Westphalia is close enough to Jefferson City that when the state track and field championships were delayed, the Fatima Comets went back to school.
Senior Alex Krieg had just begun his preparation for the boys 3,200-meter run when the stadium was emptied, and he went back home with his teammates to wait out the weather.
"When we got delayed I'd just started warming up, so it affected me a little bit," Krieg said. "But since we waited, it's absolutely beautiful right now. I think it ended up helping us overall."
During the delay, which lasted more than five hours, Krieg refueled with some pizza and set a personal best of 9:42.59 as the sun set.
The pizza wasn't the only thing that helped Krieg to a fifth-place finish in the event. A dedicated group of Fatima supporters sat right up front by the finish line, cheering "Olé, olé olé" as he started each lap.
Krieg, who was between 1:11.12 and 1:15.85 on his splits, stayed with the lead group after the first lap and was as high as second before fading in the last lap. He didn't kick until the home stretch, and by that time, he'd been passed.
But the taste of setting a PR by almost 10 seconds - and maybe that cheesy, greasy goodness, too - was too good for Krieg to think about anything other than the result.
"I was very happy," he said of the achievement. "Very happy."
Krieg's four points from the lone event a Comet medaled in tied Fatima for 41st in team standings.
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Eldon's relay team took sixth in the 4x200m relay with a time of 1:32.07, and claimed three team points for the Mustangs.
The team of Jacob Whittle, Trenton Dillon, Isaiah Merida and Trenton Phillips saw their hard work pay off with a photo op, medals and team points.
"We got something out of it," Whittle said. "We worked real hard out here, I've been working hard here for four years, so it's nice to get something out of it."
The Mustangs did not medal in any relay events in 2016 and nearly qualified for two this season. Dillon, Phillips and Merida will all be back next year, and the team's core now has experience both in making and missing out on State finals by narrow margins.
Eldon's boys sit tied with North Callaway at 46th in team standings with three points.
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School of the Osage senior Jason Edwards medaled in his third event of the tournament, taking third in pole vault by clearing 14-6 on his third attempt, which was half a foot better than his qualifying height.
Edwards said he would have liked to have made the podium in the four events MSHSAA allows high school track athletes to compete in, but his long jump performance at sectionals was not enough to qualify for state.
Still, the senior earned 19 points, good enough to put Osage at 14th place in team standings.
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California's Gunner Baquet missed the podium by a quarter of an inch Saturday.
His triple jump of 41-3 was just shy of the cutoff mark set by Owensville senior Chase Curtman. The Pintos tied for 37th place in team standings with five points.
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John Burroughs won the team event with 62 points, beating Reeds Spring by two points. Maryville finished third with 54 points, McCluer South-Berkeley was fourth with 36 points, and Cardinal Ritter rounded out the Class 3 top five with 34 points.