It had been a long time since the Republic boys track team won a meet other than the season-opening Republic Classic against relatively small-school competition. That dry spell ended with a win at the Branson Invitational, as Republic edged Ozark for the team championship. The overall points title came down to the 4x400m relay, and Republic beat Ozark head-to-head in that race by about four seconds.
Republic’s individual event winners were Chase Buford in the 100m dash and the long jump, Landen Finley in the 400m dash, and Devon McMillin in the 800m run. The Tigers also won the 4x100m relay (Ahlante Askew, Chase Buford, Braden Ghys, and Daniel Phillips), the 4x400m relay (Miller Rountree, Landen Finley, Will Fronabarger, and Devon McMillin), and the 4x800m relay (Devon McMillin, Will Fronabarger, Ethan Haynes, and Derrick Buchanan).
The Lady Tigers finished third overall behind Ozark and Branson. Republic won the 4×800 (Miha Nambara, Gracie Troester, Misora Nambara, and Kristin Probst) and finished second in the 4×400 and the 4×200. Kristin Probst won the 400m dash by more than a second, with Alaina Norman and Rilynn Finley finishing third and fourth in the same event. Kailey Manes won the high jump.
(You can find full results for both boys and girls here.)
The Republic boys had not finished higher than fourth at Branson in the past decade. This year, the Tigers scored 166 team points, beating Ozark’s 156.5 and more-than-doubling last year’s total of 81.
Editor’s Note: Not all meets list their final team totals online, but the last official meet win (other than the Republic Classic) I could find was the 2012 Bolivar Liberator Relays.
