Despite the first conference title since 2021 and a third-place team showing in districts, Platte County’s season ended with an elite distance runner and one relay in the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships. The Pirates return a majority of the top performers from a deep lineup but have challenges to continue churning out state qualifiers.
Platte County just missed state titles in two events last season but again experienced the difficulties of competing in the state’s largest classification in the postseason.
Andrew Johnson graduated as the school record holder in both the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs after the most prolific long-distance career in program history. The Pirates expected to have 3/4 of the 4×400-meter relay back to chase more superlatives but now have only half of last year’s unit healthy for this season.
Platte County seniors Josh Fraker and Brayden Eschliman plus junior Jackson Goodale helped lower the 4×400 school record twice during last year’s postseason but needed to replace Connor Currence from a unit that finished third at state. The Pirates’ quartet came together late in the season with Goodale coming back from an abductor muscle injury.
After setting the school record in Class 5 Sectional 4, Platte County posted the fastest qualifying time in the state preliminaries at 3 minutes, 17.88 seconds, breaking the school record of 3:18.92 set a week earlier. The Pirates ended up third in Saturday’s final in 3:18.20 and became the program’s second relay to medal at state since moving up to Class 5 in 2022 (4×100, sixth in 2022).
Prior to sectionals in 2023, Platte County had never run faster in the 4×400 than the 2014 state team’s mark of 3:23.95. Fraker, Eschliman and Goodale were all on the 2023 team that bettered that for the first time. The Pirates qualified for state but did not advance out of preliminaries with Goodale the surprise anchor leg as a freshman before that role went to Currence last spring due to Goodale’s injury.
To go back to state, Platte County must replace Currence, who also set the school record in the 800 as a senior in a brief but accomplished career, and Eschliman after he suffered a torn ACL in the fall that will keep him out this season. The top option to earn a spot on the Pirates’ 4×400 will be sophomore Jack Johnson, who spent much of 2024 in the top four until Goodale’s return. He will also form a solid 1-2 punch in the two hurdle events with senior Isaiah Seymour.
Jack Johnson made his sectional debut in the 300 hurdles and placed sixth at 41.28 — part of a consistent final three meets that also included marks of 41.17 (conference) and personal-best 41.16 (District 8).
Platte County nearly advanced there relays out of Class 5 Sectional 4, only to have circumstances adversely affect the results. The Pirates’ 4×100 team of Adam Gisler, Braiden Stevens, Adeboye Akande and Ty Christopher knocked a little more than a quarter of a second off their previous season-best from conference and finished in 42.56 to set a school record, which ended up good for sixth in the eight-team field with the top four moving on to state.
All four return as juniors along with seniors Caden McGhee and Frailyn Lene in a deep group of sprinters. McGhee ran hurdles as a freshman and sophomore along with experience on the 4×200 but missed all of last season while rehabbing a torn ACL suffered during football season.
Stevens also qualified for sectionals last year in the open 100, becoming just the fifth in school history to run a sub-11-second time in the event during the season, and experienced success in the long jump, as well.
Platte County’s 4×800 team of Currence, Fraker, Blake Herron and Kade Meinke ended up disqualified at Class 5 Sectional 4 as part of a bizarre outcome. The Pirates ultimately finished fifth, unofficially with the third-fastest time in program history at 7:54.00 after going 7:53.41 at districts.
A judge disqualified both fourth-place Lee’s Summit West and Platte County for the anchor runners repeatedly running inside the inner line of the track despite warnings. Both teams protested the ruling, only to have the games committee uphold the decision. This ended the career of Meinke and kept Johnson from possibly subbing into the team at state.
Previously more of a 200 and 400 runner, Fraker might put more of a focus on middle distance, while Goodale at full strength could contribute in the 100, 200 and 400, as well.
Platte County can look to rebuild the long-distance unit around Fraker, senior Tanner Jenks and Herron, a junior, with both coming off back-to-back all-state cross country seasons. The Pirates should have plenty of pieces to rebuild the 4×800, but equalling Johnson’s individual success will prove difficult while Meinke also ran the 3,200 at districts.
Jenks placed sixth in the Class 5 District 8’s 1,600 race.
Johnson finished an extremely close second in the Class 5 3,200 at a school-record 9:09.99 to just miss earning Platte County’s first state title since the 4×800 relay in 2018 when the Pirates were still in Class 4. He became the first for the program to earn multiple state medals in Class 5 after placing sixth in the same event a year earlier.
However, Johnson didn’t advance past districts until his junior season, giving hope for the continued development of the current standouts. He ran 9:18.79 in the 3,200 at sectionals in 2023 to erase Nathan Straubel’s previous school record from 2015 and then improved that to 9:12.80 at last spring’s Bill Summa Invitational before the state run.
Johnson also claimed the school record in the 1,600 at 4:15.50 but finished 15th out of 16 in last year’s state race the day after nearly winning the 3,200 with the runnerup finish matching Chandler Steinmeir for the best individual Class 5 placement (300 hurdles, 2022).
Platte County’s top contenders for distance individual events include Jenks, Herron, Fraker and junior Elijah Jackson along with freshmen Landon McKinzie and Tate Stone.
Depth shouldn’t be a big issue with all of the experienced returners. Platte County easily won the Suburban Conference White Division team title last spring — first for the program since the Blue Division in 2021 — before placing third in Class 5 District 8. However, the Pirates graduated standout pole vaulter Kevin Taylor — their lone sectional qualifier in the field events — plus well-rounded jumper Jackson Thornton.
Platte County junior Finn Smith returns in the pole vault, while Stevens and junior Dany Biganiro add depth in the jumps. The throws group includes juniors Cale Buntz and Cole Johnson in the javelin plus senior Gus Keeton, junior Quinn Lightle and sophomore Kyler Parker and Barrett Ryan in the shot put and discus. Lightle also served as the Pirates’ No. 3 in the javelin.
