Russellville boys win Class 1 4x800 relay state title

Russellville's Collin Lueckenotte hands passes the baton to Ethan Huff during Friday's preliminary race of the boys 4x200-meter relay at the Class 1 state track and field championships at Adkins Stadium. Russellville advanced to the final and finished in eighth place Saturday.
Russellville's Collin Lueckenotte hands passes the baton to Ethan Huff during Friday's preliminary race of the boys 4x200-meter relay at the Class 1 state track and field championships at Adkins Stadium. Russellville advanced to the final and finished in eighth place Saturday.

Second place wasn't going to be good enough for the Russellville boys 4x800-meter relay, not this season.

The Indians finished runner-up in Class 2 a year ago, and they entered Saturday's Class 1 race as the No. 2 seed as well.

"I remember putting my second-place medal on my dresser, and at the beginning of the season, I told myself I wanted to make it a gold," Russellville sophomore Campbell Nichols said.

Mission accomplished.

Russellville crossed the finish line first in the 4x800 with a time of 8:22.64 at the Class 1 state track and field championships at Adkins Stadium.

It's the third time in program history the Russellville boys have won a state title in the 4x800. The Indians won it in back-to-back seasons in 1982 and '83.

Senior Austin Roe ran the first leg for Russellville and had the Indians in second place at the first exchange. Senior Jared Shirley, who ran the second leg, kept his team near the front of the pack in third place at the halfway point.

Nichols then did his part, running a 2:03 split to put the Indians in first place with 800 meters to go when he passed the baton to senior Ethan Huff.

"I knew where I had to be was either first place or right behind in second place," Nichols said. "I knew Huff could get to first place and win it. I just had to run as hard as I could."

Huff, who finished fourth Friday in the open 800, ran a 2:02 split and won with room to spare. Runner-up Princeton finished nearly four full seconds back of Russellville at 8:26.59.

"I was really pumped up, I knew what I could do," Huff said. "I knew coming in that we might be behind and I might have to catch somebody, or I might just have to hold a small lead.

"I just had the baton and ran my race."

Russellville's 4x800 graduated Harrison Frank and Beau Bryant from last season. Nichols and Shirley were the two returners.

"Last year, Harrison and Beau were more of the leaders," Shirley said. "This year, I had to step up and be more of a leader."

Roe, Shirley, Nichols and Huff shattered the team's season record in the relay by 17 seconds.

"It feels good to go out on a good note," Roe said as he clutched the first-place plaque.

Vienna junior Gavin Weathers won a state championship Saturday in the Class 1 boys discus.

Vienna, like Russellville, dropped from Class 2 to Class 1 this season. Weathers won the Class 2 discus title last season, but the class change meant he was unable to defend his title.

Instead, he set his sights on breaking the Class 1 record of 167 feet, but he came up just short with a winning throw of 165 feet, 10 inches.

"I knew I could have sped up a little more, I could have tried to reach out a little more," said Weathers, whose personal record in the discus is 166-7.

Weathers is the second person in Eagles history to win back-to-back state titles. Corey Schoene won the boys pole vault in 2011 and '12.

Just like Friday in the shot put, Weathers' second attempt in the discus easily put him in the finals with a throw of 163-3. His top throw came in his second attempt in the finals.

"I was pretty happy with (my consistency)," said Weathers, who also threw 163-1 on his first attempt in the finals.

The only other competitor within striking distance of Weathers was Jasper senior William Hale, who finished second with a throw of 160-3 on his final attempt.

Now a back-to-back state champion, Weathers has his sights set on something other than a third straight title.

"My goal this year was to throw 180, but next year I'm going to try to shoot for 185 and hope for that," he said.

St. Elizabeth senior Everett Schaffer also competed in the Class 1 boys discus. There was only one problem.

His other event, the pole vault, began at 9:30 a.m., the same time as the discus.

"I had to work around it, but (the MSHSAA officials) definitely helped me out with it," Schaffer said.

Making the task of balancing the two events more difficult is they are located on the opposite ends of the stadium. Schaffer went back and forth multiple times between the events as he kept clearing the bar in the pole vault and advanced to the finals in the discus.

Luckily, this has happened to him before in a regular-season meet, so juggling events wasn't all that foreign to Schaffer.

"It definitely prepared me, but I still wish I had that extra time," he said. "But I made it through."

Schaffer finished sixth in the pole vault, clearing 12-0, and added an eighth-place finish in the discus with a throw of 134-11. He set personal records in both events.

Although he had a better finish in the pole vault, Schaffer was more pleased with his discus result.

"I had a really hard state in the discus this year, but I do think I did better in discus than in pole vault," said Schaffer, who was making his first appearance at the state championships.

Chamois junior Brandon Dodson also medaled in the pole vault, finishing seventh at a height of 11-9. He was the Pirates' only state qualifier this season.

Russellville added two more all-state finishes Saturday.

The 4x200-meter relay of sophomore Gabe Little, junior Collin Lueckenotte, Roe and Huff finished in eighth place in the finals with a time of 1:37.33.

Little was also all-state in the 300-meter hurdles, taking seventh place with a time of 43.59 seconds.

Russellville finished in a tie for 13th place in the team standings with 18 points. Vienna tied for 19th with 16 points, while St. Elizabeth tied for 44th with four points and Chamois tied for 55th with two points.

Rich Hill won the Class 1 team championship with 47 points. Pattonsburg and Mound City tied for second place with 33 points and Green City finished fourth with 32 points.

A Class 1 state record was also broken during Saturday's competition. Rich Hill sophomore Clifton Bridgewater threw 177-5 to win the boys javelin, breaking the previous record of 169-8 set last season by Stewartsville's Gage Rush.