Charleston track team hoping to bring home medals at state

sports@standard-democrat.com

JEFFERSON CITY -- Starting today kids from all around the state will descend upon Dwight T. Reed Stadium in Jefferson City for the Class 1 and 2 track and field championships.

As usual, southeast Missouri will be well represented.

Hoping to make the most noise in the region will be the Charleston Bluejays, who are bringing an unusually large group of athletes to the Class 2 competition.

"Last year we took two and they've been taking two or three kids probably the last five years," Charleston head coach Brett Blackman said. "We have 10 kids up here this year with alternates right now.

"We're happy with that and hopefully we can be successful (today) in the preliminary rounds and be able to run again on Saturday."

Competing in three events for the Bluejays will be junior Devonte' Ware.

Besides competing in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, where he is seeded sixth and second respectively, he'll also anchor for the 100-meter relay team. Rounding out the fourth-seeded relay team is Demontrail Clark, Robert Bogan and Dyrel Pierce.

Even after posting a time of 44.47 seconds at their Class 2 sectional meet, Blackman thinks the relay teams' best run could be ahead of them.

"I think our 4x100 still has a lot of juice in it so I'd like to see them run their best time of the year and let it fall where it may," Blackman said. "That's all we can ask for in rounds like this."

In the field events, senior Sumner Foster is set to cap a great career at Charleston with a medal finish in the high jump if he can match or top his recent performance. Foster goes into the event with a state-best 6-foot, 6-inch jump, which was a personal best he set last week in sectionals.

"Sumner is setting there in position with the state's top jumper at 6-6 and we feel like we have him healthy and he has a lot of spring in his legs right now," Blackman said. "Plus he's on the campus of his school (Lincoln University) that he's going to be going to next year. So he wants to do well for his coaches and we want him to do well for them as well."

Other events the Bluejays will be participating include the triple jump, where Pierce is seeded fourth while senior E'Neikqua Ewing represents the lone girl Lady Bluejay to make it to state. She'll compete in the shot put event, where she's seeded 12th.

"Coach Farmer and I tell our kids that these other kids are bringing their 'A' game and we have to do that same," Blackman said. "We run against the same people a lot during the season and we've had a lot of success. We went to four invitationals and won some, but we're against a different type of speed now. So we're going to have to be running on all cylinders just to qualify and get in good position for the finals."

Another local on the Class 2 side of the meet is Kelly sophomore Dalton Huffman, who'll compete in the boys' high jump. He's seeded right behind Foster with a jump of 6-foot, 4-inches at sectionals.

He's joined by classmate Morgan LeDure, who will be competing in the girls' high jump and the Lady Hawks' 200-meter relay team. Samantha Ratledge is seeded sixth in the triple jump as well.

Rounding out the Class 2 participants is three Chaffee kids who'll all take part in the field events. Senior Dustin Worley will participate in both the shot put, which he's seeded third, and discus while fellow seniors Stevie Schrum and Ellie Sigman will compete in the girls' discus and long jump events respectively.

In Class 1, Oran will he headed up by junior Addie Kielhofner as she takes part in three separate events this weekend.

She'll run run the 100-meter dash as well as the 100 and 300-meter hurdles.

Kielhofner's best chance to medal is likely the 300-meter hurdles as she own the top-seed with a time of 47.95 seconds in sectionals. The junior finished seventh at state last year with a time of 49.59.

Her teammate senior Baily Carlyle will also compete in the 100-meter hurdles, where she's seeded fifth.

Oran will also be represented in its second-seeded 200-meter relay team and sophomore Toni Hency, who'll take part in the shot put event.