The Eastern Missouri Conference championship meet is back at Montgomery County High School this year.

The Wildcats will host this year’s EMO meet on April 25 at Jim Blacklock Field. It is the second time in three years MCHS will be the host of the league meet, which includes Louisiana, Wright City, North Callaway, Wellsville-Middletown, Bowling Green, Van-Far, Clopton, Elsberry, Silex and Mark Twain. The EMO meet was held at MCHS in 2022.

Field events start at 4:15 p.m. and running events begin at 5 p.m. The meet was originally scheduled for April 26, but was moved up a day due to impending weather in the Montgomery County area.

MCHS will look to win its fourth straight championship and its eighth overall in the girls division. Last year, the Wildcats won the EMO meet at Wright City with 122 points despite having just 13 athletes.

The MCHS boys finished fourth in the 2023 meet after placing second in eight events.

Seniors Malia Rodgers and El Reagan will look to add more conference titles to their trophy case. Rodgers is the defending champion in the 1,600 and 3,200, while Reagan will look to win the EMO title in the pole vault for the fourth straight year.

After a month, the Wildcats have competed in nine meets and have been getting strong performances from several athletes, including Reagan, Rodgers, juniors Tyler Erwin and Jadrian Thurmon and senior Weston Marshall.

Reagan won the pole vault six times this year. The William Woods-bound athlete came out on top at the Montgomery County Early Invite and Montgomery County Invitational as well as meets at Mexico, Owensville, Holt and Centralia. She cleared a season-best 10-6 at Owensville, which is about three inches shy of her personal best 10-8.75 that was set in last year’s sectional meet in Mexico.

Reagan is a three-time all-state medalist in the pole vault, including a state championship in 2022.

Erwin is enjoying another strong season in the jumping events. He has two wins apiece in the high jump and long jump and three in the triple jump. In his first-place victory at the Montgomery County Invitational, Erwin cleared a 45-2.25, breaking his own school record of 43-8 he set last year. He also finished fifth in the triple jump with a 44-11.5 at the University of Kansas Relays on April 19.

Erwin earned all-state honors in all three jumping events last year, placing third in the high jump and long jump and fifth in the triple jump.
Marshall has five victories in the javelin. He threw a school-record 176-3 in his first-place finish at the Holt Invitational on March 30. He came within an inch of tying that record in his win at the Ron Whittaker Bulldog Invitational on April 19 in Mexico, throwing a 176-2. Before this season, Marshall’s best throw was a 169-9.

Rodgers, who plans to continue her track career at State Fair Community College next year, won the 1,600 with a personal-best time of 5:29.67 at the Montgomery County Invitational on April 15.

Thurmon got a victory in the 3,200 with a personal-best time of 10:22.23 at the Montgomery County Invitational.

The Wildcats finished in a tie for third in both boys and girls divisions at the Montgomery County Invitational.