Twilight Relays: Nine teams take part in event

Sikeston's Alex Clark (left) and Tanner Bryant (right) take part in the 110-meter hurdle relay on Friday afternoon at the Twilight Relays held at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium. Sikeston won the event with a time of 49.64. Nine teams took part in the event. David Jenkins, Staff

SIKESTON -- The same competitive nature is still there, but the Twilight Relays held at Sikeston High School is more about having fun on the track.

So much fun in fact, the boys and girls 'throwers', those who participate in events such as the shut put and discus, compete in a 4x100 relay themselves which is usually the highlight of the evening.

"It's a fun meet," Sikeston head coach Terry Flannigan said. "Everybody looks forward to all of the different variations of a normal meet."

Every event except for two are grouped together as relay events. The meet highlights all normal relay events in their normal format but, scores from the field events are determined by adding the three best marks of three participants

There are no team point totals but there are medals handed to the top three teams in each event. The top individual scores in the field events are awarded gold medals as well.

"They know we don't point so, everybody has a chance to go out and try to win a medal even if it takes two or three guys to do it," said Flannigan. "Everybody just has a lot of fun."

The 100-meter dash and the 1600-meter run are the only two events with just one participant. Eljie Johnson of Poplar Bluff edged out G'Darius Stevenson from New Madrid County Central to win the 100 while Brandon Shemonia and Stephen Schott from Scott City came away with first and third place finishes in the 1600.

Sikeston's Tyanne Townsend finished second to Malden's Latrilla McCoy in the girls 100-meter dash. Mary Dohogne of Cape Central won the 1600-meter run over Scott City's Melanie Lacey who came in second.

The Sikeston Bulldogs won first in nine boys events and five girls events as each squad swept the jumps.

"I think if we had pointed it, knock on wood, I think we would have won it," Flannigan said. "It was just a good showing from every team here."

Sikeston, NMCC, Dexter, Scott City, Poplar Bluff, Cape Central, Malden, Kennett and Saxony Lutheran all made the trip to Sikeston Public Schools Stadium.