Platte County’s state title in 4×400 relay highlights breakout 8th-place team finish

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Platte County experienced unquestionable success throughout the two-day Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships, even if some disappointment lingered with a few outcomes. The Pirates earned state medals in six of seven qualified events and placed in the top 10 of the final team standings.

The best moment literally came at the very end of Saturday’s action at Jefferson City High School.

Platte County senior Josh Fraker, juniors Ty Christopher and Jackson Goodale and sophomore Jack Johnson provided a memorable and unquestionably historic fashion, winning the program’s first state championship in since 2018. The Pirates came in first at an astonishing 3 minutes, 13.80 seconds — setting a new overall meet record and erasing a mark Hazelwood East set at 3:14.04 in 1986 to win the Class 4A title when Missouri still had just four classifications.

Even more notably, this now becomes the second-fastest time for a Missouri high school in any competition, trailing only Cardinal Ritter’s 3:13.15 from 2019.

“Surreal,” Goodale said. “We knew we ran a fast time, obviously, to win Class 5 by a margin like that, but when you look up at the board and see (3:13) on there, it’s mind-blowing.”

A week after setting six school records in the Class 5 Sectional 4 meet, Platte County ended up with two new marks this past weekend. The Pirates’ 4×100 of Christopher and fellow juniors Adam Gisler, Braiden Stevens and Adeboye Akande ran the fourth-fastest time in Missouri history to finish as runnerup without topping their state record, while the 4×200 of Christopher, Stevens, Akande and Goodale placed sixth in a career-best 1:26.88, breaking the previous program-best from a week earlier. Fraker (eighth, 400) and Stevens (fifth, 100) also earned individual medals.

Platte County ended Friday with just four team points after junior Cale Buntz became the second state medalist in program history for javelin, matching the fifth-place showing for Cade Fowler in 2021 when the Pirates were still in Class 4.

“I definitely take pride (in what I do), and yeah, the sprinters are great,” Buntz said.

Platte County entered with realistic legitimate state title aspirations in multiple events and came away with one — first for the program since the combination of Keegan Cordova, Nick Bjustrom, Devin Richardson and Evan McPhatter won the Class 4 4×800 seven years ago.

The combination of Fraker, Goodale, Christopher and Johnson ran just their fourth and fifth races together in the 4×400 over the weekend, but that included a school record of 3:16.63 a week earlier to finish second by a significant margin to Lee’s Summit North at sectionals. Those teams finished in the same order in the second heat of preliminaries with the Pirates closing the gap this time.

In fact, Fraker passed Lee’s Summit North senior anchor Devan Mathis with about 100 meters to go on the final lap but couldn’t hold the lead. The Broncos were the top qualifier for the finals at 3:18.57 with Platte County just behind at 3:19.01.

In the final, Christopher — a sprint specialist who also qualified for state in the 200 — ran the lead leg and turned in the best split of his career, handing the baton to Johnson in first place. Rock Bridge took the lead after 800 meters, but Johnson kept the gap to a minimum.

Goodale turned in by far the fastest split on the third leg at (47.67) and gave the baton to Fraker with a lead of more than 2 seconds. He also split a 47.80 — best among the eight anchors in the race — to bring Platte County to the line nearly four full seconds in front of Rock Bridge (3:17.68) with Lee’s Summit North third (3:17.80).

“It felt so good,” Fraker said. “They got me in a great spot. Ever since sophomore year, I’ve been working to get to this place.”

In addition to the previous weekend and state prelims, Lee’s Summit North also finished in front of Platte County in last year’s sectionals and state final, taking the Class 5 title and relegating the Pirates to a runnerup finish. Fraker and Goodale were on the Pirates’ state qualifying teams each of the past three years together.

In 2023, Platte County’s team of Fraker, Goodale, Brayden Eschliman and Aaron Cordova set a school record at sectionals of 3:21.62, erasing a mark of 3:23.95 that had stood for nearly a decade. Fraker, Goodale and Eschliman were on last year’s unit with Connor Currence that lowered the mark twice, most notably to 3:17.88 with the fastest state prelim mark that didn’t hold up in the final.

Platte County expected to return three runners to the 4×400, but Eschliman missed the entire season while rehabbing a torn ACL. Johnson, a sectional qualifier in the 300 hurdles as a freshman, ran much of last year while Goodale, the anchor as a freshman, battled a nagging leg injury before he returned for the postseason run, while Christopher became an option later in the year when coaches convinced him to stretch into mid-distance for the first time in his career.

However, Johnson (shoulder), Fraker (hamstring) and Goodale (leg) all battled injuries at different times this season. Most recently, Fraker scratched last second from the conference 4×400 before returning at full strength for districts, qualifying for sectionals in four events and state in two.

With events whittled down and spaced out, the results for Platte County’s 4×400 were unprecedented but not necessarily unexpected.

“I always knew we had it from the beginning of the year,” said Fraker, who finishes his career as one of the most decorated 400 runners in history and the school-record holder in the 800 after his 1:55.07 at April’s Ken Peek Invitational erased the mark of 1:55.59 that Currence set in 2024. “I knew we could run 3:13; it just feels surreal that we still did it. I don’t know. I always just loved the 4×4 because you get to run it with the team. I want to win it for them.”

