Alex Johnson and Ekene Chukwu each medaled at the Class 5 state meet, earning all-state honors for Republic.
Johnson ran 10.77 to place seventh in the 100 meters. With the event scored across heats and no final, he ran the first heat and had to wait to see whether his time would hold. “It was a little nerve-wracking because I was hoping to go out and win my heat,” Johnson said. “Didn’t pan out that way, so I was a little bit more nervous.”
The wait ended in seventh. “They skipped seventh place and I was like, I think that’s when I slide in there, and I was really excited at that point,” Johnson said.
Chukwu threw 48.11 meters for sixth in the discus, reaching the mark on his one fair throw after fouling his other three attempts. He had been throwing well in warm-ups, several past 50 meters. “My warm-ups were really good … but I got halted in the ring for like five minutes because they weren’t ready. So it kind of messed my rhythm up,” Chukwu said. “But it’s also my fault because I shouldn’t have let that distract me at all. There’s always next year.”
Johnson and Chukwu each returned home with state medals and higher hopes for their senior spring seasons, and their efforts in Jefferson City on Saturday were this week’s Performances of the Week.
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