Five Eagles And Lady Eagles Track And Field Team Members Qualify For State Meet

 

Five of Holden’s eight Eagles and Lady Eagles track and field team members competing at the Class 3, Sectional 4 Meet at Higginsville High School secured top-four sectional finishes Saturday, May 16 to qualify for the Class 3 State Championships.

Lady Eagles Addy Campbell, Addi Wooster, and Brionna Johnson secured spots at the state meet with Eagles Neil Tebbenkamp and Owen Doogs set to join them in Jefferson City on the boys side.

“I am very proud about our athletes and how well they did this Saturday,” said Holden track and field head coach David Diener. “When it comes to these meets, there is some luck on how tough the competition is in your section, and all you can do is try to put your best competition together and see if it ends up in the top-four. I felt like our athletes did just that, and we were able to get five of the athletes through to state.”

Holden will send two pole vaulters to the state meet with senior Lady Eagle Addi Wooster and Eagle junior year pole vaulter Neil Tebbenkamp both turning in top-four finishes as the sectional meet.

On the girls side, Wooster took the runner-up spot with a second-place height of 3.30m to secure her fourth career trip to the state meet. Wooster turned in all-state fifth-place finishes the past two seasons.

Tebbenkamp added a runner-up finish in the boys competition by clearing 3.80m in a second-place finish to secure his first state meet qualification.

“Addilyn Wooster and Neil both had good days in pole vault to qualify with both finishing in second place,” said coach Diener. “They hit good marks for the season and will be in a good spot to start their competitions.”

Lady Eagle thrower Brionna Johnson earned a state qualifying mark in shot put with a distance of 11.83m to place her second at the sectional meet behind the first-place distance of 12.3m recorded by Lafayette (St. Joseph) shot putter Emery Omon.

Johnson returns to the state meet for shot put this season after standing at the top of the medal podium in Jefferson City as the Class 3 State Champion in the event last year.
“Brionna threw great in shot put to start her day and finished right behind the No. 1 ranked thrower in the state, so it’s going to be a fun competition at state for those two again,” said coach Diener.

Lady Eagle senior Addy Campbell completed the list of state meet qualifiers on the girls side by placing fourth in the 400m dash with a time of 1:01.01.

Campbell returns to the state meet as a four-time state meet qualifier, and a multiple-time all-state medalist. Last year, Campbell turned in all-state finishes in the 400m dash by placing eighth and fifth in the 800m run.

“Adalyn Campbell qualified fourth in the 400m,” confirmed coach Diener. “She has battled some injuries this year and is finally in a place where she can train again, and it’s paid off as she ran one of her best times of the year and best races to make sure she qualified.”

Eagle senior Owen Doogs completed the state meet qualifiers on the boys side for Holden by placing fourth in triple jump with a distance of 13.2m to set up his first trip to the state meet.

“Owen Doogs qualified in triple jump by getting fourth place by half of an inch,” said coach Diener. “He put great jumps together in a very talented field to qualify.”
In a group of Lady Eagle athletes taking fifth-place finishes, Campbell missed the top-four cutoff by the narrowest of margins in the 800m run by turning in a time of 2:25.67. Campbell’s time was edged by Chillicothe runner Lydia Bonderer who stumbled across the finish line to place fourth among a group of three runners fighting for the third and fourth-place spots.

“Campbell finishing fifth in the 800m is one of the greatest races I have seen,” said coach Diener. “There were three girls fighting for two spots and all crossed at the same time, and the camera photo at the end didn’t favor us. It’s a heartbreak for her at the time, but it was a huge accomplishment her taking a second off her season best time and huge testament to the competitor that she is. The 800m is one of the gutsiest races out there, and she stepped up and ran an incredible race.”

As two-event sectional meet competitors, Doogs and Johnson missed the top-four cutoff in events with Doogs placing eighth in long jump with a distance of 6.31m, and Johnson placing sixth in discus with a throw of 35.69m.

“Owen and Brionna had good marks in their events that they did not qualify in,” said coach Diener. “Both had good marks that would have placed them top-four in most of our meets this year, but came up just short in those events. However, they did make it through and will be sitting in good spots for the state meet in Brionna’s shot put and Owens triple jump.”
Lady Eagle junior year hurdler Arionna Johnson placed fifth in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.81 seconds, which left her .29 seconds off the fourth-place time.

“Arionna improved so much this year as a hurdler,” said coach Diener. “She ran her second-fastest time of the year and ran a 15-second 100m hurdle, and fell short of qualifying. She is incredibly deserving as her time qualifies or wins any other sectional. It just so happened that in our sectional it finished fifth. However, I know she is going to continue to improve and have a great senior year with her hurdles.”

Also finishing with a fifth-place showing was Lady Eagle junior year pole vaulter Macie McDaniel who turned in a height of 2.85m at the sectional meet.

“Macie had her best competition of the year,” said coach Diener. “If it would have been a week earlier, the girl that placed fourth at sectionals would have been behind Macie in the placings as Macie went clean and a height higher than her last week in her pole vault competition. It just happened to click a little more for the girl in fourth place this last Saturday, but Macie battled and was proud of her day. There are going to be lots of seniors this year on the state podium in pole vault, and I believe Macie is going to step into one of those podium spots as a senior.”

Freshman high jumper Peyton Koehn ended her first sectional meet appearance by placing seventh in the event with a height of 1.50m
“Peyton had a good day at high jump and just like Macie just had the competition all of the sudden have huge PR days,” said coach Diener. “As a freshman, she had a great year making it as far as she did battling through some injuries the last half of the season, but also gained some great experience. She was a big part to the success of our girls team this year and will be so again in the three years to come.”

For Campbell, Wooster, Johnson, Doogs, and Tebbenkamp, their state meet qualifications move them into the Class 3 Track and Field Championships at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City to be held Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23. A state meet event schedule can be found on the Missouri State High School Activities Association website at mshsaa.org under the Championship Information Central icon in the Track and Field sports and activities section.