Icing on the athletic year for Mehmert

Alison Mehmert of Chamois clears the bar during competition in the Class 1 girls high jump Friday at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.
Alison Mehmert of Chamois clears the bar during competition in the Class 1 girls high jump Friday at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.

It's been quite a year for Alison Mehmert.

It started when the Chamois junior played an integral role in leading the Lady Pirates to a runner-up finish in the Class 1 state basketball playoffs in March. She topped all of that Friday afternoon.

Mehmert won the Class 1 high jump in the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 1-2 Track and Field Championships at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.

"It's amazing," Mehmert said. "We were blessed to get second in state. I mean, yeah, I wish we would have gotten first, but it was still amazing to get there. And now this, it's just icing on the cake."

Mehmert leaped 5-3 to win the competition by an inch, as Salisbury's Sarah Willhite jumped 5-2.

"I'm speechless," she said. "Just looking up and seeing my family and everybody, it was the greatest feeling."

Mehmert, who entered the competition with the top seed jump of 5-3, wasn't taking anything for granted before she got her first-place medal.

"I wasn't expecting it," she said of the state title. "I was really hoping for it, but not expecting it."

After clearing the bar at 5-3 to win the event, Mehmert tried unsuccessfully to jump 5-4, a height she cleared the first meet of the season but never again.

"I was a little disappointed in myself, but it's OK, I got first so I'm happy," she said. "I can't ask for anything more."

Now, after taking eighth in the high jump in 2012 as a sophomore with a leap of 5-1 and coming so close on the basketball court just a couple months ago, Mehmert can call herself a state champion.

III

Mehmert was also part of Chamois' 4x400-meter relay team that finished 15th out of 16 teams in Friday's preliminaries. The Lady Pirates won't advance to today's finals.

One of her teammates, freshman Autumn Baker, finished fourth in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 12:24.65. Mound City's Kendey Eaton won the event in 12:04.15. Baker also finished ninth in the 800-meter run preliminaries, meaning she won't advance to today's final.

With Mehmert's 10 points for a first-place finish and Baker's five points for her fourth-place finish, Chamois sits in third place in the Class 1 team rankings after five events were scored on the opening day. Salisbury leads with 33 and Mound City is second with 18.

Baker will run in Saturday's 1,600-meter run final at 1:30 p.m.

III

On the boys side, Clay Nolte had a solid day for Chamois.

The junior finished fifth in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:36.62. La Plata's Seth Brown won the event in 4:28.86.

Nolte also took fith in the 800-meter run preliminaries with a qualifying time of 2:05. He'll run in that final at 2:55 p.m. today.

Chamois will compete in the 4x800-meter relay at noon Saturday and Chris Binggeli will participate in the discus at 2 p.m.

Related articles:

Heckemeyer achieves her goal

Another second-place finish at state for Rush

Irvin-Muhammad breaks pair of marks

Additional:

Friday's results

Follow Saturday's coverage:

www.mshsaa.org/TFInfoCentral.aspx

News Tribune sports reporters on Twitter at: @NTsports | @adamstillman87 | @tony_hawley | @Brent_Foster | @tjrackers