Wilfong, Barnes sail to gold heights
JEFFERSON CITY – The second day of the Class 3 State Track Meet was held on Saturday with all events being finals. Starting off the day was the girls pole vault, and the last event to finish was the boys pole vault. Both events saw area athletes take away the gold.
Jeff Wilfong returned to the pit as the favorite, having won the boys pole vault in 2008, and he did not disappoint. With his last opponent failing at 14’9″ Wilfong made his 15′ vault and then cleared 15’2″ for his last performance for North County High School
Molly Barnes had no trouble disposing of the competition as she sailed over the bar time and time again, finally clearing 11 feet with no one else still competing. Barnes had only one girl in the meet that had vaulted a higher height in previous meets, but she missed all three of her vaults at her entry point of 10 feet.
Barnes, a senior at Farmington, also cleared 11’3″ for her privilege as last competitor to try for an even higher vault. Freshman Alexis Kiefer placed just out of medal contention in ninth place in the 800m dash.
Along with Wilfong’s first-place for the Raiders, Ethan Salazar finished third in the 300m hurdles and fifth in the 110m hurdles, and Mike Miller placed fifth in the 400m dash to help North County to a 10th place finish with 25 team points.
Jacob Swearingen and Nick Niggemann catapulted the Potosi Trojans into a fifth-place finish with 37 points in the boys Class 3 meet with a 1-2 finish in the 3200m run. Swearingen won the event with a time of 9:22.48, and Niggemann placed second at 9:23.0, more than five seconds in front of the rest of the field. Erich Diesel of Ste. Genevieve finished 13th in the event.
Brandon Bourbon added three points to Potosi’s total with a seventh place finish in the 100m dash and an eight -place in the 200m dash.
The Farmington boys placed 12th as a team with 22 points. The 4×400 team won third place, the 4x800m relay team placed fifth, the 4x200m relay team came in sixth. Jared Griffin placed 11th in the discus, and Dylan Vaughn came in 14th in the pole vault.
Fredericktown’s Miriah Korokis scored all nine of her team’s points wit a second place finish in the discus to go along with her eighth place in the shot put on Friday.
