Platte County’s swift and notable progression includes setting school records in nine events during the past three seasons, and most of those responsible return this spring with a chance to chase more notable results. The Pirates won a second straight Suburban Conference White Division title, the first district championship since 2019 and then placed top-10 at state in a breakthrough showing in the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships.
Depth in running events have driven much of the success.
Platte County earned state medals in six of seven qualified events, including all three relays. There were seven members making up the first-place 4×400, runnerup 4×100 and sixth-place 4×200, and six of those return along with half of the school-record-setting 4×800 that ended up on the wrong side of a historically fast Class 5 Sectional 4 race. The Pirates were eighth, put up 30 points and were just 10 points away from a team state trophy in easily the best overall showing since moving up from Class 4.
While the 4×400 ended the state championship drought, Platte County’s 4×100 impressed the most throughout the season, and the senior quartet of Braiden Stevens, Adam Gisler, Ty Christopher and Adeboye Akande have high expectations this season — and for good reason. The Pirates set a state meet record of 41.05 — second-fastest in state history for any meet — despite the windy conditions in the Class 5 state preliminaries.
Platte County posted three of the four fastest times in Missouri history last season, but 41.13 seconds in the Class 5 finals incredibly resulted in a second-place finish.
Lee’s Summit won the state title in 40.95 and knocked out Platte County’s meet record after just a day and became the second team in state history to run a 4×100 in under 41 seconds. The Pirates were the first at the Suburban Conference White Division Championships at 40.83, having continually lowered the school record the same group first set as sophomores at 42.56 while placing sixth at sectionals before all four members became first-time state qualifiers last season.
The biggest question becomes the order of runners for Platte County with last year consistently going Gisler, Stevens, Akande and Christopher. The Pirates also plan to seek out additional competition with a trip to the Texas Relays planned for early April.
Platte County’s 4×400 of Christopher, Josh Fraker, Jackson Goodale and Jack Johnson became the program’s first state champion relay since Keegan Cordova, Nick Bjustrom, Devin Richardson and Evan McPhatter won the Class 4 4×800 in 2018. The group did so in historic and somewhat unexpected fashion.
After coming in second at sectionals and in state preliminaries, Platte County won the Class 5 state title in 3:13.80 after Goodale and Fraker split sub-48 seconds on the final two laps to set a new overall state meet record, erasing Hazelwood East’s mark of 3:14.04 that had stood since 1986. Even more notably, this became the second-fastest time for a Missouri high school in any competition, trailing only Cardinal Ritter’s 3:13.15 from 2019.
To put this in perspective, Platte County set a school record of 3:16.63 a week earlier to finish well back of Lee’s Summit North a week earlier at Class 5 Sectional 4. Fraker and Goodale were part of a 2023 unit that ran 3:21.62 at sectionals for the program’s fastest time in the event to that point, knocking out a mark that of 3:23.95 that stood for nearly a decade. That means that in a span of just over three seasons the school record has been lowered by an astonishing 10 full seconds.
Fraker, who also placed eighth in state last season in the 400 and owns the program’s 800 school record, graduates, but the other three return. However, Johnson recently underwent offseason surgery and might not recover in time to run this season.
Last spring, Johnson, Goodale and Fraker all missed time due to injury, while Christopher joined Platte County’s 4×400 late in the season. The Pirates likely have two open spots with Akande, senior Elijah Jackson and juniors Cassius Guillory and Nick Fetterman the top contenders.
Platte County could also field the same 4×200 with Christopher, Stevens, Akande and Goodale setting a school record of 1:26.88 at state and breaking the previous mark set at sectionals. Goodale didn’t run the event until sectionals due to a lingering leg injury.
Even before the outstanding state meet, Platte County set six school records at Class 5 Sectional 4, and that included a 4×800 that didn’t advance. The Pirates were sixth at 7:48.76 in the fastest collective race for the event in state history. Fraker and Tanner Jenks both graduated from that unit while Jackson and fellow senior Blake Herron return after posting the sixth-fastest time across all four Missouri sectionals with a time that would have placed fourth at state.
In fact, Platte County’s school-record time would have won 13 of the 24 state races in Missouri’s largest classification this century prior to last season and knocked out the mark of 7:50.03 the Pirates’ Class 4 championship team set at state seven years earlier.
All of the top performers in individual track races also predictably come from the relays.
Stevens set the school record in the 100 three times last season, posting his PR of 10:38 while finishing second at sectionals. He medaled fifth at state after going into the finals seeded second.
Gisler placed seventh at sectionals after posting a PR of 10.72 in districts a week earlier.
Platte County’s top returning postseason performers in other races include Christopher and Akande (200), Goodale (400), Jackson (800) and Herron (1,600 and 3,200). Herron reached sectionals in the 3,200 but did not advance to state.
Johnson qualified for sectionals in the 300 hurdles as a freshman but ended up limited most of last season while recovering from a broken collarbone. If he remains out, the Pirates likely look to junior Jaden Mathurin in the hurdle events.
Not all of the state production came from runners.
Platte County senior Cale Buntz also returns after becoming the program’s second state medalist in program history for javelin. He matched the fifth-place showing for Cade Fowler in 2021 when the Pirates were still in Class 4.
Buntz set the school record each of the two weeks preceding state, first at 51.99 meters at districts to place fourth and then 52.54 meters at sectionals to place third and move into the state medal conversation. He finally broke the mark of 49.78 current Platte County throwing coach Dakota Schmidt set back in 2018.
On his first of eventually six state attempts, Buntz threw 51.77 meters, which held up the rest of the way as his top mark. He fell from fourth to fifth in the final round with all four throwers finishing in front of him graduated seniors.
Platte County junior Kyler Parker set a PR of 14.86 meters at Class 5 District 8 to earn a surprise berth in sectionals where he placed seventh at 14.69 meters. The Pirates also have seniors Finn Smith (pole vault) and Dany Biganiro (triple jump) after strong seasons.
Minus only one or two pieces from last season, Platte County wants to put up another memorable postseason run in just the fifth season since moving up from Class 4. The Pirates had only one other relay medalist in Class 5 prior to 2025, and Chandler Steinmeir (second, 110 hurdles, 2022) and Andrew Johnson (sixth, 3,200, 2023 and second, 3,200, 2024) were the only other individuals to finish on the podium at that level before Stevens, Fraker and Buntz.
