Christopher weathers unique drama, heads back to state in 4 events for 2nd straight year

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — Ty Christopher eventually became a state qualifier in four events for a second straight season but not without surviving the tests of a far-from-ordinary series of circumstances.

Platte County’s star senior’s races included two false starts and a disqualification, and he didn’t totally avoid the drama and accompanying swings in emotion in Saturday’s Class 5 Sectional 4 meet. His only normal outcome involved an impressive runnerup finish in the 200-meters. Even that involved wind-aided times.

In addition, Christopher finished second in a 100-meter race that ended up only involving five runners vying for four berths to this weekend’s Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships while teaming with fellow seniors Adam Gisler, Adeboye Akande and Jackson Goodale to win the 4×100-meter relay in another one of the fastest times in Missouri history while minus Lee’s Summit West — the newly minted state-record holders. Shortly after Christopher’s runnerup showing in the 200, the Pirates’ 4×400 seemingly finished out of the state qualification spots only for fourth-place Staley to end up disqualified after a runner used celebratory expletives in front of officials at the start-finish line.

All in a day’s work, right?

Platte County goes into state with an outside shot of a top-four finish and team trophy with Gisler (fourth, 100), senior Cale Buntz (second, javelin) and freshman Jayden Horn (fourth, shot put) also qualified in individual events. The Pirates finished eighth in Class 5 a year ago and returned the majority of contributors, only for the hopes a move up to take a hit when senior Braiden Stevens suffered a season-ending foot injury.

Despite the setback, Platte County managed to rebuild the 4×100 team with Goodale installed at anchor behind the legs of Gisler out of the blocks, Christopher and Akande. The Pirates expected to face their biggest in-state challenge Saturday but instead ended up with a runaway victory in 40.86 seconds — the fourth-fastest time in Missouri history.

Platte County’s school record of 40.83 from last year’s sectional meet stood as the best ever in the state until Lee’s Summit West ran 40.73 a week earlier at Class 5 District 7. The Titans held the No. 1 seed via that time and were in Lane 4, but the original start of the race saw the double fire of the starter’s gun with Liberty North originally thought to have false started.

Instead, officials eventually informed Lee’s Summit West’s lead runner of his infraction.

Gisler and Christopher’s strong start on the first two legs gave Platte County a commanding lead when the race commenced without Lee’s Summit West. Akande gave Goodale the baton still in first, and he outraced Lee’s Summit senior Nick Gormly on the final 100 with the Tigers second in 41.31.

Lee’s Summit won last year’s state title in 40.85 in the only 4×100 race Platte County didn’t win in a Missouri meet the past two years. The Pirates were runnerup, the same finish recorded in this year’s trip to the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin this spring.

Those starts were with Stevens, who ran the second leg with Christopher on anchor last spring before they flipped those positions this spring. Once Stevens went out, Platte County didn’t mess with the order, and Goodale quickly showed the ability to keep the Pirates in the state title conversation for the event.

Because of Stevens’ injury and other event considerations, Christopher, Goodale and Akande did not run the 4×200 at sectionals and were instead in additional individual events.

Christopher won the Class 5 District 8 title in the 100, while Gisler and Akdande also advanced to sectionals. Platte County and Lee’s Summit West combined for five of the eight qualifiers in the event, and Blue Springs South junior Darrian Williams and Liberty North senior Tony Chery were both scratches Saturday.

Lee’s Summit West sophomore De’Moreay Franklin false started to reduce the field to five.

Rockhurst sophomore Benjamin Hayes won the race in 10.51 with Christopher (second, 10.55) and Gisler (fourth, 10.66) both recording career-bests with a beneficial tail wind. Gisler also ran the 100 at sectionals as a junior but didn’t advance to state. His previous fastest time was a 10.72 at districts.

Christopher previously went 10.77 at this spring’s Kearney Classic Invitational.

Akande ended up the odd man out in fifth at 10.68, also a career-best. His lone event at state will be the 4×100 after earning all-state honors in two relays as a junior. Christopher, Stevens, Goodale and Akande own the school record in the 4×200 — set this season — after placing sixth in Class 5 last season.

Christopher’s 21.39 in the 200 easily bettered his PR from this spring of 21.72, also hit at Kearney, but didn’t allow him to keep pace with Lee’s Summit West junior Harrison Perkins (20.79), whose victory ended up part of the Titans’ mixed bag in sprint events. Akande came in sixth (career-best 21.96) with Platte County and Lee’s Summit West accounting for six of the eight entrants.

However, Christopher did record the fourth-fastest time in program history, moving in front of Stevens and now behind only the three best marks for Naron Rollins — all recorded in 2012. He holds Platte County’s school record at 21.12.

