Magic numbers: Platte County sets 6 school records at Class 5 Sectional 4 meet

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — Platte County coach Jerod Smith made the easy decision and attempted to maximize results for the Pirates’ relays in the Class 5 Sectional 4 meet at Blue Springs High School.

The moves did the trick.

Platte County incredibly set school records in all four, part of a monumental day for the program. Even more inconceivably, only three advanced out of a historically fast field to this weekend’s Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships as part of easily the largest state-bound contingent for the Pirates since moving up to the state’s largest classification.

Overall, 10 runners and one thrower combined to set six school records. Ty Christopher, a junior, continued to anchor the Pirates’ 4×100- and 4×200-meter relays but also ran the opening leg of the 4×400-meter, stretching into middle distances to provide an extra boost to one of the program’s premier events in recent years.

“Smith likes to call me a relay magician, so yeah, I guess that’s what I take pride in,” said Christopher, who finished with in the 200 and advanced to state in all four of his events. “Really, we’re in such a big class for track, and we’re probably one of the smallest schools in it, so you’ve really got to run these times and do these things to keep up.”

Platte County junior Cale Buntz set a school record in the javelin for a second straight week in the postseason, but the majority of state qualifiers were produced on the track — and most in record-setting fashion. The Pirates’ 4×100 team of all juniors — Christopher, Braiden Stevens, Adam Gisler and Adeboye Akande — posted the fastest time in state history for the second time in the past three races and avenged a loss from the previous weekend’s Class 5 District 8 meet, while a rebuilt 4×400 of Christopher, senior Josh Fraker, junior Jackson Goodale and sophomore Jack Johnson finished second but did so with a time faster than the ones posted to finish second in state a year ago.

Smith moved Goodale, who missed time earlier this season with a hamstring injury, back into Platte County’s 4×200 with Christopher, Stevens and Akande to better their previous school record, while the preferred 4×800 lineup of Fraker, fellow senior Tanner Jenks and juniors Blake Herron and Elijah Jackson ended up sixth in the fastest collective race in state history for the long-distance event.

Notably, Platte County used only two seniors in the dectet of relay runners, none in the 4×100 or 4×200.

“I knew our 4×4 squad was good. I just had to jump on there and give them what they need,” Christopher said. “And 4×2, 4×1, we all worked for that pretty hard. (Four school records), that’s a pretty good accomplishment, I’d say.”

Platte County’s 4×100 put up another time never before seen in state history with the familiar combination of Gisler on the lead leg with the baton then going to Stevens, Akande and Christopher in that order. The Pirates posted the first sub-41 time for a Missouri high school, finishing in 40.83 and well in front of second-place Staley (41.30).

A week earlier, Staley finished just in front of Platte County with senior anchor RJ Collins making a late comeback. However, the Pirates had entered with the top seed after running a 41.24 at the recent Suburban Conference White Division Championships, and that held as the fastest ever in Missouri for less than two weeks after Saturday’s performance.

Gisler, Stevens, Akande and Christopher first set the school record at 42.56 in a sixth-place finish at last year’s Class 5 Sectional 4 meet, which ended their season.

Platte County ran faster five different times this year. Prior the current group of juniors, the fastest mark in program history came from the 2022 team in the Class 5 state finals with 42.84 good for sixth place that year. All eight teams in Saturday’s Class 5 Sectional 4 ran faster than that.

After using senior Caden McGhee as the second leg of the 4×200 at last week’s Class 5 District 8, Platte County went back to Goodale taking the handoff from Stevens, who comes out of the blocks on the longer sprint relay. The gamble on Goodale’s health paid off with a 1:27.26 — second only to Staley (1:26.52). Stevens, Goodale, Akande and Christopher previously ran 1:27.81 at Jefferson City’s Licklider Relays back in April to erase a school record that had stood since 2012.

Platte County came out of districts as a No. 3 seed at 1:28.98 and cut the significant time needed to advance to state in the 4×200 with less than 0.75 of a second separating the Pirates from fifth-place Rockhurst (1:27.97). Christopher just edged third-place Lee’s Summit West (1:27.33) and fourth-place Liberty (1:27.66) in the tight finish.

In addition to the two relays, Stevens set a school record in the open 100 for a third time this season. He finished second in 10.38 with an advantageous but unmeasured wind at his back after going 10.48 a week earlier at districts, finishing second to Collins in both races. He won Saturday’s Class 5 Sectional 4 meet in an eye-popping 10.27 — the second-fastest 100 for a Missouri runner in state history behind only Raytown South’s Maurice Mitchell, who went 10.26 in the 2007 KU Relays.

The four state qualifiers in the 100 were Collins, Stevens, Lee’s Summit junior Nick Gormly (10.42) and Lee’s Summit West senior Tayveon Simms (10.47). Gisler came in seventh in 10.82 after setting a PR of 10.72 at districts.

Collins also won the 200 in 20.99 to easily secure a state berth and the chance to defend his state title. However, Christopher ran a personal-best 21.72 and went under 22 seconds for the first time. He went 22.05 at conference and 22.09 at districts.

Christopher ended up with just one individual event in the postseason and ran a leg of the 4×400 for only the fourth time this season and just the third while also being teamed with Fraker, Goodale and Johnson, who have all spent various stints sidelined with injuries.

