Notre Dame coach reflects on first-ever 3rd place finish

In the nearly century-long history of Notre Dame High School and its track & field program, there have been plenty of athletes to come back with state championships and all-state medals.

Yet this was the first ever year the team brought back a state trophy.

The Bulldogs girls team placed third in the Class 3 state championships on May 18, in Jefferson City, Missouri. They were only two points away from second place, which is occupied by Eldon.

It was the first time in head coach Ryan Long’s 13-year-long tenure that he had to try to fit the entire team on the podium.

“I just like seeing the name ‘Notre Dame’ when you go to state, hearing the name ‘Notre Dame’ no matter what the sport,” Long said. “There’s a pride in knowing that you work at a place that the kids enjoy working and want to compete and get better and listen and it’s just been fun. So I hope that never goes away.”

It was a long time coming for Long and his coaching staff, who were all once athletes at Notre Dame and only came back to coach because of school pride.

“I think that’s why we’ve had the success that we’ve had because I got guys who are willing to volunteer their time and help a program grow up and get better,” Long said. “I got a really good coaching staff and the kiddos would agree.”

Notre Dame has sported elite teams in the past and scored the same amount of team points in previous state meets but the difference between Class 4 and Class 3 competition seemed to have paid off.

Lauren Eftink won her first state championship in her last race as a high school athlete, placing first in the 3,200-meter with a new school-record time of 11:09.26. She also established a new school record in the 1,600m (5:08.09) while placing third and finished third in the 800m.

“Watching [Notre Dame distance coach Richie Bohn] and Lauren at least this year had gotten to where I don’t think training was the battle,” Long said. “It was like the mental side of the sport, like making sure that she was ready for each meet. And they chose their meets throughout the year and were specific.

“They knew who they were racing,” he added. “When we’d have certain meets come up, they had already scouted the meet and they knew who’s gonna be there and Lauren knew what she had to run to win.”

Eftink will join her brother, Clayton Eftink, at Southeast Missouri State. The senior Eftink still has his name on the Notre Dame record books for his part in the distance medley in 2020.

The field events are where Notre Dame truly shined. Emma Duenne Finished third in discus and Abigail Spooler placed third in pole vault. Grayson Maurer finished eighth in the triple jump to earn All-State honors.

“I think this year was just more well-balanced,” Long said. “The competition level matched up really well for Lauren and she got us a lot of individual points running. Then our field showed up with throws and pole vault and triple jump.”

The Bulldogs will have plenty to look forward to next year. Even though they have sent seven seniors off to graduation, Maurer and Spooler will return as a junior and senior respectively. Claire Pfautsch, another state qualifier in the triple jump, will be back as a junior.

The Bulldogs can also reload and bring back the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800 relay.