Scott City's ‘Venabros’ advance to sectionals

Scott City's brotherly sprint duo of Chase and Gavin Venable advanced to the Class 2 Sectional 1 meet on Saturday in New Haven, Missouri.

The Rams, who hosted the Class 2 District 1 meet were the only team in the meet to send all four relay teams to sectionals.

The Venable brothers competed in track together for the first time and both will be running together in separate relays. Chase anchored the 4x200 relay team that finished in second place while Gavin started the 4x100 team that finished in fourth place.

The 4x100 team finished 46 seconds behind Jefferson, which was originally thought to be the fourth place finisher and final sectional qualifier. It was then revealed that Caruthersville, who finished second, was disqualified in the relay, making Scott City the fourth place finisher.

Gavin celebrated advancing to sectionals by laying on the turf and doing snow angels.

"It was a crazy experience to move on to sectionals," Gavin said. "The 4x100 team has only run together twice too. We just had to stick our heads down and run. We always put Chase as the third leg on the 4x100 because he runs like an animal. That’s why we call him the 'curve monster,' but overall advancing to sectionals with my brother was a crazy moment because it doesn’t happen often."

It's the first time the 'Venabros' are running together on the track team, something Chase, a senior, is relishing.

"We really like to compete with each other," Chase said. "Being able to run track with him has been really special my senior year. I thank the lord for the opportunity to get to run with my brother."

Only a year separates them, but they might as well be twins. Their positions are similar across every sport they play. Their personalities are slightly different.

“We are alike by the fact we both like sports and are very competitive,” Chase said. “The difference between us is Gavin is more excited and loud and I’m more quiet and collected.”

The Venable brothers were receivers on the football team and play in the outfield for the baseball team.

"We both got lucky and got good sprinters genes from our parents in track," Gavin said. "What led us to do the same thing in each sport was our mom and dad working with us in the same positions to save time and effort, and it winded up working out in the end."

"Me and Gavin have always been really competitive and we strive to outdo each other in anything we do," Chase said, "but in the end, we’ll still love each other no matter who’s the best."

It's been a challenge to balance playing baseball and running track during the same season. The baseball team is 15-8 and has three road games remaining in the regular season. The track meet is on Saturday while the baseball district tournament begins on Tuesday, May 16. The track state meet is on May 19-20 while the baseball state tournament begins on May 23, should they make it that far.

"It has been challenging because me and Chase have had to go straight to track practice after baseball and we wind up being there until 8 p.m.," Gavin said. "It has been hard on our legs too, but we love track and baseball so we deal with the struggles."

"Our coaches have been incredibly supportive of us competing in multiple sports," Chase said. "Communication is key and it has really helped me develop better time management skills."