Platte County finally looked full strength Saturday with some strong splits in what ended up a somewhat surprisingly comfortable victory for Lee’s Summit North, which finished in 3:14.39. The Pirates were second in 3:16.63 to better the mark last year’s group, which included Fraker, Goodale, Connor Currence and Brayden Eschliman, posted at 3:17.88 — the fastest in state preliminaries before ending up as Class 5 runnerup.

Lee’s Summit North took the state title, and both teams were even faster at Class 5 Sectional 4.

Christopher put Platte County in second after the first 400, and Johnson ran a sub-50 split to keep the Pirates in contention but with work to do. Goodale took the baton in a tight pack, and Fraker took the baton in third. He very quickly passed Park Hill’s anchor but couldn’t run down Lee’s Summit North senior Devan Mathis, who staged the comeback on the last lap of last year’s state race to give the Broncos the state title.

Goodale and Fraker have now gone to state on Platte County’s 4×400 each of the past three years. Goodale actually ran anchor as a freshman before passing those duties to Currence last year on a group with three expected returners. Instead, Eschliman ended up out all season while rehabbing a torn ACL.

Johnson spent much of his freshman year on Platte County’s 4×400 with Goodale nursing a leg injury for much of the season, but Christopher became the surprise addition of what now becomes the fastest collection or runners for the program in the event.

“I knew from the beginning of the year our 4×4 would be good with me and Jackson, and we found Ty and he’s been crazy good out of nowhere,” Fraker said.

Fraker ended up qualifying for state in just two events after placing second in the 400 at 48.50 behind Mathis’ 48.50, while Goodale just missed giving Platte County two top-four finishers. He came in fifth at 49.85, just his second time going under 50 seconds in the race.

Nearly a full second faster than the previous week at Class 5 District 8, Fraker just missed his PR of 48.31 set at conference, while continuing to chase Naron Rollins’ school record of 47.85 from 2012.

Fraker also anchored Platte County’s 4×800 team to a bitter yet noteworthy season finale. Herron, Jenks and Jackson put him on the fringe of state contention in a performance ultimately worthy of a more fitting fate, but the Pirates ended up fading to sixth place in 7:48.76 to break a school record Nick Bjustrom, Devin Richardson, Keegan Cordova and Evan McPhatter set at 7:50.03 while winning the 2018 Class 4 state title.

Rockhurst (7:38.75), Park Hill South (7:40.80), Blue Springs South (7:43.46) and Lee’s Summit North (7:44.61) claimed the four state spots out of Class 5 Sectional 4, but all of those plus fifth-place Lee’s Summit West (7:44.74) and Platte County were faster than any of the other 12 state qualifying times in the event from Sectionals 1, 2 and 3, which ranged from SLUH’s 7:54.83 to Ozark’s 8:06.12. In fact, the Pirates’ mark would have won 13 of the 24 state races in Missouri’s largest classification this century.

A year earlier, Platte County’s 4×800 team with Fraker, Herron, Currence and Kade Meinke unofficailly ran a 7:54.00 at Class 5 Sectional 4 but finished fifth and ended up one of two teams disqualified, Lee’s Summit West the other, after an official ruled the anchor legs repeatedly ran on the inside white line. That time would have been sixth at state last year, and Saturday’s school record would have been fourth.

Only qualified for state in the 400 and 4×400, Fraker will finish his career with Platte County’s school record off 1:55.07 in the 800 — set at the Ken Peek Invitational in late April. He bettered the time Currence posted a year earlier at conference after Cordova previously held the mark from 2019 to 2024.

Fraker ended up scratching the 800 at sectionals to focus on the other three events and ease any concerns about a potentially tight hamstring that first gave him trouble and forced him out of the conference 4×400 just before the start of the race.

“I knew I’d be back, and I’d be running a good time. I always had confidence,” said Fraker, who only ran four open 800 races in his career and didn’t join the 4×800 until late in his junior season.

Buntz gave Platte County the lone state qualifier in a field event and became just the second in program history to go in javelin — first in Class 5. He set a school record of 52.54 meters to claim fourth place, bettering Grain Valley senior and fifth-place finisher Asa Keim by just 15 centimeters.

A week earlier, Buntz threw 51.99 to finally better current Platte County throwing coach Dakota Schmidt’s prior mark of 49.78 from 2018. However, the Pirates’ only other state qualifier in the event ended up being Cade Fowler, who placed fifth in Class 4 but never threw further than his mark of 49.61 at sectionals that season.

Buntz set PRs at districts as a freshman (eighth, 41.99) and sophomore (sixth, 47.16). He posted career-bests at each of his last three meets, going 50.45 at conference and then improving in each of the first two postseason meets.

Last year at state, a throw of 47.54 meters ended up the cutoff to advance out of Class 5 preliminaries, which consists of three throws, and 49.16 claimed the last of eight medals.

Platte County sophomore Kyler Parker finished seventh in shot put with a mark of 14.69 meters — just off the PR of 14.86 meters he set a week earlier to place third at Class 5 District 8. Liberty senior Tucker Harvey took the final state qualifying spot on Saturday at 15.21 meters.

Prior to this postseason, Parker’s career-best came as a freshman at 13.82 meters in last year’s Platte County Invitational.

Herron’s standout junior season came to an end after not only the disappointing 4×800 results but also a sixth-place finish in the 3,200. He faded out of top-four contention early and came in at 9:53.62.

A week earlier, Herron posted a career-best 9:36.93 to place third at Class 5 District 8, and he would have needed to shave another 7-plus seconds off of that mark to have a shot at qualifying for state out of Saturday’s race.