The Montgomery County Wildcats and the Wellsville-Middletown Tigers each had a pair of athletes making a trip to the awards podium on Saturday at the state track meet in Jefferson City.

Samantha Turner and Emma Rodgers of MCHS and Elly Cash and Cooper Henderson of Wellsville-Middletown earned all-state medals in the final day of the two-day state meet at Adkins Stadium.

Turner finished third in the shot put in 36 feet, 11 inches in the shot put and Rodgers came in eighth in the 800 with a time of 2:25.74 in the Class 3 division. 

In Class 1, Cash finished fourth in the 100 in 12.93 seconds and sixth in the 200 in 26.98 seconds and Henderson came in sixth in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.09 seconds.

Overall, the Wildcats and Tigers each had three all-state medalists in the two-day meet. The other area all-state medalists were Tyler Erwin of Montgomery County (sixth in the long jump) and Gage Marshall (eighth in the high jump). They earned their medals in Friday’s competition.

Turner, a sophomore, finished with two all-state medals, giving her three for her high school track career. On Friday, she placed second in the discus with a personal-best 127-9, coming up three feet short from a state championship.

In the shot put, Turner threw 36-11 in her sixth and final attempt. She was in eighth place going into her final throw. She earned a trip to the finals after coming in sixth in preliminaries.

Turner finished seventh in the shot put in last year’s state meet.

Cash, who made her second state appearance, earned her first all-state medals. She set personal-best marks in both events.

Cash, a sophomore, qualified for the 100 finals by finishing fifth in the preliminaries on Friday. She earned a finals berth in the 200 by coming in eighth in the preliminaries.

Henderson picked up his second all-state medal in the 100-meter hurdles to wrap up his high school track career. He finished sixth in the event in last year’s meet.

Henderson also competed in the 400-meter relay and the 300-meter hurdles at state, but didn’t qualify for finals in either one of them. 

Rodgers ran a season-best time in the 800 at state. She qualified for the event by finishing fourth in the sectional meet at Jim Blacklock Field last week.

By finishing eighth, Rodgers joined a large group of MCHS athletes with the last five years to earn an all-state track medal in their freshman season. Erwin, Turner, El Reagan, Jadrian Thurmon and Malia Rodgers (Emma’s sister) are among the athletes in that group.

Also on Saturday, Montgomery County sophomore Kaylee Daume placed 12th with a 42-4.75 in the shot put in her first state meet appearance.

With Turner, Rodgers and Erwin getting all-state medals, the Wildcats wrapped up their season by getting an athlete on the awards podium for the 13th year in a row. The Tigers have an all-state medalist for the fifth consecutive year with Cash, Henderson and Marshall making trips to the podium.

Print versions of state track coverage for both Montgomery County and Wellsville-Middletown will be published in the June 4 edition of the Montgomery Standard.