Balance helps Blue Springs girls track and field team to narrow conference title

Members of the Blue Springs girls track and field team celebrate upon hearing they won the Suburban Big Six Conference title Friday night at Blue Springs South High School.

The conference track and field meet is probably the most strategic meet of the season.

With each athlete allowed to participate in up to four events and teams able to qualify up to three per event, team depth is crucial, and it’s not unusual to see someone in an event they haven’t done all season just in an attempt to get some extra points.

That’s what the Blue Springs and Lee’s Summit North girls teams were doing Friday night in the Suburban Big Six Conference meet at Blue Springs South, with the Wildcats gaining a slight edge to take home the title, 197-185.50.

“It took every event today,” Wildcats head coach Jennifer Reeder said. “We showed a true team spirit today, and when some events didn’t go as planned other girls stepped up. We had multiple girls doing four events.”

The Wildcats finished with eight events in which they had three girls score in the top 8.

“We knew that in track and field that’s the game plan. We had to stick to it,” Reeder said. “To beat Lee’s Summit North you have to have three in every event because you know that’s what they’re going to have.”

Blue Springs finished the meet with eight firsts, led by freshman Gabby Hall with three, as she won the 100-meter dash, 200 and 400. The three gold medals earned her the Golden Spike Award for most points on the girls side of the meet.

“It’s hard to ask a freshman to win three events,” Reeder said. “She’s much older than a freshman when the gun goes off.”

The other Wildcat to earn multiple firsts was thrower Tyra Bickham who won the Rusty Hodge Award, which goes to the top thrower, by winning the shot put (41 feet, 8 inches) and the discus (126-10) with two personal best throws.

“I’m doing much better compared to last year,” Bickham said. “I was excited to come and compete again at conference. I’ve been peaking and I was waiting on that one to finally pop and it did today.”

Bickham has turned into the leader in both throwing events, taking over for standout Monet Jackson from a season ago.

“It’s cool that she got the Rusty Hodge Award after Monet got it last year. Monet was a great example for her on what it takes to be successful,” Reeder said. “It’s astounding the gains she makes each week. The sky is the limit for her. She’s one of the big dogs now.”

Tyonna Snow (long jump, 18-2 3/4) and Bri Starr (triple jump, 36-2) were the other two individual firsts, giving Blue Springs wins in four of the six field events.

“We come together and talk about how we need to get our points for the team,” Bickham said of the field event girls.

The 800-meter relay team also brought home gold for the Wildcats.

Other key top three finishes were Megan Wright taking second in the pole vault, Starr finishing second in the long jump, Snow coming in third in the 200, Shannon Danaher running to third in the 800 and Leelin Smith placing third in the discus.

The number of contributors was indicative of a conference champ, and a team that Reeder said has come together in recent weeks.

“This is the best team atmosphere since I’ve been coaching. This is a special team and they’ve come together when we’ve needed it,” she said. “It’s been building. Last week going to Kirkwood is a great trip as a team, and we were able to beat 18 other St. Louis schools.”

Blue Springs South had several solid finishes and took fourth with 84 points.

“We showed a total team effort. Everybody did better than their seed,” South head coach Ryan Unruh said. “This was a good builder for our program and our future. We’ve taken last place the last few years.”

Distance runner Samantha Nightingale was stellar as usual, setting meet records in the mile (5:02.07) and two-mile (11:06.99) to win both events. She even ran the 800 to add to the teams point total and took second.

“I told her the rest of the year should could run for herself but tonight was for the team,” Unruh said. “She knows the 800 isn’t her event and that she was going to suffer through the two-mile (afterward). It was selfless of her.”

The other individual standout for the Jaguars was Savanna Hoyle taking four seconds off her 300 hurdle time for third place and another second off her 100 hurdle time to finish in sixth.

“Hoyle wasn’t supposed to make the finals in either event. She had a great meet,” Unruh said.

In the relays, South edged Blue Springs by less than a second in the 1,600 and 400 events for second in both. The time of 49.96 in the 400 relay especially stood out to Unruh.

“We’ve been close to Blue Springs all year and we’ve been knocking on the door of breaking 50 seconds, so to take second and break 50 seconds was great. The kids were excited to race. Our exchanges were great,” he said.

Carlie Allen had the next-best individual finish for South, taking second in the discus with a throw of 102-8. Other top 5 finishes went to Makayla Moore finishing fifth in the 100, as did Brooke Stetzler in the 300 hurdles.