Pickering, Baquet lead California track into state championships

The California track and field team will send four individuals to the Class 3 state championships this weekend after posting two event wins and seven state-qualifying marks Saturday at the Class 3 Sectional 2 meet at Montgomery City.

A pair of throwers lead the way for the Lady Pintos. Audrey Pickering won the girls discus with a throw of 43 feet, 5.5 inches and took fourth in the discus with a toss of 108-5. Cameron Meyer will advance to state in the same events as well, finishing second in the discus (115-6) and taking four place in the shot put (35-2.5).

Gunner Baquet heads to state in a pair of jumping events for the Pintos. Baquet won the sectional title in the boys long jump with a leap of 21-4.75 and added a second-place mark in the triple jump with a distance of 41-10.

Hunter Carpenter is California's fourth state qualifier, finishing second in the boys 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:44.51.

The Class 3 state track and field championships begin at 9:30 a.m. Friday at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City.

The season ended Saturday for California in seven events at the sectional meet.

Isaac Ash advanced to sectionals in four events, but fell short of a top-four mark in each Saturday. In individual events, Ash place fifth in the boys 400-meter dash with a time of 52.86 seconds and took sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 40-3.

Ash also ran in the Pintos' 4x200- and 4x400-meter relays. The 4x400 team of Alex Meisenheimer, Baquet, Carpenter and Ash took fifth place in a time of 3:37.23, while the the 4x200 relay of Baquet, Ash, Toby Dalbey and Meisenheimer finished seventh in 1:34.77, missing out on state by less than a second.

Cory Friedmeyer placed sixth in the pole vault, clearing a height of 12-0.

Other sectional qualifiers who saw their season end Saturday for the Lady Pintos were Cora Kuykendall, who took fifth place in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.52 seconds.

The Lady Pintos' 4x400-meter relay team of Allison Bailey, McKala Albert, Makayla Schanzmeyer and Ellie Wirts came in eighth place at sectionals with a time of 4:25.17.

The California boys finished in a tie for fifth out of 22 schools in the sectional team standings with 42 points. The Lady Pintos were 12th with 33 points.