Republic athletes broke four school records and earned two medals on the first day of the Class 5 State Track & Field Championship in Jefferson City, with Gracie Troester and Jenna Belcher leading the charge.
Troester shattered her own school record in the 1600m run, finishing third with a time of 4:57.51. Troester finished the final lap faster than any other competitor, passing Evyn Humphrey of Francis Howell on the home stretch to secure third. It was her first time beating the five-minute mark in the 1600.
“My goal was to just go out and compete,” Troester said. “I know there were girls that had sub-five times that I wanted to compete with, so I knew if I just stuck on them, even for a couple of laps, I’d have a pretty good chance of breaking 5:00.”
Jenna Belcher broke two school records within about an hour, finishing 12th in the 200m dash with a time of 25.68, surpassing Brooke Stanfield’s 2013 mark of 25.70. Belcher also placed sixth in the long jump with a leap of 5.61 meters, breaking her own previous record of 5.60 meters. She did it despite a knee injury that she suffered at sectionals last week.
“Going into it, I was a little nervous just with the injury, and this is a big setting, so I’m just really proud of where I ended up,” Belcher said.
The 4x400m relay team of Gracie Woods, Reese Finley, Kristin Probst, and Alaina Norman advanced to the finals with a school-best time of 4:01.50, beating the old mark of 4:02.81 set at the district meet.
The 4x200m relay team (Gracie Woods, Reese Finley, Brooklyn Douglas, and Jenna Belcher) finished 11th overall with a time of 1:45.00, short of last week’s sectional record time of 1:44.76.
In other events, Alaina Norman finished 12th in the javelin with a throw of 36.80 meters, while Troester placed outside the medal standings in the 800m run with a time of 2:20.21.
Several Republic athletes, including Belcher and Troester, have events remaining on the second day of the state championship. Zion Allen will also see his first action on Saturday, as he competes in the long jump and high jump.