For the second year in a row, the Wellsville-Middletown track team will send five athletes to the Class 1 state meet in Jefferson City.

Four of them will make a return to the Missouri capital this weekend. They are seniors Cooper Henderson, Gage Marshall and Jonah Slovensky and sophomore Elly Cash. Another senior, Justin Beabout, will make his first state meet appearance.

The two-day state meet will begin on Friday and end on Saturday at Adkins Stadium at the campus of Jefferson City High School. Marshall will look to earn all-state honors for the third year in a row, while Henderson will attempt to get his second all-state medal.

All five W-M athletes advanced to state based on their performances at the Class 1, Sectional 1 championship meet on May 17 at Grandview High School in rural Jefferson County.

Henderson placed first in the 110-meter hurdles and fourth in the 300-meter hurdles, Marshall came in third in the long jump and fourth in the high jump, Cash finished second in the 100 and third in the 200 and the 400-meter relay team of Henderson, Marshall, Slovensky and Beabout picked up a third-place finish.

Marshall and Slovensky will compete at state for the third year in a row, while Henderson and Cash are back in Jefferson City for the second straight year.
Henderson will compete in the 110-meter hurdles preliminaries at 11:35 a.m. on May 23. He will look to finish with a medal in the event for the second year in a row. Last year, he came in sixth in 16.60 seconds for his first all-state medal.

Henderson will run in the 300-meter hurdles preliminaries at 3:35 p.m. on Friday, making it the first time he will compete at state in that event.

Marshall will compete in the high jump at state for the third time at 3:30 p.m. Friday. He earned all-state honors in that event the last two years, finishing seventh last year and eighth the year before.

Marshall will participate in the long jump at 1 p.m. on Friday. The 4x100 team finished in 48.32 seconds to qualify for state. The week before, Henderson, Marshall, Slovensky and Beabout lifted the relay team to a first-place finish at districts in a school-record time of 47.59 seconds. The relay team will run in the preliminary round at 2:10 p.m. on Friday.

Cash will compete in the 100 at state for the second straight year and the 200 for the first time. She is the school record holder in both events.

Cash will run in the 100 preliminaries at noon and the 200 preliminaries at 4:25 p.m., both on Friday.

Beabout, Cash, Henderson, Marshall and Slovensky were the Tigers’ only representatives at the Grandview Sectional.