clocking in at 8:05.85.
“(Driemeier) is a fantastic kid,” Partney said. “When you’re chasing distance records that young at Festus, you’re accomplishing quite a bit. The 4x800, that’s an elusive record(since) teams don’t have all four guys who run at state because they’re scrambling in other events.”
The Tiger 4x100 relay also won, in 49.86 seconds, and Festus closed the night by winning the 4x400 in 3:31.91, less than a second ahead of Jefferson (3:32.16).
Tiger junior Trey Lacey learned a lot about the jumps last year from 2023 Festus graduate Arhmad Branch, who won the state long-jump title and now performs at Purdue University. Lacey won at Hillsboro in 6.51 meters, barely beating senior Camden Mayes of Crystal City (6.50). Hornet senior Kanden Bolton, the Class 1 state champion in the long jump a year ago, took third at 6.47.
Lacey also placed second in the triple jump in 13.69, behind Bolton’s leap of 14.05, and fourth in the 300 hurdles in 46.88. His personal record in the long jump is 6.9, but he said he believes he can get to 7.0 this season.
“The competition was good, especially (Bolton and Mayes), they kept me on my feet,” Lacey said. “I’ve got to keep working until we get to state. The key to this event is clearing your mind, running fast, but also having enough power to jump. (Branch is) like a big brother, watching him, following in his footsteps. I try to be myself, but he’s a good role model.”
Lacey said he likes his team’s chances to repeat at Jefferson City next month, given their balance and depth, even without Schram and Branch gobbling up event championships.
“We have talented sprinters, jumpers and runners,” he said. “We can’t run out of runners. That’s how fast we are. I believe we can go back (to state) and do the same thing.”
Running side-by-side in the 110 high hurdles, Hillsboro’s Ross and Marchetti were dead-even heading to the last barrier. Ross won in 15.05, with Marchetti second in 15.07.
“I’m one minor mistake from getting in the 14s,” Ross said. “Me and Nick punched each other (accidentally) and I hit a hurdle with my trail leg. If those two things go away, we’re looking at 14.8 or 14.9 and that’s right where I want to be.
“We wouldn’t be as fast without each other. It’s competition every time. If Nick beats me to the first hurdle, I beat him to the third.”
With postseason pressure and competition dead ahead, Ross said the Hawks are suited to challenge their top rivals. He ran the 110 hurdles in Jefferson City in 2023.
“I think a lot of people expected a big drop off, but we’re here,” he said. “Same ’Boro and we’re going to keep running our butts off.”
Marchetti, a state medalist last year, won the 300 hurdles in 39.96, just ahead of runner-up Brown in 41.92. Marchetti said he ran his best hurdles times of the season the week before at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence. Ross and Marchetti will have already graduated when the state meet takes place May 24-25.
Hillsboro junior Preston Brown showed his arm strength last fall as the quarterback of the Hawk football team that finished second in Class 4. He did it again in the JCAA javelin competition, winning with a toss of 54.4, almost six meters ahead of second-place Cody Evans (48.52), a Festus senior. Brown’s older brother, Payton, graduated early and just finished spring football at Southeast Missouri State University; he was second in the state in the javelin a year ago.
The younger Brown said success in throwing the spear is basic.
“Just get out of your own head and trust the mechanics and your coaching,” he said. “The runup doesn’t mean too much. Once you bring it back, and let it go, that’s what matters.”
Windsor junior William Kalisch won two conference titles. He surmounted the pole vault field in 3.81 and ran with Layton Hollis, Alex Sullivan and A.J. Patrick on the Owls’ champion 4x200 relay, which clocked 1:33 flat, three-tenths of a second faster than second-place Festus. Windsor was fifth in the team standings with 54.5 points.
“I came off the blocks feeling really good and gave (the baton) to this amazing guy (Sullivan) and he got us to first place, or close,” Kalisch said.
In his first meet of the season, Kalisch vaulted 3.96 (13 feet) at Park Hills Central.
“Then I hit a slump, jumping 10-6, (or) 11, not gaining height because I was too scared to jump off the ground,” Kalisch said. “My height today meant a lot because I was able to take off.”
Herculaneum senior Ayden Hodges won the 100 in 11.24 and was second in the 200 in 22.70. Blackcat junior Nate Wright won the 800 in 1:56.24 and placed second in the 1,600 in 4:19.68. Senior Jacob Moreland won the discus in 48.29 and the shot put in 16.10.
Jefferson sophom*ore Matthew Waltmann won the 200, clocking 22.54.
