Another day, another state championship for Luke Allen.
The Calvary Lutheran senior wrapped his high school career Saturday by winning the boys long jump in Missouri's Class 1 state track and field championships at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City.
Just as he did Friday in the triple jump, Allen had the long jump won in the preliminaries with a leap of 21 feet, 8.5 inches, which was a half-inch behind his sectional mark that earned him the No. 1 seed at state.
"The first wasn't great, the second jump was all right and I knew it would get me to the finals," Allen said. "But my third jump in the prelims was the one that won it."
And a familiar foe was battling Allen for the title.
Salisbury's Garrett Francis, who battled neck-and-neck with Allen last week at sectionals and again Friday in the triple jump, finished runner-up to Allen in the long jump Saturday.
Francis had the lead at 21-1.25 through two jumps, until Allen surpassed him with his third attempt.
"It has really been a lot of fun," Francis said. "He's a really nice guy and we've gotten to talk a lot in between each jump. I've really had a good time against some really tough competition."
Allen started the day by finishing fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.49 seconds, less than a tenth of a second behind the champion.
Allen had entered Friday's preliminaries as the last seed and nearly worked his way to the top in this weekend's two races.
"That one's fairly special because that's my dad's favorite to watch me in," Allen said of the 100. "He always comes up with some new tip or something he thinks I can do better on."
Allen finished with four state medals, but a fourth one came close to not happening.
In the 4x100-meter relay, the handoff between Austin Meisel and Allen on the last exchange nearly occurred outside the exchange zone. Allen slowed up to take the handoff and avoid a disqualification, but with the delay, Calvary Lutheran would finish eighth in a time of 46.53 seconds.
"It was fairly nerve-racking," Allen said. "I wasn't sure how close I was to the end of the exchange zone, but I think I was pretty close. We did get the handoff off, and I almost caught the seventh-place guy. If I had another 10-20 meters, I probably would have caught him."
Allen will attend Missouri S&T next year and said he hasn't ruled out a future in track.
"I might see what it's like on the track team, see if they'd like to have me," Allen said. "But it's not real high on the priority list. If I do get to, that would be awesome."
The Calvary Lutheran boys medaled in five events total and finished with 30 points in the team standings. The Lions finished in fifth place, trailing fourth-place Viburnum by 1.5 points for a state trophy.
Van-Far won the Class 1 state championship with 68 points, followed by Rich Hill in second place with 46 points. Hardin-Central took third place with 45 points.
"That's amazing for these kids," Calvary coach Kerri Morris said. "That wasn't even on our radar this season. When they had a few places that didn't go our way, they really pulled it back together."
Reece Going accounted for the Lions' other all-state medal, finishing fifth in the 200-meter dash finals in 23.34 seconds.
He was seeded ninth heading into Friday's preliminaries in the 200 and made the cutoff into Saturday's finals, earning his first all-state medal.
"Knowing that the 4x200 DQ'd, I was thinking I have to get out in the 200 if I want to make it to Saturday," Going said. "That motivated me a whole lot."
Emma Homfeldt was the only state medalist of the Calvary Lutheran girls' five events.
Homfeldt, who competed in four of those five events, finished third Saturday in the girls 800-meter run with a time of 2:25.67, a new personal-best time for the sophomore.
"I was very nervous and didn't want to rely on the times I saw too much, but just come out and run," Homfeldt said.
Homfeldt held the lead at the halfway point in the race by more than a full second and had a five-meter lead with about 200 meters to go. She was finally caught by Liberal's Alexys Barton and Salisbury's Erinn Fitzgerald in the final 100 meters of the race.
"At about the 200-meter mark, I was like, 'I can do this, I just gotta push through,'" Homfeldt said. "I was hoping no one would come up behind me, even though they did, but it was great. I was just hoping to do the best I could."
After a timing issue washed out the Lady Lions' preliminary run Friday in the 4x200-meter relay, they returned to the track Saturday for a two-heat timed final.
Katherine Allen, Andrea Stanford, Sarah Johnson and Homfeldt's time of 1:52.90 was third-best in Calvary Lutheran's heat, but was just outside the all-state range for ninth place in the two heats combined.
"There were a couple of odd places where we didn't catch a break," Morris said. " Eighth place was 1:52.89 and we were 1:52.90. It's tough, but we'll really take a lot from it."
Calvary Lutheran fell short of placing in the top eight in each of their three girls relays. All three were seeded either 15th or 16th, but each of them - the 4x800, 4x200 and 4x100 - placed ninth at state.
"The girls really weren't seeded to do well, but they got so close to the medals," Morris said.
The Calvary Lutheran girls finished with six points in the Class 1 standings, tying for 31st place. New Haven was the Class 1 girls state champion with 60 points, followed by Mound City (53), Salisbury (47) and Columbia Independent (36).
Although Calvary Lutheran fell short of its first state trophy in track, there's plenty of optimism for a program that's returning plenty of young state qualifiers.
"I looked around a little bit at times and it's great to see a lot of support," Morris said. "I'm seeing high school kids here, kids who probably don't even know what happens in a track meet. These kids did a great job of representing Calvary, and I know they're going to keep getting the interest up.
"To end up in the top five finish as a team is an amazing season for them, and I think it's just going to encourage that many people to check out this sport and give us a chance."