Platte County’s sprinters continue to up the stakes, and after multiple school-record performances in Friday’s Licklider Relays, the Pirates have now set unavoidably high internal and external expectations for this season.
In a continuing impressive progression, Platte County’s 4×100-meter relay team of juniors Braiden Stevens, Adam Gisler, Adeboye Akande and Ty Christopher set the school record for a third time in the past five races — this time posting one of the fastest times in state history. The 4×200 team of Stevens, Akande, Christopher and senior Caden McGhee then erased a program mark that had stood since 20212 in another impressive victory.
Stevens started the memorable day by recording the fastest electronic timed 100-meter run in Platte County’s history at 10.64 seconds, bettering the mark of 10.66 Naron Rollins set in the Class 3 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships back in 2012. That same season, Rollins ran 10.52 in the Suburban Conference Blue Division Championships, but the adjustment to a handheld mark officially puts that time at 10.84.
Prior to Friday, Stevens’ career-best sat at 10.82 from the Kearney Classic Invitational a week earlier. He then ran 10.69 in the preliminaries to post the top qualifying time then bettered that in the finals with the record effort.
Platte County’s winning 4×100 team set the school record for the first time in what ended up a season-ending effort of 42.56 at last year’s Class 5 Sectional 4 meet. Stevens, Gisler, Akande and Christopher have now lowered that twice, pushing the mark all the way down to 41.53 on Friday — the top time in the state so far this season. The Pirates’ have posted the five fastest times in school history in the last five races, including a mark of 42.57 with sophomore Noah Omoike part of a lineup in place of Akande at the Darwin Rold Invitational earlier this season.
While the 4×100 came together last season, Platte County’s latest 4×200 won Friday’s race by nearly 2 full seconds over Jefferson City. The Pirates’ time of 1:27.81 bettered the prior school record of 1:28.41 from Naron Rollins, Jaron Rollins, Ben Matthews and JT Taylor from the Class 3 Sectional 4 meet in 2012.
Platte County ran a 1:28.90 at the Darwin Rold Invitational and loaded Friday’s lineup with McGhee, who returned this season after missing last spring while rehabbing a torn ACL. He also finished fifth in the open 100 with a PR of 11.16, adding additional depth to the Pirates’ deep roster of talented sprinters.
Behind big points from the sprinters and even more strong showings in track events, Platte County finished second to Francis Howell in the final team standings. Non-traditional sprint and distance medley relays kept the 400 and 800 out of the meet’s event list.
Platte County still thrived with sophomore Jack Johnson continuing an impressive delayed start to his season. Still working back to full strength after recent shoulder surgery, he ran the 300 hurdles for just the second time and finished third at 40.25, going under 41 seconds in each start so far this spring. He also allowed the Pirates to run the preferred 4×400 lineup along with senior Josh Fraker, junior Jackson Goodale and Christopher, stretching out from his typical sprints and into the lower middle distance run. The group finished second 3:23.36, well off the season-best and chase to get back to school-record form after losing two legs from last year’s state runnerup.
In the 4×800, Platte County posted a season-best of 8:00.82 with Fraker, senior Tanner Jenks and juniors Blake Herron and Elijah Jackson, who ran together for the second straight meet. They knocked more than 16 seconds off the previous season-best time from a week earlier and posted the fourth-best time in program history. The Pirates threatened the school record last year with Fraker and Herron in the lineup and have quickly rebuilt into a postseason contender with the current quartet.
In addition, Herron (4:27.29) and Jenks (4:28.31) both set PRs and gave Platte County a 1-2 finish in the 1,600, while freshman Landon McKinzie made his second career start int he 3,200 and finished third at 10:48.35 — more than 23 seconds faster than a month ago in the season-opening Ron Ives Invitational.
Based on all of the traditional outcomes, Platte County unsurprisingly excelled in both medley relays. The 4,000-meter distance team of Fraker, Jackson, Jenks and Herron finished first (11:01.37), while the 1,600-meter sprint team of McGhee, seniors Frailyn Lene and Ethan Smith and sophomore Nick Fetterman came in second (3:45.04). The Pirates didn’t quite have enough points from the field events to catch Francis Howell, which totaled 133 points and finished 10 clear of the runnersup.
However, Platte County junior Cale Buntz won the javelin competition with the second longest mark of his career (48.80 meters). He set a PR earlier this season at 48.97 and continues to chase current throwing coach Dakota Schmidt’s school record of 49.78 from 2018. The Pirates’ next best placement in the field came from junior Dany Biganiro, who ended up fourth in the triple jump with a PR of 12.63 meters.
