Several qualify for Class 3A state meet

FESTUS - The Sikeston track and field team competed in the Class 3A Sectional meet at Festus on Saturday.

The Bulldogs qualified two relay teams and five individuals for the state championships at Dwight T. Reed Stadium in Jefferson City on Friday and Saturday.

"I thought overall we had an okay day," said Sikeston head coach Jerry Dement. "I'm real proud of the kids that qualified and we had some that just barely missed out. We're starting to put the finishes on a fine season. We hope we've got everybody tuned up and ready to go for the state meet."

The 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 meter relay teams, consisting of juniors Tori Rose, Michael Colon, Keena Hatcher and freshman Felante Larry qualified by finishing in the top four.

In the 4 x 100, they quartet took third with a time of 43.9 behind Herculaneum and Park Hills Central. In the 4 x 200, they took second with a time of 1:31 behind first place Park Hills Central.

Colon also qualified in the triple jump, taking first place with a leap of 43'8". Senior Andrew Lambert also qualified in the triple jump, taking third with a leap of 42'3", but he injured himself on his final leap.

The injury kept him from qualifying in the high jump, in which he had one of the state's best leaps this year.

But later in the day he qualified in the long jump by leaping 20'10 1/2" to take third.

"Andrew Lambert had a disappointing occurrence happen to him where he couldn't high jump," said Dement. "I think it was a tendon in his lower leg. He came down wrong in the triple jump and sprained that thing and unfortunately he didn't have any time to recover between that injury and the start of the high jump. But his competitive nature really came to the forefront after he got injured and he was able to still qualify in the long jump. That was a silver lining on that deal -- I didn't think he'd be able to continue after he got hurt."

Also qualifying was distance runner Dale Ham in the 3200 meters where he took fourth with a time of 10:14.8.

"Dale Ham was very competitive in the 3200 meters, he lowered his time by 13 seconds from last week," said Dement.

Seniors Justin Lowes and Kevin Keller qualified in the shot put taking third and fourth respectively with throws of 53'1 1/2" and 51'6 3/4".

Bulldog athletes that competed but did not qualify were Devante Larry (300 hurdles), Max Hanson (pole vault), Tyler Woodson (110 hurdles), Paige Kaiser (pole vault), the boys 4 x 800 relay team and the boys 4 x 400 relay team.

"We were close in a couple of races, but everybody gave a good effort and put us in a position to do some nice things at the end of the year," said Dement.

Locally, Dexter's Hannah Burleson qualified in the 100 meter dash, taking fourth with a time of 12.7. New Madrid County Central's Michael Malone qualified in the 100 and 200 meter dash, taking fourth in both with times of 11.5 and 23.2 respectively.

Kennett's Tyree Goolsby made it a clean sweep in the speed events, taking first in the 100 (10.9), 200 (22.3) and 400 meter dashes (49.8).