Taking home three titles

Eldon’s Martonfi first in trio of girls events in Class 3 championships

At long last, Eldon junior Zoe Martonfi reached the top of the podium at the Class 3 track and field state championships.

Not once. Not twice. But three times. Martonfi was a state champion in the girls 300-meter hurdles and the 800- and 1,600-meter runs Saturday to lead the Lady Mustangs on Day 2 of the state championships at Adkins Stadium.

Martonfi added a third-place finish in the triple jump Friday, giving her 10 track and field state medals in three seasons. She was seeded third in the triple jump and first in the remaining three events, matching each podium finish to her seed.

“I think that definitely played into it,” Martonfi said. “Maybe mentally, I was like, ‘OK, you’ve got the fastest time, you can do this.’ Maybe it did just give me that confidence to say I can do this.”

Martonfi started Saturday with the 1,600. She said she was the most nervous about that event, but she never trailed, crossing the finish line in 5:04.59.

Halfway through the final lap, Martonfi found her closing kick, running the final 400 meters in 1:12.71.

“I excel in the kick,” she said. “I just feel that I’m always the best on the last lap.”

In the 300 hurdles, Martonfi found herself in the fourth-to-fifth-place range with about 100 meters to go.

“I was definitely scared to death,” she said. “That set a fire under me. I was like, ‘OK, you’ve got to go.’”

With the combination of a few competitors running out of steam, as well as Martonfi catching up to a few others, she turned a nervous finish into a runaway, posting a first-place time of 44.61 to win by more than a full second.

“I’m a weird 300 hurdler. I think my last 100 (meters) are faster than my first 100,” Martonfi said. “I was just trusting the process, trusting my coaches that trained me.”

Martonfi was a state runner-up in the 300 hurdles in the previous two state championships.

“I was like, ‘OK, I have to get this one this year,’” she said. “That was what I was thinking about in my blocks.”

Less than 30 minutes later, Martonfi was back on the track for the 800. But running in those events back-to-back during the regular season had her prepared for Saturday. “I just had to learn to do it,” she said. Like the 1,600, Martonfi held a slim lead

at the end of the first lap in the 800. And like the 1,600, she left the competition in the dust.

Martonfi ran a 1:08.45 in the final 400 meters, pulling away to a nearly four-second victory with a time of 2:16.02.

“I just tell myself always that they’re right there (behind me),” she said. “So I’m like, ‘Oh no, they’re going to catch me.’ I didn’t really know how far ahead I was.”

Martonfi has won 10 state medals in six different events, also previously medaling in the 100-meter hurdles and the high jump.

“I may not be ‘super freaky’ fast at one thing,” Martonfi said. “Once I go to college, the coach can be like, ‘You can run this or this or whatever.’”

Martonfi scored 36 team points for Eldon by herself, which would’ve put the Lady Mustangs in a tie for second place with Centralia.

However, Eldon ended the day with an eighth-place finish in the girls 4x400-meter relay with a time of 4:14.62, adding one more team point to give the Lady Mustangs a second straight second-place finish by themselves in the state. Lutheran: St. Charles won the Class 3 girls team title with 51 points.

Southern Boone senior Connor Burns went out on top.

Burns ended his high school career with the Eagles with his third track and field state title, winning the boys 3,200-meter run with a time of 9:20.14.

“It was pretty fun to come out here and take that last one,” Burns said, running the final lap in 59.02 seconds. “… I cranked it home in the last 400.”

Earlier in the day, Burns ran a 1:53.80 split in his anchor leg of the 4x800-meter relay, but Dexter was able to hold on and win the relay with a time of 8:03.05. Southern Boone was second in 8:05.10.

“We knew it was going to be a pretty big lead, but it was a little bigger than I thought I would have to make up,” Burns said. “But I still should have been able to do it.”

Southern Boone placed sixth in the Class 3 boys standings with 28 points, missing out on a state trophy by two points.

Burns, who will run next season for the University of Oregon, had his national high school record of 13:37.30 eclipsed Friday night by Lex Young of Newbury Park, Calif. He’ll have at least one more chance to regain the record this summer.

“I’ll get that back in a few more weeks,” Burns said.

Versailles sophomore Kylee Richey picked up her second state medal of the weekend Saturday, placing third in the girls long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 1-inch, finishing two inches behind the state champion.

Richey also tied for ninth in the high jump, clearing the bar at 4-11.

The School of the Osage boys earned a pair of all-state finishes in relay events. The 4x200-meter relay came in third place in 1:30.20, while the 4x100-meter relay finished seventh in 43.64 seconds.

Two area athletes medaled in the boys discus. Eldon’s Austin Rush finished fourth with a throw of 151-4 and Versailles’ Joseph Bland earned his second state medal of the weekend, taking seventh place at 145-5.

Osage’s Landon Childs came in fourth place in the pole vault, clearing the bar at 13-8¼, and Osage’s Noah Northrip — who anchored both Indians’ all-state relays — earned his first of three state medals Saturday with a seventh-place time of 11.05 seconds in the boys 100-meter dash.

Other area state qualifiers who did not medal Saturday were California’s Emma Braby in the girls shot put (ninth, 37-6), California’s Kenzleigh Goans in the girls 800-meter run (10th, 2:26.56), Southern Boone’s Justin Post in the boys discus (14th, 131-8) and Eldon’s Leandra Wilson-Sanchez in the girls shot put (15th, 30-0¼).

In the Class 3 boys team standings, Osage tied for 10th place with 21 points, Eldon was 21st with 12 points, Versailles tied for 35th with eight points, Fatima tied for 40th with six points and California tied for 51st with two points.

In the Class 3 girls team standings, Osage tied for 16th place with 16 points and Versailles tied for 21st with 14 points. California, Fatima and Southern Boone did not score any points at the state meet.