Three Montgomery County area athletes earned all-state medals on the first day of the state track meet on Friday at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City.

Tyler Erwin and Samantha Turner of Montgomery County and Gage Marshall of Wellsville-Middletown were the area’s all-state medalists, all of them were in the field events. Turner placed second in the discus with a personal-best throw of 127 feet, 9 inches, Erwin came in sixth in the long jump in 21-4.25 and Marshall finished eighth in the high jump in 6-0.5.

Turner picked up her second all-state medal. She finished seventh in the shot put in last year’s meet.

Turner qualified for the finals of the discus after throwing a 123-11 in her first attempt. She took over first place with her throw of 127-9. After fouling her fifth throw, Oak Grove’s Eva Alexander took over the top spot with a 130-10 and went on to win the state title.

Erwin wrapped up his high school track career with his seventh all-state medal and his third in the long jump. He jumped a 21-4.25 in his sixth and final attempt. The long jump was the only event he competed in at the state meet. 

Erwin, who plans to continue his track career at the University of Central Missouri next year, also has two all-state medals each in the triple jump and high jump.

With Turner and Erwin earning all-state medals, the Wildcats are guaranteed to have an all-state medalist for the 13th year in a row.

Marshall’s performance in the high jump helped the Tigers get an all-state medalist for the fifth year in a row. He received all-state honors in the high jump for the third consecutive year.

Marshall cleared a 5-10.5 in his first attempt. After missing his first attempt at 6-0.5, Marshall cleared it in the second to earn another trip to the awards podium. He finished seventh last year and eighth the year before.

MCHS had five other athletes compete on the first day, but none of them picked up medals. 

The girls 1,600-meter relay team of Aubrey Janes, Emma Rodgers, Austyn Robinson and Mieka-Ray Wise came up two places short of qualifying for the finals, finishing 10th with a season-best time of 4:13.35. The relay team finished fourth in the first heat. 

Senior Jadrian Thurmon made his second state meet appearance and his first since his freshman year, when he earned all-state honors in the 4x200. He finished 14th in the 1,600 with a 4:38.64.

MCHS will have three athletes compete on the second day of competition on Saturday. 

Turner will look to pick up another medal in the shot put on Saturday as the shot put championships will start at 12:30 p.m. Last year, she finished seventh in the shot put. Sophomore Kaylee Daume also will be competing in the shot put. Rodgers will run in the 800 at 2:40 p.m.

W-M will have two athletes seeking medals on Saturday. 

Senior Cooper Henderson qualified for the 110-meter hurdles finals after finishing seventh in 16.11 seconds in the preliminaries on Friday. The hurdle race is scheduled for 11:20 a.m. Last year, Henderson finished sixth in the 110-meter hurdles at the state meet for first all-state medal.

Sophomore Elly Cash will compete in the finals in the 100-meter dash at 11:35 a.m. and the 200-meter dash at 3 p.m. after finishing in the top eight in each event in Friday’s preliminaries. She finished fifth in the 100 in 13.11 seconds and eighth in the 200 in 27.15 seconds. She broke her own school records in both events.

Also on Friday, the boys 4x100 team of Henderson, Marshall, senior Jonah Slovensky and sophomore Shane Joles finished 13th in a school-record time of 47.46 seconds, breaking the old record of 47.59 seconds that was set in 2014.

Henderson finished 13th in the 300-meter hurdles in a personal-best 45.51 seconds. Marshall placed 14th in the long jump in 19-0.5.