Lady Panthers take fourth in Class 3
The Mountain Grove Lady Panthers’ track and field team pose with some All-State hardware as they hold up the Class 3 fourth place plaque earned by the program for its first top four finish at state in school history. Shown, from left: Santana Schwertfeger, Savannah Hellbusch, Kailyn Wake, Jozey MacPherson, Raylee Stenzel and Kylie Roth. Not pictured: Lilly Hines.
In the past couple of seasons, the Mountain Grove Lady Panthers’ track and field team earned several All-State medals in the Class 3 state championships, but what alluded them was a state title in at least one event.
That changed this past weekend in Jefferson City when the 4x100-meter relay team beat a squad from KIPP Legacy High School by just .06 seconds to win a state championship.
Anchor runner Jozey MacPherson chased down the Lady Gators’ anchor runner from five yards back after the last hand-off before leaning in at the tape to break the 50-second mark with a 49.99. KIPP Legacy’s time was 50.05 seconds.
The 4x100-meter relay team of seniors Kailyn Wake and MacPherson along with juniors Raylee Stenzel and Savannah Hellbusch set a new school record a day earlier in the preliminaries with their time of 49.77 seconds. It was the fastest time among the 16 total teams competing in preliminaries. The previous record was set by Hellbusch, Stenzel, MacPherson and 2023 graduate Reagan Hoerning in 2023.
Their state championship was just the third ever in the history of the girls track and field program.
Karrie (Penner) Welch won the state high jump title back in 1989 after clearing 5’5.5”. The most recent state title was won in 2013 by Shelby Clifton, who won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.19 seconds.
Along with winning a state championship, the Lady Panthers earned All-State honors in five other events, giving them 34 team points to win a top-four plaque as a team for the first time in school history.
They were just one point out of third (Notre Dame, Cape Girardeau), three points from second (Eldon) and only nine points from tying for a team state championship (Incarnate Word Academy).
“I’m so happy for our girls, they performed so well on the big stage,” said Mountain Grove head coach John Citron. “It’s especially rewarding for our two seniors (Kaily and Jozey), leaving a legacy that will be remembered for many years to come.”
MacPherson had a monster day as she was also state runner-up in the 200 meters race with her time of 25.63 seconds.
Then in the 100 meters, she first tied her own school record time of 12.35 seconds for the second fastest time in the preliminaries. Then in the finals, MacPherson was fourth place overall with her All-State time of 12.40 seconds.
She also helped the 4x200-meter relay team of Santana Schwertfeger, Stenzel and Wake to set a new school record with their All-State time of 1:45.26, which was good for fifth place. They broke a school record set a week earlier in sectionals by Kylie Roth, Stenzel, Wake and MacPherson (1:45.53).
Wake picked up big team points in the high jump as she set a new personal best mark by clearing 5’4.5”. This height is now the second highest in the event in school history.
Stenzel did advance to the finals in the 300-meter hurdles and earned All-State honors with her eighth place time of 46.92 seconds.
Lilly Hines did not earn team points in the pole vault event, but did tie for 12th place overall. No height was the measurement listed.