Republic’s Reese Finley broke a 12-year-old school record in the 400-meter dash in her first meet of the season after recovering from an injury, highlighting Republic’s performance at the Christian County Relays in Nixa on Friday.
Finley broke Brooke Stanfield’s 2013 record of 58.91 seconds, finishing with a time of 58.42 seconds to take first place in the event. She also added a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.97 seconds.
Gracie Troester led Republic with three top-three finishes, winning both the 1600-meter run (5:21.36) and the 3200-meter run (11:46.58) while taking second in the 800-meter run (2:25.19).
On the boys’ side, Keiran Govan had a strong showing with a first-place finish in the triple jump (13.41m) and a second-place finish in the high jump (1.90m).
Other Republic first-place finishes included AJ Uhl in the 110-meter hurdles (16.46) and Will Payne in the 300-meter hurdles (41.78).
The 4×800 girls team of Josie Stalzer, Brylie Harris, Zoey Johns, and Gracie Troester finished second.
Additional top-three finishes for Republic included the girls 4×800-meter relay team (second, 10:01.87), Sienna Blankenship in the pole vault (third, 2.60m), Danny Fair in the boys pole vault (third, 4.27m), Avery Rossow in the discus (third, 32.73m) and Ekene Chukwu in the boys discus (second, 45.43m). The Republic girls finished third in the team standings with 110 points, behind Ozark (212) and Nixa (147). The Republic boys also placed third with 104 points, trailing Nixa (148) and Ozark (128).
