The Saint Louis U. High track and field team won its District meet last Saturday, qualifying for Sectionals in 16 of the 19 events. The District Champions won with 198.5 points while the second place team—Ladue—scored just 120 points. SLUH also competed at the SLUH JV No. 3 meet last Tuesday.

“We were scheduled to score 190, so we outscored what we were even expected to do, which is good,” said head coach Joe Porter. “They did a great job of just competing—that's what we kind of say going into it—just focus on ourselves, we know what competition is out there but we're instead going to focus on us having a good day by doing the things that we know we're capable of doing.”

The SLUH JV No. 3 was the final meet of the season for athletes not racing at Districts. Most of the athletes competing at Districts were not placed in this meet, yet SLUH still had success because of its depth. Sophomore Sean Chaffee won the 100 with 11.74 and the 200 with 23.74, and sophomore Kameron Bailey scored third with 24.24. Junior Nathan Sewell was third in the 110 hurdles with a time of 21.14, and the 4x400– the only relay at the meet—resulted with SLUH taking second with 3:55.00. In the 800, freshman Dylan Freeman placed second (2:09.80) and sophomore Will Riggan scored third (2:11.40). Sixty athletes competed in the 1600, but SLUH athletes were in the top three: junior Francis Alford with 4:43.30, sophomore Nolan Meara with 4:48.10, and freshman Anthony Zangara with 4:56.80. In the 3200, sophomores Tim Greiner (first) and Nick Purschke (third) ran 10:23.70 and 10:59.60 respectively. For the high jump, sophomores Tristan Smith-Crowe and Wyatt Seal scored second (5-01.00) and third (4-11.00) respectively. For the pole vault, freshmen Eli Smith and Ben Kean won first (9-06.25) and second (9-00.25) respectively.

SLUH was assigned class five, district two at Francis Howell Central for the District meet. The meet lasted from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon with each event beginning with the girls heat before the boys heat. The meet allowed spectators with an admission fee. In districts, the top four finishers from each event move on to sectionals—two district champions then face each other in a sectional.

The meet kicked off with the 3200 with junior Sean Kellogg (fourth) and senior Daniel Hogan (fifth) sticking together throughout the whole race—finishing with times 9:52.75 and 9:53.64 respectively. The meet then transitioned to the 4x800 where SLUH’s relay team of sophomore Steffan Mayer, and juniors Justin Glass, Joe Labarge, and Baker Pashea won with 8:15.59—almost six seconds ahead of the second place team. 

The team also did well with the other relays. SLUH won the 4x100 with junior Chris Brooks, sophomore Sean Chaffee, senior Aidan Byrne, and freshman Ryan Wingo, achieving a time of 43.40. Despite getting sixth place, the 4x200 relay team of sophomores Kameron Bailey, Sean Chaffee, and juniors Keshon Parker and Joey Meehan sprinted a 1:34.69. In the 4x400, the relay team of Pashea, Byrne, Mayer, and Meehan finished second with a time of 3:31.81.

“Ryan's pretty darn special when he's on those two relays and obviously Baker in the four by eight as well—it's nice to have one of the fastest 800 runners in the state as your anchor. But that shouldn't take anything away from the other guys,” said Porter. “The four by two without Ryan ran a second faster than they had all year when Ryan hadn't been on it. So that was a really good race for them. You know the four by four, without Ryan, running 3:31 is pretty darn tough.”

Juniors Connor Greninger and Keshon Parker matched up again to conquer the hurdles: Greninger won the 110 hurdles (16.37) with Parker getting fourth (18.80), and later Greninger won the 300 hurdles (43.03) with Parker in second (43.91). After the hurdles for the 110 were cleared off the track, Ryan Wingo dominated in the 100, winning with a time of 10.89 before returning to repeat the win in the 200 with 22.37. Despite running a 23.82, Aiden Byrne took seventh in the 200. In the 400, Joey Meehan (third) ran a 52.33 followed by Steffan Mayer (sixth) who ran a 54.44. Baker Pashea scored second in the 800 with 1:57.60 with Joe Labarge in sixth with 2:08.30. In the 1600, Daniel Hogan finished fourth with 4:36.84 and Justin Glass finished right after with 4:39.64. 

SLUH also had great success in the field events. In the high jump, junior Eric Piening won with 6-04.75 and Chris Brooks scored eighth with 5-07.00. In the long jump, Piening achieved second with 20-02.50 and junior Andrew Harris scored sixth with 18-08.00. In the triple jump, Piening and Harris won first and second with 42-08.25 and 41-01.25 respectively. Junior Sam Kean won the pole vault with 11-05.75 and freshman Eli Smith scored fourth with 9-06.25. In javelin, juniors Andrew Renaud and Corey Luaders won first and second with 127-08.25 and 123-07.50 respectively.

“We’re gonna match up with class five, district one that was in Poplar Bluff Missouri last week, and they've got some great athletes in there too so we're gonna, hopefully, put our best day out there again on Saturday,” said Porter. “Hopefully we'll do well again this week, and then you get to the dance and you take your chances and see what happens.”