Platte County’s strengths were undoubtedly in the depth of the sprinting events, especially the relays. However, the Pirates came up short of self-imposed high projections in the 100 and 4×100 and 4×200 in Saturday’s finals.

Stevens set the school record in the 100 three times this season, most recently with a 10.38 at sectionals to finish behind Staley senior RJ Collins’ 10.27 — second-fastest time in state history under any conditions. With the field running into a strong headwind in Friday’s preliminaries, Collins posted the top qualifying time at 10.75 with Stevens just behind in the heat and second overall at 10.81.

That set up Saturday’s final where Collins won a state title in 10.55, adding to his 200 crown from 2024, while Stevens faded back to fifth while running a 10.75. He was just .07 out of third and .01 behind fourth-place Cameron Harris of Parkway South.

Platte County’s 4×200 of Stevens, Akande, Goodale and Christopher qualified fifth in Friday’s preliminaries with the new school record, taking almost half a second off the time of 1:27.26 that placed second at Class 5 Sectional 4. The Pirates’ mark of 1:26.88 would have been good for firth in the finals, as well, but their 1:27.49 left them sixth on the podium. The top teams this season came after Goodale rejoined the unit for sectionals with injury concerns eased.

However, the 4×100 of Gisler, Stevens, Akande and Christopher came off posting a state meet record of 41.05 — second-fastest in state history for any meet — despite the windy conditions in preliminaries.

Platte County seemed to benefit from Gisler’s strong start out of the blocks, while Stevens ran the second leg with the wind at his back. The Pirates were in first in Saturday’s final when Akande handed to Christopher for the anchor leg, only for Lee’s Summit junior Nick Gormly, who finished second to Collins in the open 100 earlier in the day, turned in a chasedown split that gave the Tigers the win at 40.95.

Lee’s Summit 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.

Platte County finishes the season with three of the four fastest times in the event in state history, but the 41.13 in the Class 5 finals incredibly resulted in a second-place finish. The Pirates’ familiar group of juniors first set the school record while finishing sixth at last year’s sectionals before all becoming first-time state qualifiers this season.

“There’s still a bad taste in a lot of our mouths. We still want (a state title in the 4×100), for sure,” Christopher said.

A first-time state qualifier in the 400, Fraker advanced out of preliminaries as seventh seed after a 48.76, and he placed eighth in the final despite going slightly faster at 48.62. His career best came at conference (48.31), but he earned all-state honors in an individual event for the first time and left himself fresher for the closing 4×400.

Fraker scratched out of the 800 at sectionals specifically to chase the lofty relay goals in a move that ultimately paid off, especially after Christopher did not advance out of the 200 prelims on Friday. He placed sixth in his heat at 22.60 — well off the career-best of 21.72 he set a week earlier to qualify for state.

Christopher ended up with a much longer break between the disappointment of the 4×100 and the chance to take out some frustration out of the blocks in the 4×400.

“The 4×1 was very disappointing, but I mean this is a great win,” Christopher said. “I’m glad to do it for these guys. That’s really why I run it.”

Buntz set up the encouraging start on Friday with another breakout performance in the three-throw preliminaries of javelin. He put up a mark of 51.77 meters on his first attempt and easily made the top nine that advanced to the finals.

Sitting in fourth out of preliminaries, Buntz’s 51.77 meters held up as best of his six throws and ultimately he placed fifth after Lafayette (Wildwood) senior Thomas Preckel passed him in the final round. All four medalists to finish in front of Buntz were seniors.

Buntz set the school record each of the previous two weeks, 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. Fowler medaled at state but never hit that mark, and Buntz slowly progressed under Schmidt’s tutelage and flirted with school record distances at multiple meets this season before the strong postsesaon run.

“It’s been fun. (Schmidt) was teasing me at the beginning of the year. I finally got the best,” said Buntz, who actually posted a throw of more than 53 meters at districts but saw the mark nullified due to an administrative error in running the event. “It’ll definitely motivate me. Hopefully, I can get 55, 60 (meters).”

Platte County continued to add to the point total with Saturday’s five medals and finished with 30 total, good enough for eighth in the final standings. The Pirates were just four back of sixth-place Hickman and 10 away from a team trophy, awarded to the top four in each class.

However, this marked the most successful Class 5 state meet since Platte County moved up from Class 4 in 2022. The last relay medalist was a sixth-place 4×100 that year, 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.

Platte County lost some point potential in a second straight frustrating season-end for the 4×800, which used a combination of Fraker, fellow senior Tanner Jenks, juniors Blake Herron and Elijah Jackson to set a school record of 7:48.76 to break the mark of the 2018 state title team. However, the Pirates finished sixth in a demonstrably fast race that left multiple deserving teams of the top-four qualifying spots.

In fact, Platte County’s time was the sixth-fastest time across all four state sectionals and would have placed fourth at state and resulted in more points but not enough to push the Pirates into the top four.