McCluer South-Berkeley swept the Class 3 boys and girls state championships last weekend in Jefferson City on the campus of Lincoln University.
The girls dominated their competition by scoring 88 points while the boys outlasted fellow St. Louis team Lutheran North with 55 points. Senior star Alishea Usery led the Bulldogs to their second consecutive state crown by winning the 100, 200- and 400-meter dashes for the fourth consecutive year. Her winning times were 11.78 seconds in the 100, 24.43 in the 200 and 54.53 in the 400. Usery also anchored the 4×400-meter relay team to an easy victory in 3 minutes 47.7 seconds. She was joined on the team by twin sister Ashley Usery, Kianna Ruff and Angel Williams.
The Bulldogs also got a state title from the 4×200 team of Charity Cole, Angel Henderson, Aleese Pittman and Bianca Stokes. Ruff finished second in the 400 and 800, Stokes was fifth in the 200, Pittman was fifth in the 300-meter low hurdles and Taelar King was sixth in the 100. The Bulldogs also finished second in the 4×800 and sixth in the 4×100.
While McCluer South-Berkeley’s girls were expected to bring home the gold, the boys surprised many with a gritty performance in winning the state title. The meet started off great for the Bulldogs as the team of Jonathan Barnett, Eric Wallace, Will Taylor and Willie Williams won the 4×800-meter relay. Barnett added a second gold medal by winning the 800 in a time of 1:56.58. Pharez Hill was excellent in the field events, finishing second in the triple jump and third in the long jump. Sprinters Mike London and Eric Willis finished fourth in the 100 and 200, respectively. The Bulldogs also finished third in the 4×400 and third in the 4×100.
Trophy girls
St. Louis-area teams took home all of the team trophies in the Class 3 girls competition. Following state champion McCluer South-Berkeley were Festus (60 points), Villa Duchesne (53) and Ladue (50). Festus was led by the standout duo of Alyssa Allison and Brittany Borman. Allison won the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs while Borman won the shot put and discus state titles. Villa Duchesne enjoyed its best performance at the state meet ever behind its terrific trio. Senior Cydney Ross won the 800 in a new class record of 2:09.88. She also finished second in the 1,600 in a time of 4:55.23, which was also a personal best. Junior Lauren Hollingsworth finished second in the 100 and 200. Both ran legs on Villa’s 4×400-meter relay team that finished third. Junior Brianna Isom-Brummer finished second in the high jump, fourth in the 300-meter low hurdles and eighth in the long jump.
Ladue’s foursome of Lauren Atkinson, Lynette Atkinson, Kiearra Fowler and Megan Hurster won the 4×800 in 9:28.26. Lynette Atkinson also finished third in the 200 and 400 while twin sister Lauren finished fifth in the 400. Michelle Lange won the state title in the pole vault, Erin Atkinson finished sixth in the discus while the Rams also finished third in the 4×200 and fifth in the 4×400.
The young upstarts from Cardinal Ritter made their mark by finishing fifth with 37 points. Sophomore Hazaria Washington finished fourth in the 200 and 400 while junior Alexys Plummer finished seventh in the 100-meter high hurdles and sixth in the 300-meter low hurdles. Freshman Ayeshia Ewing was seventh in the 100 while the Lions finished second in the 4×100 and 4×400 and fifth in the 4×200.
Second, third
Hazelwood East and Hazelwood Central finished second and third, respectively, in the Class 4 boys competition. The Spartans were powered by some dynamic relay work to finish second. The team of Brandon Davis, Anthony Nelson, Demarco Paine and John Lawson finished first in the 4×200 in 1:26.92. The same team also finished second in the 4×100 after setting a new state record of 41.33 in Friday’s prelims. Nelson, Laron Cook, Banjo Jaiyesime and Tarell Downing won the 4×400 in 3:16.29. The Spartans also finished third in the 4×800. Paine was also third in the long jump with a season’s best of 23 feet 4 inches.
The Hawks were led by Gerren Hendricks, who finished second in the 100 and 200 while anchoring the 4×200 and 4×400 to second-place finishes. He was joined on the 4×200 by Ahmad Vincent, Eric Rogers and Brian Taylor and the 4×400 by Taylor, Rogers and Quincy Shelton. Rogers also finished third in the 400 while Chris Carnes was fourth in the long jump.
Shaw sweeps
Lutheran North finished second in the Class 3 boys meet behind McCluer South-Berkeley. Senior Tyler Shaw swept the 110-meter high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles titles. The team of Shaw, Charles Dunbar, Matt Degler and Justin Welch won the 4×200-meter relay. Dunbar finished third in the 200, fifth in the 400, Steve Liggins was eighth in the 1,600 and the 4×400 team of Shaw, Welch, Dunbar and Liggins finished second.
Summit third
Rockwood Summit finished third in the Class 4 girls competition while Parkway Central finished in fourth place. Central’s quartet of Miana Lee, Khadijha Beya, Racquel Jacobs and Lauren Johnson won the 4×200 and 4×400-meter relay state titles. Jacobs also finished second in the 100.
Congrats
Congrats to all of the other area state champions last weekend, including: James Coleman of Marquette (first in Class 4 boys, discus); Jasmine Boyer of Fort Zumwalt West (first in Class 4 girls shot put, second in discus); Olivia Lewis of Gateway Tech (first in Class 4 girls, 200), Tierra Jones of Hazelwood East (first place in Class 4 girls, 300-meter low hurdles), Kerwin Stricker of Washington (first place in Class 4 boys, 300-meter intermediate hurdles) and the University City girls (Class 3, 4×100), McCluer girls (Class 4, 4×100) and Jennings boys (Class 3, 4×100).
