LIBERTY, Mo. — Even on a day when gusty winds created legitimate impediments to fast times, Platte County impressively pulled out another school record in the first full meet of the season. The Pirates’ senior quartet of Ty Christopher, Jackson Goodale, Adeboye Akande and Braiden Stevens debuted with a dominant victory in the 4×200-meter relay Friday in the Ron Ives Invitational at Liberty High School.
Platte County senior Jackson Goodale finishes the 400-meter race at the Ron Ives Invitational on Friday at Liberty High School in Liberty.
Platte County came in at 1 minute, 26.63 seconds and beat second-place Kearney by nearly 4 full seconds. Stevens breezed down the back stretch of the anchor leg with no one pushing him.
Christopher, Goodale, Akande and Stevens set Platte County’s prior school record in back-to-back weekends last year, first in Class 5 Sectional 4 meet (1:27.26) then in the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships (1:26.88) to claim a sixth-place state medal. Injuries limited Goodale in the early part of the past two seasons, but he went back into the 4×200 lineup after districts to help produce the record-setting results.
Platte County sent three relays to state last season, and all came away with a medal. The Pirates returned the entirety of the 4×100 and 4×200, and both put up the top times in Missouri so far in 2026 at the Ron Ives Invitational.
With a new running order, Platte County’s 4×100 of Christopher, Akande, Stevens and fellow senior Adam Gisler also debuted with a win at 41.70 but were expectedly disappointed despite a small bit of early revenge. The Pirates recorded the fastest time in state history for the event at 40.83 in last season’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships and then ran a state meet record of 41.05 in preliminaries.
Platte County senior Elijah Jackson runs in the 800-meter race at the Ron Ives Invitational on Friday at Liberty High School in Liberty.
Lee’s Summit ended up knocking that out and winning the state title a day later with a 40.95, the second-fastest time in Missouri history.
In this season’s first rematch, Platte County finished well in front of Lee’s Summit, which posted a 42.57 runnerup finish. Neither team ran a senior at state last season, but the Tigers were minus two legs of last year’s winning lineup.
Platte County kept Gisler at leadoff and Akande third but swapped Christopher and Stevens, who moves into the anchor spot.
In addition to the relay victories, Platte County came away with individual first-place finishes in the 100, 400 and 800 while capturing the overall team title. The Pirates totaled 106 points and edged Liberty North by six.
There were 18 teams total.
Stevens won the open 100 with the fastest time in the state to this point (10.46) with Christopher third at 10.81 to set another PR. He went 10.87 in the season-opening Liberty North Time Trials a week earlier.
Goodale won the 400 at 50.78 but did deal with the effects of the head wind on the back stretch of that lap as temperatures started to plummet in the early evening. Christopher and Goodale are the only active members of last season’s state championship 4×400 team from a year ago, but neither ran that race Friday with coaches choosing to manage race loads early in the season for a talented group with big postseason aspirations.
Platte County senior Blake Herron leads a pack of runners in the 3,200-meter race of the Ron Ives Invitational on Friday at Liberty High School in Liberty.
Platte County senior Elijah Jackson added to the first-place finishes in the 800, pulling away on the second lap after a slow early pace. He finished in 2:00.44 but sprinted to a big advantage late in an impressive performance.
In the 4×800, Platte County came in third at 8:40.31 with a combination of senior Blake Herron, juniors Nick Flowers and Jackson Townsend and sophomore Josiah O’Rourke. Herron and Jackson helped the Pirates set a school record in the event in last season’s Class 5 Sectional 4 meet at 7:48.76.
Despite that showing, Platte County didn’t advance to state after placing sixth in the fastest collective race for that event in Missouri’s history. The Pirates graduated two legs of that lineup and will look to rebuild around Jackson and Herron, who added a fourth-place finish in the 3,200 (9:46.88).
Platte County junior Zaden Batey set an impressive personal-best at 15.89 seconds in the 110 hurdles to finish third and round out the on-track performances in traditional events. The Pirates’ also placed fourth in the 1,600-meter relay with sophomores Cassius Guillory and Caleb Hill running the 200s, junior Nick Fetterman the 400 and sophomore Landon McKinzie the 800.
A week after setting a school record, Platte County senior Cale Buntz finished third in the javelin at 48.82. That’s about 7 feet short of his new PR from the time trials meet that served as another breakthrough after a strong postseason lifted him to a fifth-place state medal in 2025.
Buntz is the top returning Class 5 thrower in the event.
Platte County junior Kyler Parker put up a PR to place third in the discus at 43.03 meters. He also came in fifth in the shot put at 14.51 meters in pursuit of the first 15-plus effort of his career after qualifying for sectionals as a sophomore.