That set up a highly competitive 4×400 race with Platte County entering this postseason as the defending state champion. However, Christopher and Goodale were the only returners from that unit after junior Jack Johnson underwent season-ending knee surgery after wrestling in the winter.

Platte County senior Elijah Jackson and sophomore Cassius Guillory earned the two spots, replacing 2025 graduate Josh Fraker and Johnson, and the Pirates won the Class 5 District 8 title the week prior using the reconstructed lineup.

However, Christopher didn’t run his normal standout split on the opening leg, and Goodale took the baton as the anchor with ground to make up. He’s continued to battle nagging quad injuries throughout his career and ultimately entered just two events this postseason, foregoing the open 400.

Goodale made a push but brought Platte County across the line in fourth at 3:21.54 and just behind Liberty North and Staley for the final two state qualification spots. However, a Staley runner used expletives in celebration and immediately received notice of disqualification for an infraction officials warned about prior to the start of the meet.

A year earlier, Platte County set a state meet record to win the Class 5 title in the 4×400 at 3:13.80. Christopher, Guillory, Jackson and Goodale ran together for just the third time this season on Saturday with the current season-best at 3:19.40. Blue Springs won the sectional title in 3:15.48.

Platte County only sends half of the four relays to reach sectionals on to state, meaning Guillory and Jackson will have just one event each this weekend.

In the opening 4×800, Platte County senior Blake Herron — one of the most accomplished long-distance runners in program history — saw his career come to an end. The Pirates were trending just off of a school-record pace on the first three legs from him and juniors Jackson Townsend and Nick Flowers.

However, Platte County sat distinctly behind another impressive top four, and coaches told Jackson to control his pace and save his legs in anticipation of his two later races.

Herron undeservedly finishes without a state berth. He ran with Jackson on last year’s school-record unit that posted a 7:48.76 but finished sixth in a historically fast sectional field, which for the second straight year accounts for the top four Class 5 state qualifying marks. The Pirates finished Saturday in 8:08.32 and would’ve needed to run a low 7:43 to beat fourth-place Blue Springs South.

Jackson went on to place seventh in the open 800 at 1:57.46, just off his season-best and short of his quest to unseat Fraker as the school-record holder in the event. Jackson went out fast on the opening lap but couldn’t keep pace in the final 400 to challenge for a top-four spot.

Fraker holds Platte County’s top time ever at 1:55.07 with Jackson at No. 3 after a career-best 1:56.42 at this year’s Ken Peek Invitational while owning five of the eight fastest times in program history.

With Akande focused on individual events, Platte County’s 4×200 of Guillory, fellow sophomores Caleb Hill and Bryce Stusse plus junior Zaden Batey finished seventh at 1:30.65. Lee’s Summit West won, posting the second-fastest time in the country this season at 1:22.93 in the clear highlight of the team’s day and reemphasized later with the Titans taking four of the top five placements in the open 200, only interrupted with Christopher’s runnerup showing.

Batey also finished seventh in the 110 hurdles at 15.32, just off of the PR of 15.31 he set while coming in fourth the previous week at Class 5 District 8 to edge junior teammate Jaden Mathurin for the final sectional qualifying spot.

Buntz and Horn advanced to state in two vastly different scenarios.

The school-record holder, Buntz immediately posted the top distance in javelin on his first throw at 54.89 with Blue Springs senior Lincoln Herring answering to move into first right afterward with at show of 55.88. Those distances held through all four rounds of attempts in the finals-only format.

Buntz placed fifth in state as a junior at 51.77 meters but has bettered that mark in all but two competitions this season — one while using abbreviated steps in his run-up while competing on a grass runway. He came into the year as the top returning finisher from a year ago but likely needs to approach his PR of 59.32 this weekend to have a shot at a state title.

Last spring, Fort Zumwalt’s Eliot Hummer took first in Class 5 at 55.56 meters, but the top three qualifying marks out of sectionals are better than that throw. Buntz ranks No. 4.

A quickly developing freshman, Horn snatched the final qualifying spot in shot put with a mark of 15.10 meters and benefited from Park Hill senior Jonah Ware — the Class 5 District 8 champion — opted out of participating due to a scheduling conflict. The result ended up bittersweet with Platte County junior Kyler Parker ending up fifth at 14.30 meters in his second straight sectional meet. His PR of 14.86 came at districts as a sophomore.

Horn owns a career-best of 15.58 meters. He becomes the first athlete from Platte County to reach state in the shot put since Xavier Keith — the school-record holder — advanced in 2019 and medaled in Class 4 prior to the Pirates’ move up to Class 5.