Lindbergh Girls Enjoy Memorable Day at Sectional Track Meet

A one-two finish at a sectional track meet by athletes from the same school is a rare feat.

It happened twice at the Class 4 Sectional 1 Track Meet on Saturday at Lafayette High School. In the girls triple jump, Lindbergh's Jill Harmon won, and her teammate Jordan Yanker finished second.

The other time it happened was with Rockwood Summit's Daniel Mazar and Curt Wood, who finished first and second, respectively, in the 800-meter run.

Those 18 points in the triple jump 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 Friday and Saturday at Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

Harmon, a junior, is familiar with the state meet as she was all state in the triple jump last year, finishing seventh. This will be the first trip to state for Yanker, a sophomore.

Harmon comes from a track family. Her brother, Ben, is a decathlete at Washington University where he is a senior. Her sister, Lee, is a sophomore at DePauw University where she is a jumper. And her younger sister, Brooke, is a seventh-grader who is showing a lot of promise in the sport.

Jill has had an excellent year, especially in the triple jump where she was a conference, district and now sectional champion. She jumped 36-11 on Saturday which is a personal record.

"I hope to break 37 feet at state," said Harmon, who jumped 36-6 last year to finish seventh at state. "I would really love to place in both events. I would definitely like to improve in the triple jump and hope to be in the top five."

A fourth-place finish at a sectional meet is in many ways as good as a first since the top four advance to state. Yanker knows that well because she was fourth in the long jump. And she also realizes that track can be a game of inches. She tied with Emily Weiss for fourth place with a jump of 15-11.5.

"I didn't really think that I was going to make it in the long jump and I honestly had no idea that I had made it until they announced it," Yanker said. "I didn't know I tied. I think when you tie, it comes down to your next best jump and mine was 15-8 and I think hers was about 15 feet. I'm just really excited about making it to state in two different events. I just hope to go out there and have a PR."

The Flyers had one other individual champion and one relay champion on Saturday. Sami Fisher was a sectional champ in the high jump, clearing 5-2. The 4x800-meter relay team of Sarah McCaughey, Marina White, Grace Watt and Colleen Riley won with a time of 9:15.85.

Lindbergh also qualified its other relay teams, all with fourth place finishes. White, McCaughey, Watt and Riley also ran in the 4x400-meter relay.

Emily Broadhacker, Anna Curran, Tyler Ishmon and Kirsti Meyer ran in the 4x100-meter relay. Broadhacker and Curran teamed with Kelly Clark and Jessica Bone in the 4x200-meter relay.

Riley will be busy next weekend. She qualified in two open events in addition to her two relays. Riley was third in both the 800 and 1,600-meter runs.

Anne Massey and Katie Kennedy were the other open qualifiers for the Flyers. Massey was third in the 100 hurdles while Kennedy was fourth in the pole vault.

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 (39-8). 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-meter relay. The 4x800-meter relay team of Doty, Anne Hellwege, Elizabeth King and Elizabeth Luciani finished third.

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

Hester was also a member of the 4x400-meter relay team which finished second. Jessie McNeel, Alyssa Rebecca and Jill Rechtein ran the other legs. McNeel, Rebecca and Rechtein teamed with Eilish Overby to finish second in the 4x800.

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

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).

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.

Summit's Mazar was the standout in the boys meet as he won both the 800-meter run (1:54.54) and the 1,600-meter run (4:19.68) in addition to running a leg on the sectional champion 4x800-meter relay 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-meter hurdles (14.23) and the 4x400-meter relay with Chris Orange, Khahyil Moore and Devin Hampton (3:20.03).

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

DeSmet senior Johnel Williams was the only runner to break 51 seconds in the 400-meter dash. 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.

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.