Dannenmueller nips challenger for 400 state title

~ Chaffee's boys finished second in the Class 1 team standings.

JEFFERSON CITY -- Whenever senior Collin Dannenmueller runs the 400 meters, his cousin Trenton Horman typically is stationed near the finish line cheering boisterously.

Horman certainly was near the finish line Saturday when Dannenmueller became the 400 champion for Class 1 by crossing just ahead of Lone Jack's Kevin Beaubien.

"I've watched him for four years run that race and I'm always the one right beside the finish line with him, and it was awesome," Horman said. "I don't remember what I yelled, but I did a lot. I yelled, jumped. I keep up with his stuff more than I do my own."

Dannenmueller and Horman both had strong performances at the Class 1 meet in Jefferson City to help the Chaffee boys team finish second overall in the team standings.

Chaffee finished with 46 points -- just behind Chamois with 48 points.

It was the Red Devils' top finish at the Class 1 meet.

Dannenmueller finished the 400 in 50.97 seconds -- a time that tied his personal record set at the Chaffee Invitational earlier this year. Beaubien finished second (51.00).

Dannenmueller also helped the 800 relay finish first (1:33.79), the 400 relay capture second (45.59) and the 1,600 relay finish second (3:31.00). Meanwhile, Horman, who also was a member of the 1,600 relay, placed fourth in the high jump (6 feet, 2 inches) and took sixth in the 110 hurdles (16:61).

Other members of the winning 800 relay team were Steven Hendrix, J.C. Reeves and Hunter Thomason.

Dannenmueller entered the Class 1 meet with the best seed time in the 400.

Chaffee coach Terry Glenzy said Dannenmueller had been undefeated in the 400 through sectionals and along the way had not met any real competition. But Dannenmueller met his match in the preliminaries when Beaubien finished ahead of him.

"Actually we were in two different heats [in the prelims]," Dannenmueller said. "So I didn't have him or anybody to push me in that. But today, it finally felt good to see what I could do."

Dannenmueller said when he saw Beaubien's preliminary time, he was a little nervous that he might have come across someone who could beat him in the finals.

"Just a little bit in the back of my head, but I was confident," Dannenmueller said.

Dannenmueller and Beaubien were neck and neck as they ran the final 100 meters.

"On the back stretch he had me," Dannenmueller said. "He passed me because he was in the inside lane and he came up, but then I finally passed him. It was all guts. My legs were dead. It was definitely the most I've ever been pushed."

Dannenmueller overtook Beaubien in the final 50 meters.

"It feels amazing," Dannenmueller said. "I've been working on it the past four year and coach [Tyson] Moyers has pushed me for the past four years. I tied my first-best time. I looked at the clock, I was like, 'Wow, that's crazy.'"

Meanwhile, Horman definitely got a workout competing in four events.

This spring was the first year he had competed in multiple events after focusing primarily on the high jump the past couple years when Chaffee was in Class 2.

Chaffee moved back down to Class 1 this spring after two years in Class 2.

"It was a very, very difficult weekend," Horman said. "It was probably the hardest, physically exhausted weekend of my life. It was hot and I had one thing right after another."

The Chaffee boys could have tied for first place with Chamois if the 1,600-relay team -- which ran the final event -- had won instead of placing second. Chaffee finished with the best preliminary time for the 1.600 relay, but was edged out by less than a second by New Covenant Academy (3:30.35) in the finals.

"We wanted first," Horman said. "We've been talking about it for four years now. We knew we were going to be good as seniors. We didn't get as high as we wanted. I think everyone ran the best they could [in the 1,600 relay]."

Hendrix, a member of the 1,600 relay said nothing went wrong with the handoffs.

"[Maybe] we could have just run faster," he said.

Chaffee coach Terry Glenzy was expecting his team to finish in the top three.

"We'd like to have first, but there's a lot of schools that would like to have this [second-place] plaque also, so it feels pretty good," Glenzy said.