JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. • The medal stand at the Missouri Class 2 state track meet seemed draped in blue Saturday.
In 10 of the 18 events, Maplewood-Richmond Heights was represented on the podium. That in turn led to a Class 2 record of 104 points and the Blue Devils' third consecutive boys' title.
At one point, Nick Coulter and Cortez Cooper were on the medal stand for the long jump, Marcus Daily was waiting to take the podium for his shot put, and Marcus Taylor and Eric Liska were racing down the straightaway to finish 1-2 in the 400-meter dash.
"These guys picked up from where that (class of 2009) kicked it off, and they are getting out of here with three state championship rings," Maplewood coach Brandon Gregory said. "Our main goal was not only to win it, but we wanted to win with the most points overall for our class and all the classes."
Coulter won the long jump at 21 feet, 5 ¼ inches. Cooper was third (20-10 ½), and Daily captured third in the shot put (50-9 ½). Coulter had already been on the podium for his fourth-place triple jump.
"I knew long jump was my best event coming into this," Coulter said. "It felt pretty good, but the third one I scratched on, and it felt like a high 22. I knew it was a good jump because I got up high instead of jumping out."
Taylor won the 400 in 48.47, and Liska ran a 49.64. Taylor proceeded to get sick waiting for his turn atop the podium, a place he would frequent Saturday. Taylor later admitted that he pushed himself to the point of being sick after every race at state this year.
"I guess it's the last time, so I had to put everything out there," said Taylor, who also ran legs on the winning 400-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay (3:24.74) and won the 200 (22.09).
The Principia Panthers captured second place in Class 2 with 50 points, starting with a victory in the 3,200-meter relay.
Conrad Bollinger made a strong move to keep the Panthers within striking distance on the third leg, and Austin Holmsley took the lead and then held off College Heights Christian's Caleb Hoover.
"We got first in the (3,200 relay) with a 16-second season PR with four guys running a PR on one day," Principia coach Jamie Bollinger said. "It doesn't get much better than that."
Conrad had just finished taking second place in the pole vault (13-6), which was his primary event until he was moved to the 3,200 relay this year.
"I was focused entirely on pole vault, and then my dad put me on the (relay)," Conrad said. "Combining those two was tough because I got distracted from the pole vault for a while. Getting my technique down, I guess that's what I have to do."
Holmsley came back and ran another strong 800 to win the open event in 1:58.22, which he won by a half-second by holding off a challenge by Mark Twain's Austin Hardy.
