Relay the message: Chaffee girls can throw the shot put

SIKESTON -- If Chaffee freshman Jeanette Spies wants to learn how to be successful in the shot put and discus, she doesn't have to go very far for good advice.

The younger sister of football standout and track athlete Michael Spies also has two very good teammates on the Chaffee girls track team in junior Amber Kirk and senior Whitney Schlosser.

"They taught me a lot about how to move my feet and hold the ball," said Spies, who had never picked up either a shot or a discus until the start of this track season. "I think I'm doing pretty good for just being a freshman."

"She started the season wanting to be a runner," Chaffee coach Terry Glenzy said, "and I knew that wasn't going to work out. After about a week, she was over with the shot and discus people, and she's learning.

"She went to parochial school and this is the first time she's competed in track. She was tickled to death when I gave her her medal today."

Her medal Friday was for Chaffee's first-place performance in the shot put relay at the Sikeston Twilight Relays. The event, which features no team scoring, has only two individual events and combines the field scores of three athletes from each team to come up with relay totals.

Spies had a respectable throw of 25 feet, 10 inches in the shot put to provide support for Kirk and Schlosser.

Kirk was the only thrower to top 30 feet Friday, posting a distance of 31-7. Schlosser's mark of 29-4 also was among the best in the field.

"They figured they'd finish in the top three, but they didn't know if they'd win or not," Glenzy said. "They were very happy."

The same trio finished third in the discus relay with a total of 216-4, about 14 feet behind Central and 10 feet behind Sikeston.

Those schools compete in larger classes than Class 2 Chaffee, which made the decision to attend the meet early in spring practices.

"We weren't scheduled to go down there," Glenzy said, "but we talked about going down for the competition and to give the kids a look at that track," which may end up hosting the district, he said.

"Our kids are at the point now where they're not going to back down," Glenzy added. "There was a point there maybe three or four years ago where they would've been intimidated, but now they're not going to back down."

Athletes like Kirk and Schlosser are among the reasons why. Both have gone to state, competing together in the discus at the Class 1 meet in 2006. They push each other and complement each other.

"She's better than me at discus," Kirk said, "but I can beat her in the shot, so we go back and forth. We're pretty close."

Kirk actually posted the better discus score Friday with an 88-8. Schlosser was close behind at 87 on a windy day when the discus at times resembled Frisbee toss. Several throws were caught by the wind and sailed out of bounds or nosedived into the ground.

"The wind messes up your whole throw and you get shorted some distance," Kirk said. "If you don't throw it as high, the wind doesn't catch it, so you try to throw it lower."

Central's Anna Bailey hit 90 feet, the second-best throw of the day, to lead first-place Central.

Central's girls added top finishes in the 3,200-meter relay, 1,600 relay and distance medley relay. Tiffany Mead and Brittney Moreland were on all three relays.

Notre Dame had the top score in the pole vault, and Kelly's Londyn Backfisch won the open 100 meters.

In the boys division, Central won the pole vault and shot put, while Notre Dame won the discus and distance medley. Raymond Woldtvedt led Central in the discus with a mark of 12-9, teammate Josh Egbuka led his team in the shot put at 43-1. Notre Dame's Matt Kiblinger fired the discus 156-3, less than five inches off the school record he set last year.

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Boys Results

Pole vault -- 1, Cape Central (Raymond Woldtvedt, 12-9); 2, Poplar Bluff; 3, Sikeston.

Triple jump -- 1, Sikeston; 2, Kennett; 3, Cape Central. (Dom Fondon, 44-4 )

Shot put -- 1, Cape Central (Josh Egbuka (43-1); 2, Notre Dame; 3, Poplar Bluff.

Discus -- 1, Notre Dame (Matt Kiblinger, 156-3); 2, Poplar Bluff; 3, Cape Central.

Long jump -- 1, Sikeston; 2, New Madrid County Central; 3, Poplar Bluff.

High jump -- 1, Sikeston; 2, Notre Dame; 3, Kennett.

100 meters -- 1, Brandon Washington, Sikeston, 11.40; 2, Borders, Hayti, 11.49; 3, Bauwers, Poplar Bluff, 11.52.

800 relay -- 1, Sikeston, 1:33.30; 2, Scott County Central, 1:35.7; 3, Malden, 1:36.8.

Hurdle relay -- 1, Sikeston; 2, New Madrid County Central; 3, Kennett.

3,200 relay -- 1, Malden, 8:37.5; 2, Notre Dame, 8:37.8; 3, Saxony, 8:37.9.

Distance medley -- 1, Notre Dame (Ben Beussink, Mark Zimmer, Logan Davis, Wynn McClellan); 2, Cape Central; 3, Kelly.

400 relay -- 1, Sikeston A, 44.7; 2, Poplar Bluff; 3, Sikeston B.

1,600 relay -- 1, Poplar Bluff, 3:34; 2, Cape Central, 3:35.36; 3, Notre Dame, 3:35.38.

1,600 -- 1, Andy Matthews, Malden, 4:35; 2, Logan Davis, Notre Dame, 4:46; 3, Wynn McClellan, Notre Dame, 4:49.

Girls Results

Pole vault -- 1, Notre Dame (Jill Schnurbusch, Allie Job, 7-0); 2, Cape Central; 3, Sikeston.

Triple jump -- 1, Sikeston; 2, Hayti; 3, Dexter.

Discus -- 1, Cape Central (Anna Bailey, 90-0); 2, Sikeston; 3, Chaffee.

Shot put -- 1, Chaffee (Amber Kirk, 31-7); 2, Cape Central; 3, Kennett.

Long jump -- 1, Sikeston; 2, Malden; 3, Kennett.

High jump -- 1, Dexter; 2, Poplar Bluff; 3, Kennett.

800 relay -- 1, Sikeston A, 1:48.76; 2, Malden, 1:53.9; 3, Sikeston B, 1:54.4.

100 meters -- 1, Londyn Backfisch, Kelly, 12.43; 2, McCoy, Malden, 12.64; 3, Flye, Sikeston, 12.76.

Hurdles relay -- 1, Dexter; 2, Cape Central; 3, Sikeston.

3,200 relay -- 1, Cape Central (Veronica Schabbing, Brittney Moreland, Jordyn Richmond, Tiffany Mead), 10:17; 2, Dexter; 3, Saxony Lutheran.

400 relay -- 1, Sikeston, 51.2; 2, Malden; 3, Sikeston B.

1,600 -- 1, Blalock, Poplar Bluff, 5:32; 2, Victoria Schabbing, Cape Central, 5:34; 3, Veronica Schabbing, 5:38.

1,600 relay -- 1, Cape Central (Asia Thomas, Rita Walter, Moreland, Mead), 4:08; 2, Sikeston, 4:28; 3, Dexter, 4:31.

Distance medley-- 1, Cape Central (Rachel Burchyett, Mead, Mary Dohogne, Brittney Moreland); 2, Dexter; 3, Poplar Bluff.