Down to the final two throws of her illustrious career, Sydney Oberdiek found a little extra.
West Platte’s standout senior posted a school record of 129 feet, 8 inches Saturday, May 20 to capture the discus title in the Class 1 Missouri State Track and Field Championships. The winning throw came on her fifth of six attempts at Jefferson City High School’s Adkins Stadium, providing her with the biggest highlight in her final competition.
Oberdiek ended up 1-8 better than Paris junior Hannah Mitchell, who had just taken the lead on her fourth throw.
In each of her final two competitions, Oberdiek set a school discus record. She took the mark from Lexi Collier with a throw of 127-6 at last week’s Class 1 Sectional 4 meet before bettering that mark at state.
Oberdiek finishes her career with six all-state medals and became the program’s third individual state champion and first since Angelica Servo (2000, Class 2 triple jump). Miranda Beadles won a discus state title for the Bluejays in 1996 with a throw of 116-1.
Previously, Oberdiek won four throwing medals in Class 2 before West Platte dropped down to Class 1 this season. She was third in the discus and seventh in the shot put as a junior and third in both as a sophomore.
On Friday, May 19, Oberdiek placed fifth in the shot put at 37-2½ with her top mark coming on the third and final throw of preliminaries. She would have missed finals without that effort and ended up tied for fourth but took fifth on the tiebreaker of next-best throw.
Oberdiek’s two medals and a pair of top-eight relays helped West Platte score 21 points and finish 13th in the final Class 1 team standings.
The 4x800 team of juniors Rachel Heili and Sikoya Richard and sophomores Lea Moose and Lindsay Goodwin returned to the podium after a season-best performance. The Bluejays sneaked into the state field after a sub-par showing the week prior at Sectional 4, but the finish of 10 minutes, 11.92 seconds in Saturday’s final was just off of last year’s school record time that helped them to a runner-up finish at state in Class 2.
The 4x400 team of Heili, Goodwin, junior Ciara Davies and freshman Faith Stevens finished fifth in its preliminary Friday but easily made the finals field with the No. 6 time. However, the Bluejays were 2 seconds slower in Saturday’s final and ended up with an eighth-place medal.
West Platte’s 4x200 of Stevens, Davies, Tori Norman and Emily Norman also qualified for state but were disqualified in preliminaries for an exchange outside of the zone.
Contributed photo
West Platte relay members, from left, Alexa Raney, Sikoya Richard, Lea Moose, Lindsay Goodwin, Rachel Heili and Faith Stevens competed in the Class 1 Missouri State Track and Field Championships this past weekend at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City, Mo.
Max Davies, a sophomore, ended up responsible for both of West Platte’s medals on the boys side. He wound up on the right side of a tight while also setting personal-bests in his two individual events while making his state debut.
In Friday’s 1,600, Davies came in at 4:36.38, taking 11 seconds off of his personal best. He still needed the slimmest of margins — .01 of a second — to hold off Humansville senior Dustin Shoemaker for the eighth and final all-state spot.
In Saturday’s 3,200, Davies finished in 10:21.07 — 15 seconds better than the personal-best he set in winning a District 8 title — to finish fifth. Davies and juniors Dylan Lock, Justin Howard and Andrew Cicha ran a season-best 8:47.46 in Friday’s final but finished 11th out of 16 teams. The Bluejays were 6 seconds off the final all-state time.
West Platte’s Rylee Crockett, a senior, ended up 14th in the 200 preliminaries, while the Bluejays’ 4x200 team of Crockett, Lock and juniors Brayan Rodriguez and Gavin Raney were one of three teams disqualified in preliminaries for an exchange outside of the zone.
CLASS 2 MISSOURI STATE TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
North Platte didn’t have an all-state finisher out of its three events over the weekend.
Corbin Green, a junior, was 11th out of 16 in the 200 prelims, while 13th out of 15 in the 100 prelims. After a breakout season, he finished off his season-bests in both sprints while making his state debut.
McKenna Fulton, also a junior, entered off of a Class 2 Sectional 4 title in the 300 hurdles but ended up 11th in Friday’s prelims. She set a personal best a week earlier at 49.32 but ran 50.73 at state.