JEFFERSON CITY — A top-eight finish.

That was the goal over the weekend for high school track athletes from Belle and Vienna during the 2024 Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) Track and Field Championships held at the Dennis and Roberta Licklider Track Complex inside of Jefferson City High School’s Adkins Stadium.

It did not take long for Maries County to have their first athlete reach the medal stand with a top-eight finish.

Vienna’s throwing duo of Ava Kloeppel and Aubrey Schwartze both competed in the Class 2 Girls Shot Put.

Kloeppel’s best throw of 10.23 meters on her third attempt of the preliminaries put her in 12th place overall and outside of the top nine and the finals.

Schwartze recorded a mark of 10.66m on her third-and-final attempt of the prelims to put her in fifth place entering the finals which had the top nine competing for one of eight spots in the medal stand.

Improving on her preliminary distance with a toss of 10.77m in her second attempt during the finals, Schwartze wound up placing fourth in the state in the Class 2 Girls Shot Put.

“It feels great to be among the top eight in the state,” Schwartze said. “Now I want to keep improving and get to state next year not only in the shot put but in the discus and javelin as well.”

While those two Lady Eagles were competing in the shot put, Eagle senior Gavin Schwartze was among 16 other athletes competing in the Class 2 Boys Pole Vault.

Needing two attempts to clear the opening height of 3.63m, that miss proved costly for the VHS senior as Schwartze wound up placing ninth after clearing 3.78m.

Had he cleared 3.63m on his first attempt, he would have finished in a three-way tie for seventh place putting him on the medal stand to end his VHS Track and Field career.

“Even though Gavin just missed the medal stand, he had a heck of a senior season and VHS track career,” VHS head track and field coach David Martin said.

First on the track for Maries County was the Class 2 Boys 4x800-meter relay and Vienna’s Eagles.

Hovering near the top eight the entire race, the Eagle foursome of Duncan Wilkinson, Brayden Ewers, Cooper Auten and Hunter Schwartze wound up crossing the finish line in a 10th-place time of 8:31.38 missing the top eight and the medal stand by nearly three seconds.

Not long into the afternoon of day one of competition from Jefferson City, Belle High School sophomore Aubrey Rehmert threw her way back on to the medal stand in the Class 2 Girls Javelin.

Posting a mark of 38.01m on her third attempt of the preliminaries in the second flight, Rehmert entered the finals in fourth place.

Unable to improve on that distance after three more attempts in the finals, Rehmert held on to fourth place in the state ending her sophomore season with another medal.

“I could’ve thrown better today,” Rehmert said. “But it feels great to have another medal from state track around my neck.”

Rehmert was not the only Lady Tiger underclassmen competing for Belle in Jefferson City.

Freshman Nolie Finnegan took her first of two shots at ending her first year of high school track as an All-State athlete in the Class 2 Girls 1600m run.

Competing against an experienced field with fast times, Finnegan settled for 15th place with a time of 6:12.63.

“It was great seeing Nolie get to the state meet as a freshman,” Belle High School head track coach Jacob Walton said. “Now that she’s had a taste of what the state meet is like, we expect bigger and better things from her over the next three years.”

Day two on Saturday saw Wilkinson and Finnegan get a second chance at a state medal in their respective distance events.

Competing in the Class 2 Boys 800m run, Wilkinson ran a 57.17 first lap putting him in sixth place and in good position to reach the podium. Unfortunately on the second lap, the Eagle senior dropped six places placing him 12th in a time of 2:03.86.

Finnegan’s second crack at a state medal came in the Class 2 Girls 3200m run Saturday afternoon.

Hanging on to the top 10 early in the race, Finnegan wound up posting a 14th-place time of 13:29.04 capping her freshman season of track at BHS.