WARDSVILLE - The Blair Oaks Lady Falcons want to keep the rhythm going in the Class 3 state track and field championships.
In 2017, the Lady Falcons medaled in all four events in which they qualified for state. Last season, they were 5-for-5 on podium finishes.
"That's a rare thing," Lady Falcons coach Marc Keys said. "Half the people are all-state, half the people are not."
The Blair Oaks girls are entered in five events at today's state championships, which have been moved from Jefferson City's Adkins Stadium to the University of Missouri's Walton Stadium in Columbia.
"That would be exciting," Keys said. "If you can come away with everyone finishing in the top eight, that's a wonderful job."
The Lady Falcons hope to have success early in the meet with the 4x800-meter relay, where they are the No. 1 seed. Blair Oaks' time of 9:59.52 last Saturday was the fastest of all four sectional champions.
Blair Oaks broke the school record at state in this event last season with a time of 9:49.02. However, having his girls break the school record again isn't the No. 1 goal for Keys.
"We haven't talked about a time," Keys said. "Just win, and just know you've got to run faster, because everyone else will."
The 4x800 is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
Senior Kayla Jones and sophomore Natalie Heckman ran on the relay last year at state. They are joined this season by sophomores Bailey Rissmiller and Emily Sporleder.
This is Jones' fourth year at state in the 4x800.
"She's had three years of all-state (honors), and just having that experience, knowing where to go and when to go and herding everyone around, that takes a little bit of stress out of things," Keys said.
Blair Oaks won the 4x800 at districts as well.
"We're just going to keep doing what we're doing," Keys said. "We don't need to change up anything."
The Lady Falcons are also in the last track event of the day. Jones, Sporleder and Heckman will be joined by freshman Payton Mitchell in the 4x400-meter relay, which ran a time of 4:12.43 at sectionals.
With just a one-day event at state track instead of two days, the 4x400 will be finals only. The event has a start time of 4:50 p.m.
"I'm not sure we really had a different plan," Keys said. "Even with the prelims and finals, in prelims you're still going to have to run all out, so it doesn't change it too much. It's similar to a district schedule or a sectional schedule."
Heckman qualified for state in three events. Between the two relays, she will compete in the 800-meter run at 3 p.m.
Heckman had the fourth-fastest time in sectionals of the state qualifiers, running the 800 in 2:26.67.
"That's a lot of races for a person: 4x800, 800 and 4x400," Keys said. "Natalie has done really well in the year, running two 800s and a 400, and I think she's going to continue have fun doing that."
Mitchell will race in the 300-meter hurdles at 2:40 p.m. Keys said assistant coach Laura Holtmeyer - who holds the Blair Oaks school record in the 300 hurdles at 46.50 seconds - has been working hard with Mitchell in practice.
Mitchell finished the race in 48.06 seconds at sectionals.
"It's nice to coach someone who has the potential to break your school record," Keys said. "As a freshman, she's really gotten in there and has stepped up."
Sophomore Kati Schoeneberg is entered in Blair Oaks' fifth event, the 1,600-meter run, which is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. Keys said there will be plenty of competition for the last few spots on the podium in the event.
"It's a little more stressful but it's a wonderful opportunity for Kati," Keys said. "I'm proud of her."
The Blair Oaks boys will head to state in two events.
Senior Marcus Edler broke the school record in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.97 seconds last weekend at sectionals. While that only put him in third place in the race, he comes to state with the fifth-fastest time among the state qualifiers.
"We had the fastest guy in the state in Class 3 in our sectional," Falcons coach Nathan Holtmeyer said. "Our goal was to be as close to him as possible.
"Even though he got third, you're talking about one-hundredth of a second between second and third place. That's what it's going to be like at the state meet when you're looking at some of those times."
The 100 will be one of three events at state to feature both prelims and a final. The prelims start at 10:30 a.m. and the final is at 12:30 p.m.
Senior Adam McCauley is the Falcons' other state qualifier. He will run in the 800 at 3:10 p.m.
"My expectations for him is top eight, for sure," Holtmeyer said. "I think he can really challenge for a top-four spot."
Blair Oaks was hopeful to qualify for more events at state, but the sectional meet was a series of unfortunate events for the Falcons.
Blair Oaks missed on a baton exchange in the 4x100-meter relay and had an athlete suffer an injury during the 4x400. Edler was on his way to breaking a school record in the 300 hurdles, but he tripped on the last hurdle and finished in seventh place.
"It was a very rough day for us at sectionals," Holtmeyer said.
The Falcons had high hopes for the postseason after winning the Tri-County Conference championship for the first time since 2014. However, Holtmeyer said now Edler and McCauley can focus all of their attention on one race each, as opposed to three or four events as they did in regular-season meets.
"We're trying to look at the bright side of things," Holtmeyer said. " A lot of those guys they're going to be competing against will have two to four events that they'll have to compete in. We're going to take advantage of it."