Blue Springs senior Davis ends wins discus title at Missouri state track meet
In less than a week, Blue Springs senior Carlos Davis will arrive in Lincoln, Neb., to embark on a highly-anticipated college football career.
But first things first. On Friday, he offered yet another line to an accomplished high school resume.
Davis won the Missouri Class 5 discus championship with a throw of 201 feet, 9 inches. It’s the second straight state title for Davis, who won the Class 4 event last season.
“I wanted to go out big,” Davis said. “I felt like I had the pressure on me today, but that makes it even better when you back it up and perform.”
To no surprise, his biggest competition came from his twin brother, Khalil, who bested Carlos in the sectional meet last week.
Carlos didn’t match his season-best toss (214 feet, 4 inches), which gave him the top mark in the nation for the second straight season, but it was enough to edge second-place Khalil by 6 feet.
Record-breaker
Park Hill junior Christopher Nilsen laid with his back sprawled across the pole vault landing mat, unsure if his previous jump had left the bar intact.
A roar from the grandstand at Dwight T. Reed Stadium provided his answer: It had.
Nilsen cleared the bar at an even 17 feet to break the all-class state-meet record and win the Class 5 competition. The old mark of 16 feet, 9 inches had stood for 22 years.
The disbelief, Nilsen said, hit him almost instantly.
“I didn’t know I had that in me,” he said. “I’m shocked right now.”
After vaulting 16-5 to set a new personal record, Nilsen upped the bar to 16 feet, 9.25 inches and eclipsed the state mark. With the crowd on its feet, he cleared 17 feet on his second attempt.
A Case for gold
Park Hill South senior Darrien Case says the most nerve-wracking moments of a race come while he’s in the lead.
That made for an anxious time Friday.
Case led from start to finish and win the Class 5 800-meter run in 1 minute, 53.63 seconds. After bolting out to a sizable lead, he held on at the finish line — barely — against a pack of three runners.
“A lot of those guys had run the mile (earlier in the day), so I figured I would go out fast and stay fast to make them try to chase me down,” Case said.
Triple jump repeat
As he scouted the competition in the Class 5 boys triple jump, Blue Springs senior Jacob Peister looked no further than one of his teammates. After all, junior Justin Hall had provided Peister with some of his stiffest tests of the season.
Hall did it again Friday. And Peister was up for the challenge one last time.
Peister won his second straight title in the triple jump, using his final attempt to surpass Hall and win the Class 5 title.
Peister jumped 50 feet, 2 inches — his personal best this season — one try after Hall recorded a leap of 48-11.5.
“I knew I had the capabilities to go a long ways,” Peister said. “That was just like a practice situation. I needed (Hall) to do that if I was going to do what I did.”
State-meet redemption
The atmosphere of the state meet proved too much for Pleasant Hill thrower Logan Blomquist last season.
Not this time.
A year after settling for a disappointing fifth-place finish, Blomquist won the Missouri Class 4 discus with a throw of 179-9.
“I came in, relaxed and I really hit the positions really well,” Blomquist said.
More winners
▪ Hogan Prep junior William Bradley-King won the Class 3 discus with a toss of 159-3 — even though that mark fell 14 feet short of his winning throw from the sectional meet one week earlier.
“I wish I could do it all over again,” Bradley-King said. “I wasn’t my best today. But I’m still glad it was enough.”
▪ Grandview sophomore Cirr Davis won the Class 4 triple jump. His leap of 45-2.75 inches narrowly edged second-place Ernest Fobbs of Sikeston, who recorded a jump of 45-1.5.
This story was originally published May 29, 2015 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Blue Springs senior Davis ends wins discus title at Missouri state track meet."