Montgomery County seniors Ty Leu, Dawson McCown, Gavin Mendoza and Sam Queathem will have an opportunity to compete at their home track for a final time on May 21.

Hopefully, their last home meet will be a memorable one.

The seniors are among the 17 MCHS athletes who qualified for the Class 3, Sectional 2 meet at Jim Blacklock Field. They clinched sectional berths after finishing in the top four in their respective events at the District 4 meet, which was held at Blacklock Field on May 14.

Queathem won the javelin, Mendoza finished second in the 300-meter hurdles and third in the 110-meter hurdles, McCown placed second in the 3,200 and third in the 1,600 and Leu came in third in the long jump. Also, Mendoza and Leu helped the 400-meter relay team pick up a win.

Leu is looking forward to competing at sectionals for the first time.

“It’s pretty special because the last time I did track was my freshman year,” Leu said. “I made it to finals in the triple jump. I wasn’t able to make it through and go on to sectionals. That stuff hurt pretty hard. It was nice to finally get over that hump.”

McCown, Queathem and Mendoza will be making their second appearances at sectionals. McCown said he’s thrilled that he qualified out of districts at his home track.

“My goal today coming in was to qualify and get into the top four,” McCown said. “Our sectional is pretty hard. I still have an uphill battle, but it felt good to qualify.”

The other MCHS sectional qualifiers are Trenton Birkner (300-meter hurdles), Jacer Brower (400 and 4x200), Claire Cobb (4x400), Adam Czerniewski (4x200, 4x100 and 200), Tyler Erwin (high jump), Lyric Ford (800, 1,600 and 4x400), Dominic Luttrell (100, 4x100 and 4x200), Weston Marshall (javelin), El Reagan (pole vault), Malia Rodgers (3,200 and 4x400), Gunner Sexton (discus), Olivia Shaw (200, 400 and 4x400) and Jadrian Thurmon (4x200).

The top four finishers at sectionals qualify for the Class 3 state meet at Jefferson City on May 27-28.

“I would be so happy if I could make it to state,” Leu said. “It’s something that you don’t get to experience. Not a lot of people get to experience it. It would be an amazing experience.”

Shaw won district titles in the 200 (26.82 seconds) and 400 (1:02.61), Erwin won the high jump in 6 feet, 3.5 inches and the 4x200 team of Czerniewski, Brower, Thurmon and Luttrell won in a school-record time of 1:32.29.

The 4x100 team, which also included Czerniewski and Luttrell, won in 44.27 seconds. It’s the second year in a row the relay team won a district title.

“I’m glad about that,” Mendoza said. “We’re getting closer to a school record, too.”

Mendoza is also happy that he’s healthy after missing all of last fall’s football season due to an injury.

“I definitely had to push hard to come back to track,” Mendoza said. “It was definitely a painful road for me, having to break all of the scar tissue to get my knee back to working. I feel like it came back better.”

Queathem finished with a school-record throw of 122 feet, 5 inches in the javelin, breaking the old mark of 118-10 that was set by her older sister, Ashley, in 2019. She picked up her first javelin victory just 11 days earlier at the Eastern Missouri Conference meet.

The MCHS boys finished second in the team standings with 127 points. Bowling Green won the team title with 132.
The Wildcats placed third with 78 points in the girls division. Centralia won the meet with 124.5 points and Palmyra was second with 98.

Four other MCHS seniors wrapped up their high school careers at the district meet. They were Makayla Beaver, Ella Cobb, Josi Holtzclaw and Makenna Schmidt. Another senior, Thomas Klekamp, is out for the season due to an injury at the EMO meet.

McCown said he enjoyed working with his senior teammates all four years.

“It’s crazy to say that we have been here for four years together,” McCown said. “We all have experienced a lot of triumph, a lot of disappointments and a lot of really good days. I’m happy that I’m a Montgomery County Wildcat and I’m grateful to be one everyday.”