Crusaders' relay repeats at Class 1 meet

~ The Crusaders' relay squad repeated as state champions on the opening day of the Class 1 meet.

Saxony Lutheran track coach Larry Cleair had a couple of brief moments of concern Friday in the first day of the Class 1 state track meet, but all's well that ended well.

Now, Cleair just had to get through what he expected to be a sleepless night, as the Crusaders take aim at their first state championship in the sport today in Jefferson City.

Saxony's 3,200-meter relay team won the state championship in its event for the second straight year, and the school's five other entries that competed Friday made it through the preliminaries to today's event finals.

The Crusaders, who finished fifth last year and have won the last two Class 1 state cross country titles, stood in a tie seventh after the first day's five finals with 10 points. Rock Port was first with 19, but defending state champion and expected contender Polo had yet to score.

Saxony scored its victory in the very first track event of the day, but not without a rough start.

"When the race started, Max Wieser got boxed in, and he was 13th," Cleair said. "He went down the backstretch and passed everyone on the outside. It looked like he was running the Preakness. He went by everyone and was in first place by the curve and we never gave up the lead after that. That started us out right."

Weiser, a sophomore, teamed with senior Trey Maevers, senior Grant Lehmann and junior Brandon Etzold to post a time of 8 minutes, 18.10 seconds, which beat their time of last year by 8 seconds and was 7.23 seconds better than runner-up Midway.

"They ran a great time," Cleair said, "and it was really great for Trey Maevers to make all-state two years in a row and win a plaque two years in a row."

Maevers, who was on the state title cross country teams and played basketball for four years, competed for the last time Friday. He made the state meet in the high jump at state last year but failed to qualify this spring.

He could go out with another team state championship if the Crusaders can make the most of today.

Cleair's preparations included using the district times to score a mock state meet, from which Polo would have outscored Saxony Lutheran 60 to 50.

"But Brandon Etzold didn't have to run his hardest in the mile and he had the fifth-best time," Cleair said. "We've got to have him in the top three in both the mile and the 800 today."

The Crusaders also hope to improve on an eighth-place preliminary time in the 800 relay. They had a nearly disastrous final exchange between Alex Jauch and Casey Petzoldt.

"When that happened, I thought we had lost all chance of making the finals," Cleair said. "We're looking forward to three good exhanges in the finals."

Saxony finished in 1:35.70, which was slightly better than Chaffee's time of 1:37.19.

Polo was fifth in that race despite a near-fall. Polo also has the top prelim times in the 400 relay, 300 hurdles and 100 and 200 sprints.

Saxony's other preliminary survivors were Jauch, who was third in the 300 hurdles and seventh in the 200; Lehmann, who was fifth in the 400 meters; and the 1,600 relay team that won its heat with the third-best time of the day.

Saxony would pick up another 19 points by merely holding those preliminary positions in today's finals. In addition, Etzold will run his two individual events, freshman Ross Gage will compete in the 800 and senior Tim Lorenz will shoot for the top eight in the shot put.

"It was a good day," Cleair said. "The kids did what they needed to do to get into the finals, and we're really where we need to be. I'm looking forward to [today]."

Class 1 girls

Chaffee's 1,600 relay team qualified for today's final with the fifth-best time in the prelims.

Three other Chaffee entries failed to survive prelims: Christa Beck finished 15th in the 100 hurdles, Amber Kirk was 13th in the discus and Whitney Schlosser was 15th in the discus.

Class 2 boys

Scott City's Derek Goodin qualified for the 300 hurdles final with the sixth-best time.

Kelly's Spencer Ayers was 16th in the shot put.

Class 2 girls

Kelly's Tara Johnson was 16th in the 1,600 run, and Scott City's Amanda Braun was 16th in the 100 hurdles.