After heavy rains Friday completely altered the format, the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships proved more unforgiving than usual.
Platte County senior Adi Benninghoff competes in a heat of the 100-meter hurdles during the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships on Saturday at Jefferson City High School in Jefferson City.
Platte County senior Adi Benninghoff and junior Maggie Wagner just missed all-state honors in what ended up timed finals across two heats with their races occurring on either side of another lengthy weather delay Saturday at Jefferson City High School. The Pirates brought three total qualifiers to the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships, and junior Adi Kern also endured an unusual runoff for the pole vault competition.
In the end, Platte County didn’t have a medalist for the first time since 2022. Benninghoff (100-meter hurdles) and Wagner (300-meter hurdles) both posted ninth-place finishes in very different circumstances, while Kern tied a career-best by clearing 3.15 meters for a second straight weekend but ended up 15th due to an early miss when competition originally started Friday morning.
A three-time state qualifier, Benninghoff’s career came to an end under frustrating circumstances.
Initial rain Friday morning led to a short delay, and a heavy downpour served as the backdrop for two 4×800-meter relay finals before officials stopped competition altogether. Eventually, all in-progress field events, including the Class 5 girls pole vault with Kern still active, and the remainder of track races were all shifted to Saturday.
Benninghoff entered off winning the Class 5 Sectional 4 title and owned one of the four inside lanes in the second heat comprised of the eight-fastest state qualifying times. She fell off the leaders’ pace early and ultimately placed eight in the heat but ninth overall at 15.24.
St. Teresa’s Academy sophomore Sah’Kyra Williams beat Benninghoff to the line by .02 of a second for the final medal spot, while Nixa junior Alexandra Doulova’s Heat 1-winning time of 15.15 ended up good enough for seventh.
An eight-place medalist as a junior, Benninghoff entered off of finally setting a school record of 14.67 in the 100 hurdles while winning sectionals. That season-best eclipsed a 14.95 from last year’s state final.
Previously, Jan Herndon held Platte County’s school record since 1983 at 14.93, although modern fully automated timing (FAT) gave Benninghoff a claim prior to this year’s sectional. Generally, hand-held times like Herndon’s from 43 years earlier require rounding up to the nearest tenth of a second adding 0.24 to equate to modern standards.
Platte County junior Adi Kern makes an attempt in the pole vault as rain starts to fall Friday during the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships at Jefferson City High School in Jefferson City.
Benninghoff became a quickly progressing standout from midway through her freshman season, qualifying for state but not advancing out of preliminaries as a sophomore and then reaching the podium as a junior in what became the crowning achievement of a standout career. However, her final season also included her achieving a goal of knocking out one of the oldest school records still on the books.
Wagner endured an even longer wait to make a state debut after setting PRs in the 300 hurdles each of the previous two weeks.
The weather delay Saturday lasted until nearly 2 p.m., and Wagner’s standout season concluded after a third-place finish in the first of two heats. However, her time of 46.49 ended up ninth overall and nearly netted an unexpected medal.
However, Wagner would have needed to better her sectional mark of 46.12 by nearly a quarter of a second to reach the podium. She goes into her senior season having also set PRs in the 100 hurdles (16.40) and teaming with seniors Rylee Carr and Benninghoff and fellow junior Vanessa Sarpong to set a school record in the 4×100 relay at Class 5 District 8.
Kern started her first state meet Friday with an ultimately consequential miss at 2.85 meters. She then cleared that height and 3.00 on her next two vaults.
With rain starting to fall, Kern went over 3.15 meters for the second time in her career on her third and final attempt. Three more vaulters cleared the same height when competition resumed Saturday morning.
There were 15 competitors still alive at that point, and Kern ended up on the tail end of the tiebreaker at 3.15 meters, which ranks behind only state champion Maya Sullivan (Class 4, 2021) and Addie Schweider at Platte County. Sullivan and Schweider own the top 24 clearances in school history with the record at 3.53 meters.
Platte County entered the spring with three total returning state qualifiers. Only Benninghoff earned a return trip.
In addition to Wagner and Kern, Platte County junior Kelly Bullano will also come back next season after having her season end at sectionals for a second straight year. She earned all-state honors as a freshman in the javelin while setting the current school record at 41.55 meters.
Platte County senior Addie Ayers went to state in the 4×800 relay as a freshman and sophomore. In the latter season, she teamed with Alexia Myer, Carmen Gentilia and Sisely Mitchell to finish sixth in Class 5 at 9:27.83.
Ayers reached sectionals all four seasons of her Platte County career.
