Elizabeth Stout And Kia Harmon Earn All-State Medals, Masyn Powell Competes In Hurdles

Lady Eagle track and field state meet qualifiers Elizabeth Stout and Kia Harmon both captured all-state medals with top-eight finishes at the 2022 Class 3 Track and Field Championships in Jefferson City on Friday, May 27.

Stout’s medal finish included setting a new Holden school record in the shot put as the senior bettered her own record mark during the preliminaries on Friday.

“All of our athletes had a really good day,” said Holden track and field head coach David Diener with Stout and Harmon representing the Holden girls team, and Masyn Powell competing for the Holden boys team.

Stout closed out Holden’s final event on Friday by placing second in the shot put.

On her third and final attempt in the preliminaries, Stout posted a distance of 12.65m (41’-06”). That measurement stood as Stout’s best of the day after 12.20m proved to be her best distance of her three finals attempts.

“Liz comes out, and throws two shots over 12 meters to get second place,” said coach Diener. “She hadn’t hit 12 meters all year, so for her to come throw her best in her senior year on her last opportunity is just absolutely what we wanted to do. I’m very proud of her.”
The distance of 12.65 by Stout improved upon her Holden school record distance of 11.92m (39′-1.25″) she posted at the Clinton Meet on April 23 this season. Elizabeth’s 11.92m broke her sister Olivia’s previous school record mark of 38’-2.5” set during the 2018 season.

“It was so exciting,” said Holden throwers coach Mark Weddle. “We practiced yesterday, and she threw in warm-ups over 12 meters. She’d never done that. Her first couple throws were in the 11-meter, so she was starting to feel a little discouraged. She threw that 12.65 meters, and just lit up. That put her right into second place.”

Elizabeth’s second-place finish also bettered the fourth-place ranking she held entering the state meet. Her prelims distance of 12.65m moved her ahead of familiar shot put district and sectional foes Keilee Johnson of Odessa, and Patricia Patton of Eldon.
“I was already excited because I was already ranked number four, so I was just counting on getting number four,” said Elizabeth with her silver all-state medal draped around her neck. “But I threw better than that. I was getting nervous because I was throwing really low.”

Johnson placed third at the state meet (11.90m), and Patton placed fourth (11.84m) as Elizabeth picked her way through the field of 16 Class 3 shot put state qualifiers to finish second among the best in the state.

“She had beat them before during the season, but to come out and do it here is just simply amazing,” said coach Weddle.

Elizabeth summed up the experience of facing both familiar and unfamiliar competition at the state meet. She also described what it means to close out her career after missing the past two seasons due to an injury in 2021 and the cancellation of the 2020 season.
“Seeing the new ones, it gets me kind of nervous because you don’t see how they are in the meets, and everything,” said Elizabeth. “Seeing the Eldon girl, and beating her was a really big accomplishment just because she’s been really good the whole season. The Odessa girl, I’ve been going against practically the whole season, and it’s always been back and forth. It feels pretty good that I beat both of them.

“I just can’t imagine how good I would be, if I got those two seasons,” added Elizabeth who walked across the stage in the Holden High School gym just days before the state meet to pick up her high school diploma. “This week was just so stressful…not really stressful, just I accomplished so much this week. This made it even better.”

Harmon secured her all-state medal by placing in a tie for eighth with Lamar jumper Marcy Miller.

The two-event state meet qualifier Harmon turned in an 11th-place finish in the long jump early in the day prior to her showing in the high jump.

In the high jump, Harmon cleared 1.55m on the day. During the season, the freshman set a new Holden school record in the event by clearing 1.65m at the Clinton Meet on April 23.

“I thought she had a great freshman year,” said Holden jumpers coach Dale Wescott. “The sky’s the limit. I don’t think she even knows what she’s capable of doing. I think I heard that’s the first all-state high jumper for our girls since the 90’s, so it’s been awhile. Great experience for her.”

Harmon described the complex basics of the ongoing work it took to put herself in a position to step up onto the medal podium at the state meet.

“I was pretty proud of myself,” said Harmon. “I’m pretty proud to see what I got. It was kind of tough because I had to stay in shape. I couldn’t stay out too long, I couldn’t eat too much junk food, I had to stay decently healthy, and I had to make sure that I wasn’t doing activities that could hurt myself, because I wanted to get to this spot.

“It was something I wanted to get to. It was something like, that’s my goal, that’s what I’m going to try to do, and I’m really happy that I made it.”

Harmon posted a distance of 4.94m in the long jump with the eight state medalists, and the ninth-place finisher all posting distances over 5m.

“I just knew that I had to work the best to get on the board, so I could hit the five,” said Harmon. “I mean, I did get on the board, but I was a little short. It is my first year, and I have three more years to try to get there. It felt good because it was a lot better than most of the jumps I’ve been getting at the other meets, so it was really good.”

Coach Diener applauded Harmon’s appearance at the state meet as she closed out her freshman campaign with an all-state medal in hand. “Kia had a good day in long jump, and just missed the finals. She’s jumped some five meters throughout the year, but a four-nine is still a really good jump for her. She just was edged out from having an opportunity to jump three more times. For her to still go, and compete and get the medal in the high jump is just outstanding for a freshman.”

Stout earned eight team points with her second-place finish in the shot put. Harmon scored half of a point with her tie for eighth place in the high jump. Stout and Harmon’s 8.5 combined points scored put Holden in 27th place in the state meet team standings with 55 total Class 3 teams scoring at least one point.

Masyn Powell Ends Season At State Meet
Holden hurdler Masyn Powell closed out his sophomore season by competing in both the 110m hurdles, and the 300m hurdles at the 2022 MSHSAA Class 3 Track and Field State Championships on Friday, May 27.

In the 110m hurdles preliminaries, Powell placed 11th with a time of 16.34 seconds with the top eight finishers in prelims moving into the finals.

Powell posted a time of 42.51 seconds in the 300m hurdles prelims race to place ninth.

“Masyn’s two hurdle runs were two really good runs,” said Holden track and field head coach David Diener. “He was just a few tenths off on both, and actually in the 300s he was just hundredths away from making the finals. His day was still a really good day. Overall, him being a sophomore, this was just a great learning experience for him. He’s going to be back, and he’s ready to keep improving times.”

Powell’s run to the state meet included an MRVC-East title in the 110m hurdles, a district title in the 110m hurdles, and a sectional championship in the 300m hurdles with a personal record time of 41.84.

“I was very proud of myself for winning sectionals in the 300, because by how big of a PR I got from that, and I’ve never got first place in the 300 hurdles,” said Powell.