Even a pair of weather delays didn’t stop the Montgomery County track team from turning in a strong effort at the Class 3, District 4 championship meet at North Point High School on May 13.

The Wildcats won district titles in five events and qualified 11 athletes to the Class 3, Sectional 2 meet at Mexico High School on May 20.

Senior Lyric Ford led the way with district championships in the 800 and 1,600. The Maryville University-bound runner finished with a 5:28.49 in the 1,600 and a 2:23.40 in the 800 to capture her first district titles of her high school track career. She also helped the 3,200-meter relay team – which also included juniors Malia Rodgers and Morgan Koch and senior Carie Schroer – place second in a 10:43.

Rodgers won the 1,600 with an 11:55.63 for her first district championship. Like Ford, Rodgers qualified for sectionals for the third straight year.

Junior Weston Marshall won the javelin in a personal-best 169-9 for his first district victory. He also qualified to sectionals for the second year in a row. He will look to win a sectional championship in the javelin for the second straight year at the Mexico Sectional meet.

The 800-meter relay team of Jacer Brower, brothers Dominic and Brenden Luttrell and Jadrian Thurmon won with a 1:33.84.

Brower will compete at sectionals in three other events – 400, 4x100 and 4x400. He finished second in the 400 in 51.22, helped the 4x100 – which included the Luttrells and senior Adam Czerniewski – place second in 44.51 seconds and the 4x400 – which included Thurmon, Brenden Luttrell and sophomore Tyler Erwin – come in fourth with a 3:39.52.
Erwin finished second in the long jump in 22-5, second in the triple jump in 43-9.25 and fourth in the high jump in 6-1½. Thurmon qualified for sectionals in the 800, placing fourth with a 2:03.67.

Junior El Reagan finished fourth in the pole vault with a 9-6.25 to qualify for sectionals for the third straight year. Reagan is the defending state champion in the pole vault.

The top four finishers in each event advance to sectionals in Mexico. The top four finishers at sectionals qualify for the Class 3 state meet, which is scheduled for May 26-27.

Carissa Doyle and Destiny Shaw were the only MCHS seniors who had their track careers come to an end at districts as they finished 10th in the discus and sixth in the 1,600, respectively.

The MCHS girls, who won an Eastern Missouri Conference title on May 2, placed eighth in the team standings with 48 points. The Wildcats finished fourth with 68 points in the boys division.

Also, Koch placed eighth in the long jump in 14-4, junior Landon Massey finished in a three-way tie for fifth with Centralia’s Jesse Shannon and Bowling Green’s Matthew Jennings with a 10-6 in the pole vault, junior Connor Finke came in eighth with a 121-3 in the javelin, sophomore Isaiah Thomas finished sixth in the long jump in 19-9 and seventh with a 5-7.75 in the high jump and freshman Kaitlyn Kolling finished seventh with a 1:09.21 in the 400.

A pair of weather delays at the district meet forced a couple of events -- girls long jump and boys triple jump -- to completed at Montgomery County High  School on May 15.