Clayton Track Athletes to Compete at Sectional This Weekend

A number of track and field athletes qualified for sectional competition this spring.

And the secret to their success was simple.

“This group works hard, and they have a lot of confidence in themselves,” Clayton girls track coach Barry Ford said. “We had been talking about how we came up in fifth place in a lot of events last year and did not qualify. This year, they happened to work very hard and get in.”

In boys and girls track, an athlete or relay team must place in the top four in a district meet to qualify for sectionals. The Clayton boys and girls track teams competed in the District 3, Class 3 District at MICDS last weekend. The qualifiers will compete this weekend in Mexico’s sectional meet, where they’ll have the opportunity to qualify for state. The top four placers in each sectional qualify for the upcoming state track and field meet in Jefferson City.

The Greyhound girls’ 4 x 200 relay team, composed of Lacei Sams, Leah Johnson, Kayla Brown and Traci Walker, and their 4 x 400 relay team, composed of Johnson, Sams, Ellie Gund and Alayna Hutchinson, both qualified for state with fourth place finishes and times of 1:49 and 4:15, respectively. Johnson qualified for sectional as an individual in the open 200 with a fourth place finish (27:03). In addition, junior Briah Arms and sophomore Amelia Stubblefield qualified for sectionals in the shot put and discus with fourth place finishes.

Sams said qualifying for state in two different events was "so amazing.”

“I was hyper and jumping up and down,” she said. “I felt like I was going to cry. It was a wonderful moment, like Christmas.”

Sams said both of the relay teams benefit from quality handoffs and a lot of team camaraderie.   

“We have a lot of fun, we laugh and giggle together,” she said.

In her four-year career, Johnson had never qualified for sectionals.

“I recently started running year-around,” she said. “I think that’s the reason why we qualified.”  

Gund, a sophomore, had her freshman season cut short after four meets because of  a leg stress fracture. Like Johnson, she credits a quality off-season with her success.

“A lot of it was working hard before the season,” Gund said on the post-season success. “I came to practices after school. I didn’t do that last year. It helped me keep in shape.”

Hutchinson, a sophomore, said she likes competing on the 4 x 400 relay team because it allows her to showcase her abilities as a sprinter. In the race, each competitor runs 400 yards. She thinks the young relay team will continue to improve.  

“It’s a good thing because it means we can only get better,” she said.

Brown runs the third leg on the 4 x 200 relay team while Sams runs the first leg and Brown runs the second leg. She said running third leg means “sometimes having to play catch-up and sometimes having to keep the same pace.” Brown said maintaining the same pace was key in the sectional qualifying race.

“I had to keep telling myself that I was almost to the end,” she said.   

Traci Walker, a junior, said qualifying in the 4 x 200 was "very exciting.”

“Coming into high school, I wanted to go to state all four years,” Walker said. “We didn’t make it before, but I feel we’ve put all of (our) hard work and effort into it.”

Arms, a junior, threw 30 feet, six inches in her sectional qualifying performance at districts. She competed on relay teams and threw discus on the track team as a freshman, but she was not out as a sophomore.

“I’m very surprised at myself,” she said. “I’d never done the shot put before.”

Stubblefield, a sophomore out for track for the first time this year, threw 101 feet, four inches in the discus at districts.

“This feels good,” she said. “It shows that if you put in hard work, you can get somewhere.”

Like Bond, Greyhounds boys track coach Mike Nelke talked about the role of his athletes' work ethic in their post-season success.  

“Three years ago, we had a few kids individually at state, and now we’re starting to get some relay teams,” Nelke said. “The more kids we get there, the better. These kids have put in a lot of hard work. They started running in the winter, and some ran cross-country. It’s more of a seasonal commitment. This is a year-around thing.”

The Greyhounds' 4 x 200 relay team, Frank May, Jeremiah Camp, Kameron Stewart and Tyler Walker, and their 4 x 400 relay team, Matthew Millett, May, Camp and Stewart, placed second and fourth at districts.         

Millett runs the third leg on the 4 x 400 relay team.

“I wasn’t expecting to make it in the 4 x 400 meter relay, I was expecting to make it in the 4 x 800 relay,” Millett said. “This came as a surprise. My coach thought it would be a good experience for me to run something really fast, so I started running it.”

Millet didn’t start running on the 4 x 400 relay until the end of the season.

May runs the third leg on both of the sectional qualifying relay teams. He said qualifying for sectionals “took lots of practice.”   

Camp runs the third leg in the 4 x 100 and the first leg in the 4 x 400. He went to sectional last year in the 4 x 400. He said his experience in sectionals creates a sense of confidence.

Stewart runs the fourth leg in both the 4 x 200 and 4 x 400. He qualified for sectionals last year in both races.

“I know what to expect,” Stewart said about having been to sectionals. “I don’t have to worry about the crowd or anything like that.”

Like Camp and Stewart, Walker is experienced in sectional competition because he qualified last year.

“We know what to expect,” he said. “We expect to go to state.”

Senior Joseph Dillon, freshman Andy Hodapp and junior Caleb Grady will attend the sectional as alternates for the 4 x 400 relay. Grady qualified for state this year in wrestling.