Saturday at Waynesville High School, Samantha Ridenhour’s Bland Middle School (BMS) Track and Field teams competed in the Missouri Middle School Track and Field Championships looking to garner unofficial all-state honors against schools from throughout Missouri.

Bland’s Bears racked up 62 points to place second in the Class 2 Boys team standings behind Academie Lafayette’s first-place team total of 92 points.

Placing eighth with 25 team points were Bland’s Lady Bears finishing behind Academie Lafayette (115), Iberia (77), Louisiana (59), Veritas Christian Academy (56), Barber Elementary (33), Skyline (33) and Elsberry (29).

Bland’s Bears were paced by the state championship winning team of Michael Felton, Liam Smith, Dakota Stockton and Jackson Prater with a winning Class 2 time of 4:09.54 in the boys 4x400-meter relay.

Earning silver with a second-place time of 1:49.09 in the boys 4x200m relay was the Bear foursome of Alden Zabel, Weston Sadler, Dakota Stockton and Owen Dobson.

Dobson (14th, 1:03.98) and Jaseton Rodgers (20th, 1:07.15) took a lap around the track for the Bears in the Class 2 boys 400m dash.

Prater (4th, 2:17.08) and Felton (5th, 2:22.93) earned unofficial All-State honors in the boys 800m run for the Bears.

Both harries also claimed medals in the boys Class 2 boys 1600m run for Bland with Prater posting a second-place time of 4:53.21 and Felton placing fourth in 5:10.17.

Sprinting to All-State honors for the Bears in the Class 2 boys 4x100m relay in a fourth-place time of 52.15 was the Bland foursome of Sadler, Smith, Stockton and Zabel.

Narrowly missing All-State honors with a ninth-place time of 11:48.27 in the Class 2 boys 4x800m relay was the Bland quartet of Ryker Huebner, Garit Trainer, Liam Bialczyk and Tharon Kent.

Karsen Ridenhour posted his best finish in Waynesville in the Class 2 Boys Shot Put with a 15th-place throw of 9.66m.

Elliott Smith also placed 26th in the Class 2 Boys Discus for Bland with a throw of 21.36m.

Also earning All-State honors for Bland’s Bears in the Class 2 Boys Pole Vault were Liam Smith (4th, 2.30m) and Zabel (5th, 2.13m).

Zabel (5th, 17.76) also earned All-State honors in the Class 2 Boys 100m hurdles for Bland while Liam Smith also competed in the event posting an 11th-place time of 18.90.

Leading the Lady Bears in Waynesville was the Class 2 Girls 4x200m relay team of Kali Mayfield, Sedora Carroll, Shae Buechter and Faith Gromowski with a second-place time of 2:04.96.

Also sprinting their way to All-State honors in the Class 2 Girls 4x100m relay in a seventh-place time of 1:00.28 was the Lady Bear foursome of Makenna Norris, Mayfield, Gromowski and Buechter.

Garnering All-State honors for the Lady Bears in the Class 2 Girls 4x800m relay with an eighth-place time of 12:48.61 was the team of Gracie Jarvis, Marianne Francis, Cora Langston and Skylar Stevens.

Mayfield also earned individual All-State honors placing third in the Class 2 Girls Shot Put with a throw of 8.42m while Emilyn Lewis took ninth posting a mark of 7.87m.

Improving in the discus, Lewis earned a silver medal with her second-place throw of 21.95m in the Class 2 Girls Discus for Bland’s Lady Bears.

BMS Track competed Monday in Cuba and will conclude their season tomorrow (Thursday) in Union.