With shuffling to the normal lineup of standout sprinters, Platte County’s Elijah Jackson delivered another promisingly strong result for the this season’s team prospects.
The senior’s development as an elite 800-meter runner continued with a victory in the Kearney Classic Invitational on Friday in Kearney. He set another career-best at 1 minute, 58.18 seconds and beating Liberty North sophomore and race runnerup Beckett Andreasen.
Jackson appears poised to become just the fourth in program history to go sub-1:57 with Josh Fraker having set the school record last season at 1:55.07.
After experiencing toe and ankle soreness in the 100 race, Platte County star senior Braiden Stevens precautionarily scratched the remainder of his races. The Pirates put together a winning 4×100 relay of seniors Adam Gisler, Ty Christopher, Adeboye Akande and Jackson Goodale, who subbed in for Stevens as anchor despite having not run the event since his freshman season. The quickly assembled unit turned in a respectable finish of 42.00 and beat runnerup Warrensburg by more than a second.
Christopher came back later to run a PR and win the 200 with Goodale second while going under 22 seconds for the first time in his career (21.99) and Akande third (22.23).
With Stevens well off his consistently fast times over the past year-plus, Christopher led Platte County’s finishes in the 100, coming in second with another PR (10.77). Steven came in fourth (10.93) and Akande placed fifth (10.95). Goodale didn’t run the 400 due to his move into the 4×100, but the Pirates did use him in the 4×400 for the first time since he ran a leg in last year’s state championship-winning unit in the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships.
Kearney won the 4×400 (3:25.72), but Goodale, Jackson and sophomores Cassius Guillory and Bryce Stusse claimed second for the Pirates at 3:27.61.
Platte County freshman Jayden Horn turned in a statement performance to win the shot put with a career-best of 14.05 meters in an otherwise slow day in the field events with senior javelin star Cale Buntz not an entrant. The Pirates still finished third as a team with 105 points behind only Liberty North (118 1/2) and Kearney (111 1/2).
In the hurdle events, Platte County juniors Jaden Mathurin (third, 110s) and Maverick Troncin (fourth, 300s) both turned in top-five showings. Troncin set a career-best at 42.48 just eight days after posting his previous PR of 42.88.
Platte County senior Blake Herron (1,600, 4:26.97) and sophomore Tate Stone (3,200, 10:26.06) both posted fifth-place finishes in long-distance races. Herron posted a season-best time, while Stone’s was a PR.
On Monday, Platte County returned to Kearney for the Kearney Throwers meet, and freshman Eli Domann turned in a breakout performance, finishing second in the javelin at 43.58 meters. The Pirates also claimed third, fourth and fifth in the shot put between junior Kyler Parker (13.68 meters), freshman Elijah Lewis (13.09 meters) and Horn (12.92 meters).
