Despite obvious dominance in relays, Platte County loaded up individual entries and overwhelmed the way to a third straight Suburban Conference White Division Championships team title. The Pirates expectedly piled up high-end results in the sprints, overcame some adversity and rolled up 205 points in Tuesday’s meet at Fort Osage High School in Independence.
Platte County senior Elijah Jackson runs his leg of the 4×800-meter relay during Tuesday’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Tuesday at Fort Osage High School in Independence.
Grain Valley finished a distant second at 160 with Raytown third with 120.
However, Platte County’s middle-distance performances provided extra cushion with sophomore Landon McKinzie providing an early highlight. He posted a career-best of 4 minutes, 32.55 seconds in the 1,600-meter race and won in a photo finish with Raytown senior Brendan Santellan, who posted an identical time according to official results.
In addition, Platte County did field the expected postsesaon lineup in the 4×800-meter relay with seniors Elijah Jackson and Blake Herron plus junior Jackson Townsend and McKinzie turning in the Pirates’ season-best at 8:13.60 to beat Raytown by almost 3 full seconds.
Jackson (first, 1:56.62) and Townsend (third, PR 1:59.17) gave Platte County two top finishers in the open 800, as well. Jackson has posted three straight times in the 1:56 range — three of the fastest times in program history — while Townsend continued a trend of dropping time while also earning his spot on the Pirates’ rebuilt long-distance relay.
Herron and Jackson ran on last year’s school-record lineup that improbably missed qualifying for state after coming in sixth in the fastest collective race in state history in the Class 5 Sectional 4 meet.
Platte County juniors Jaden Mathurin and Zaden Batey run in the 110-meter hurdles during Tuesday’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Tuesday at Fort Osage High School in Independence.
Platte County also kept the rebuilt 4×100 intact with seniors Adam Gisler, Ty Christopher, Adeboye Akande and Jackson Goodale going unchallenged to finish first in 42.32. Goodale continues to anchor in wake of a season-ending foot injury to senior Braiden Stevens, who finished fifth at state in Class 5 last season and helped the Pirates set a state record in the event at sectionals in 2025.
Even without Stevens, Platte County claimed the top three spots in the open 100 with Akande continuing a string of career-best performances and taking the conference title in 10.90. Gisler (second, 10.95) and Christopher (third, 10.99) were right behind.
Christopher claimed the 200 title in 21.96, having gone under 22 in all four starts this season. That includes a PR of 21.72 in the Kearney Classic Invitational.
Akande came in second but well back in 22.55.
Even without Stevens, Christopher and Goodale, Platte County’s 4×200 of junior Zaden Batey and sophomores Bryce Stusse, Brady McDaniel and Cassius Guillory finished third, while a 4×400 of Jackson, junior Jordan Moore, Stusse and Guillory placed second in 3:30.33 — about 11 seconds off the state-leading time the Pirates posted in the event a little over a week earlier.
Platte County senior Drew Tyson clears the bar on a high jump attempt during Tuesday’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Tuesday at Fort Osage High School in Independence.
Platte County won the Class 5 state title in the 4×400 last season with Goodale and Christopher a part of the finals lineup that produced the second-fastest time in the event in state history. Jackson and Guillory paired with them to post this year’s season-best at the recent Ken Peek Invitational in Liberty.
In the hurdles, Platte County junior Jaden Mathurin posted another PR in the 110s, came in second in 15.14 and nearly broke into the 14-second range for the first time in his career. Batey was fourth in that race in a career-best 15.47 and gave the Pirates a third-place finish in the 300s (career-best 41.43) with junior Maverick Troncin off the pace after recently becoming the program’s season-leader in the event after nearly going sub-40 for the first time.
With Herron scratching out of the remainder of races after the 4×400, Platte County sophomore Tate Stone came in third in a small 3,200 field of just six runners at 10:13.46 and finished just ahead of senior Donavin Ness (fourth, 10:14.16).
Platte County also added conference titles in javelin from senior Cale Buntz and shot put with freshman Jayden Horn. The efforts were at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of superlative distance.
Not wanting to throw on grass, Buntz used an abbreviated five-step approach and still won with a throw of 46.59 meters after setting a school record of 59.32 just four days earlier in the Platte County Invitational.
Horn posted an impressive PR of 15.58 meters, bettering his previous mark of 14.53 by a wide margin. Xavier Keith holds the program record at 17.07 meters, a distance he hit in 2019. Horn’s latest effort ranks 15th in the modern era for the program and the best by anyone other than Keith.
Platte County junior Kyler Parker, a Class 5 Sectional 4 qualifier as a sophomore, placed third on Tuesday at 14.29 meters.
In addition, Platte County senior Andrew Tyson just missed a PR but came in second in the high jump at 1.85 meters, while senior Finn Smith cleared a career-best 3.66 meters to come in third in the pole vault. The Pirates didn’t have any medalists in the long or triple jump.
