Blair Oaks senior Abbigail Wieberg set a goal to throw the discus 40 meters in her final high school competition.
She happily settled for her second straight all-state medal.
Wieberg led the Lady Falcons with a fifth-place finish in the girls discus Friday at the Class 3 track and field state championships, posting a top throw of 112 feet, 2 inches (34.19 meters) at Adkins Stadium.
“I was happy with how I did,” Wieberg said. “I had one throw that was at least 37 meters, but I accidentally went out the front (of the throwing area).”
That came on Wieberg’s only foul among her six throws. She advanced to the final with a throw of 109-6 in the preliminaries. Her best throw was her final attempt, which moved her up a spot on the podium from sixth place.
“It was good to bump up a spot,” Wieberg said.
Gallery: Blair Oaks at Day 1 of 2023 Class 3 Track and Field State Championships
Wieberg, a two-time state qualifier in the discus, finished in eighth place last season with a throw of 111-0. She gave credit to Blair Oaks throwing coach Dan Raithel for her progress in the discus.
“He really developed me into the thrower that I am today,” she said. “I’m really thankful for him.”
The Lady Falcons started the day by earning a team point in the girls 4x800-meter relay.
Taylor Yoder, Chelsi Forck, Ansley Casey and Clara Lackman finished the race in a time of 10:12.89 to secure an eighth-place finish.
Blair Oaks, which came in seeded eighth, was always in a top-8 position throughout the race.
“I needed to get them a good start,” said Yoder, who ran the first 800-meter leg. “I needed to come in top 10 at least, just so that they could have a good enough spot to keep it going.”
At one point the Lady Falcons were in third place, but four teams had anchor legs of 2:22 or faster to pull away.
“They were pushing themselves as hard as they could,” Yoder said of her teammates. “I was really impressed with their work and how well they were doing out there.”
Lackman crossed the finish line more than three seconds ahead of ninth-place St. Charles West.
“I was pointing the whole time, trying to count where we were,” Yoder said.
This is the seventh time in the past eight state championships Blair Oaks has earned all-state honors in the 4x800 relay.
“They were somewhat bummed afterward to get eighth. I was like, ‘Guys, that’s all-state, that’s so exciting,’” Yoder said of earning her first all-state medal in her final race.
Zoe Caviness put herself in a position to earn her first all-state medal, placing sixth in the girls 100-meter hurdles preliminaries with a time of 16.06 seconds.
Caviness will run in the 100 hurdles final at 11:10 a.m. today.
Avery Schoeneberg ended her season with a 12th-place time of 49.83 seconds in the girls 300-meter hurdles preliminaries.
On the boys side, the Falcons only had the long jump competition in Friday’s action.
Adam Hall came in 14th place with a leap of 19-8¾, followed by teammate Tomas Gonzalez in 15th place with a distance of 19-8¼.
In addition to Caviness, Lackman will also compete today for the Lady Falcons. She will run in the girls 800-meter run at 2:40 p.m.
Gonzalez and Luke LePage will both compete in the boys pole vault for the Falcons at 9:30 a.m. today.
Through five of the 19 events, Blair Oaks is tied with Metro and Hallsville for 15th place in the girls team standings with five points. Palmyra is in first place with 23 points, followed by School of the Osage (16) and New Covenant Academy (15).
Bowling Green leads the boys team standings with 36.5 points. East Newton is second with 28 points, followed by Lutheran South (17) and Herculaneum (14).