ST. LOUIS -- Five area athletes won a conference title during the American Midwest Conference outdoor track and field championships, which were held Friday and Saturday at Missouri Baptist.
Winning titles for Columbia College were senior Halie Moeller, sophomore Makenzie Schwartz and freshman Gracie Schultz. William Woods senior Alicia Engelbrecht and Williams Baptist senior Jacob Whittle also won events at the conference meet.
Schwartz (Russellville High School) and Schultz (Belle High School) were on Columbia College’s first-place women’s 4x100-meter relay, which posted a time of 49.69 seconds.
Moller (Fatima High School) helped the Cougars to a first-place time of 4:14.27 in the women’s 4x400-meter relay.
Engelbrecht (Helias High School) took first place in the women’s 10,000-meter run, edging Columbia College’s Jada O’Donnell by 2.3 seconds with a winning time of 41:04.53.
Whittle (Eldon High School) won two titles with the Eagles, both in relay events. Williams Baptist’s 4x100 relay finished first in a time of 43.99 seconds and the 4x400 relay won with a time of 3:30.85.
Schwartz added a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (15.76 seconds), a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash (26.58 seconds) and a third-place finish in the 100-meter dash (12.74 seconds).
Schultz had three sixth-place finishes in the triple jump (32 feet, 4.25 inches), the long jump (16-4.5) and the 100 (13.19 seconds). She also took ninth in the 200 preliminaries in 27.88 seconds, missing the final by five-hundredths of a second.
Moeller was runner-up in the women’s 400-meter dash in a time of 1:01.99. She tied for third in the pole vault (8-6) and placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles (1:10.36).
In Engelbrecht’s other event, the 5,000-meter run, she placed second with a time of 19:22.74.
Whittle also ran in a third relay event for Williams Baptist, helping the 4x800-meter relay to a third-place time of 8:38.84. In individual events, he took third in the 400-meter dash (52.41 seconds), fifth in the javelin (123-4.25) and 10th in the 100 preliminaries (11.76 seconds).
William Woods senior Harley Nale (Linn High School) had five all-conference performances for the Owls.
Individually, Nale was second in the women’s 800-meter run (2:27.25), second in the 1,500-meter run (5:05.43) and third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:30.28). She also helped William Woods to third-place finishes in the 4x400 relay (4:25.73) and the 4x800 relay (10:13.34).
William Woods junior Kristan Wilson (Eldon High School), who also ran with Nale on the women’s 4x400 relay, helped the Owls to a third-place time of 52.83 seconds in the 4x100 relay. In individual events, Wilson was fourth in the 400 (1:02.90), sixth in the 400 hurdles (1:17.11) and eighth in the 200 (30.60 seconds).
Columbia College sophomore Emma Homfeldt (Calvary Lutheran High School) had three top-four finishes for the Cougars. She helped the women’s 4x800 relay to a second-place time of 10:09.09, then took third in the 1,500 (5:08.04) and fourth in the 800 (2:30.72).
William Woods senior Hunter Carpenter (California High School) had four top-six finishes at the conference meet. He and freshman Dustin Russell (South Callaway High School) ran on the 4x800 relay, which placed second in a time of 8:13.40. Carpenter also helped the Owls to a fourth-place time of 3:42.46 in the 4x400 relay, and individually, he finished fourth in the 800 (2:00.44) and sixth in the 1,500 (4:12.31).
Russell added a second-place time of 10:28.86 in the men’s 3,000 steeplechase.
Columbia College sophomore Trevor Bailey (Helias High School) competed in five events for the Cougars. He helped them to a fourth-place finish in the men’s 4x100 relay (48.84 seconds), and in individual events, he was sixth in the 100 (11.71 seconds), seventh in the 200 (25.07 seconds), seventh in the 400 hurdles (1:04.27) and ninth in the long jump (19-4.25).
Hannibal-LaGrange sophomore Chase Grosvenor (School of the Osage High School) helped the Trojans to a fourth-place time of 8:54.35 in the men’s 4x800 relay. He also finished 10th in the 1,500 (4:21.73) and 12th in the 5,000 (17:34.82).
William Woods freshman Susan Moman (Belle High School) took fifth in the women’s javelin (103-7.25), seventh in the discus (102-3), seventh in the high jump (4-3.25) and ninth in the shot put (31-1.5).
Columbia College sophomore Hannah Koenigsfeld (Linn High School) took sixth in the women’s shot put (34-4.5), 11th in the hammer throw (102-2), 12th in the discus (66-11.5) and 14th in the javelin (77-1.5).
William Woods sophomore Jenson Starr (Helias High School) had a pair of seventh-place finishes in the men’s 5,000 (15:58.89) and the 10,000 (32:59.00).
Columbia College swept the AMC team championships, as the women totaled 257 points and the men scored 206.5 points.
The William Woods women placed second with 189 points and the Missouri Baptist men were runners-up with 190 points.