Two members of the Mountain Grove track and field program advanced to the Class 3 state championships after earning a top four finish in sectionals held on Saturday in Camdenton.
Freshman Jozey Sharp-MacPherson continued her amazing first year campaign by taking third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.80. This was not only her personal best time, it moved her into the No. 2 best time slot all-time for Mountain Grove High School. Her 12.80 passes Rebecca Feston’s 2012 time and a time reached by Katie Wolter in 2015. The school record is held by Ashlynn Rogers, who had a 12.68 converted from a hand time of 12.44 in 2014.
Sharp-MacPherson also finished sixth in the 200 meters after her time of 27.55.
Meanwhile, she will be joined at state by junior Macey Penner, who took fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:29.19.
Mountain Grove head coach John Citron said Penner had a mild case of heat exhaustion in her specialty race, the 1,600 meters, where she had a disappointing fifth place time of 5:43.87. That was her slowest time in that race all year.
“She recovered nicely to run the 800 just hard enough to advance, securing the fourth spot by less than one second,” Citron noted.
Sharp-MacPherson will race at 1:30 p.m. and Penner at 4:30 in the May 29 Class 3 state championships set for Jefferson City High School.
Also competing in sectionals was freshman Kailyn Wake, who took sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 32’01.5”.
As for the Panthers, their 4x800-meter relay team took seventh place with a time of 9:12.88. That squad featured senior Clayton Walker, juniors Andrew Norris and Trenton Harker along with sophomore Ethan Boswell.
