Led by 3,200 relay team's win, Crusaders place fifth as a team

Saxony Lutheran High School capped quite a year for its distance runners Saturday, as the Crusaders finished fifth in the MSHSAA Class 1 track meet at Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

The Crusaders, getting a state championship from its 3,200-meter relay team, scored 28 points. Polo won the title with 68 points, followed by Lone Jack (52.5), Rock Port (33) and South Holt (31).

"We were right there in the hunt for third and fourth," Saxony Lutheran coach Larry Cleair said. "For a second-year program, with a bunch of young kids, we're really happy."

Earlier this school year, Saxony won the Class 1 cross country title.

Saturday, four of those cross country runners claimed another state title, as the 3,200 relay group of Trey Maevers, Max Wieser, Grant Lehmann and Brandon Etzold cruised to victory in a time of 8:26.60. New Haven was a distant second in 8:29.06.

"We bested our district time by about 10 seconds," Cleair said. "They all ran really good splits. We were sitting in about fourth place when Grant, our third runner, got the baton. When he handed it off to Brandon, our anchor, we were in first place, and Brandon then battled it all the way around."

Also for the Crusaders on Saturday, Alex Jauch was fifth in the 300-meter hurdles (41.49), Lehmann placed sixth in the 400-meters (52.91) and the 1,600-meter relay team of Wieser, Maevers, Etzold and Lehmann was sixth (3:36.11).

Etzold had gotten the meet started well for the Crusaders on Friday, when he was second in the 1,600 meters.

Chaffee's Matt Sanders finished 10th in the discus with a throw of 118 feet, 5 inches.

Sarah Dooley of Chaffee was 14th in the discus with a throw of 84-6.

In Class 2, Kelly's Rachel Kline was 14th in the high jump after clearing 4-8 and Scott City's Christy Laxton was 10th in the 800 with a time of 2:25.18.