Nevada track celebrates new school records

Having set a new school pole vault record during the Sectional track meet Saturday, Nevada senior Morgan Hold changes the height on the track and field record board in the high school's north lobby Wednesday afternoon.

By Eric Wade

Daily Mail Sports Editor

In an instance that has become almost commonplace late this season, the Nevada High School track team and head coach Robert Watts gathered in the school's north lobby to change the record boards Wednesday afternoon, adding new marks in two different events.

Wednesday afternoon, Nevada's 4X100 boys' relay team added its time to the school's track and field records board after setting a school record in the Sectional track meet Saturday.

The first of those events was the 4x100-meter relay in which the team of Dalton Hendren, Chance Mays, Ryan Ferris and Morgan Hold beat the old school record by just 6/100 of a second to take fourth place at the Class 3, Sectional 3 meet at Ozark High School, on Saturday. The old mark of 44.2 seconds was set by Steve Branstetter, Thomas Pitts, Devin Hooe and Ryan Seaver in 2007.

The new school record of 44.14 came up well short of the overall state record, which is held by the team from Hazelwood East High School at 41.31. That record was set in 2008, in Class 4.

The Class 3 state record is held by Hickman Mills High School at 41.95, according to records obtained from mshsaa.org. That record was set in 1999.

Though the new school record time wasn't enough to earn the Tigers a Sectional Championship, it was enough for Mays, Ferris, Hendren and Hold to add their names to the list of qualifiers for the 2013 Class 3 State Track and Field Championships, which will be held at Dwight T. Reed Stadium, on the campus of Lincoln University, in Jefferson City.

The second record of the day to be changed was one that was already broken once earlier this season in the pole vault and has been topped again, by the same athlete. Hold broke the old record of 14 feet that was set by Nevada High School pole vaulting coach Eric Fast in 2000 and tied by Tyler Werner in 2007, when he cleared 14-3 at the Girard Invitational -- the same meet at which Fast first set the old record 13 years ago.

Hold said after breaking Fast and Werner's record that his next goal was to clear 15 feet and he not only did that, but left that mark in the dust at the Sectional meet. On a new, bigger pole, Hold won the Sectional Championship with a record-breaking mark of 15-6, which puts him in a tie for the highest pole vault of the season in Missouri.

Though Hold improved his own school record by 15 inches, he needs 15 more at the State Championships to match the Missouri state record, which was set by Mount Vernon's Bruce Dial in 1993. Dial's record of 16-9 is both the Class 3 and the overall state record.

Hold and the Tigers' 4x100 relay team will join the girls' 4x100 relay team of Kelsey McCall, Ashley Shumaker, Carsten Warner and Reagan Bradley, as well as Steffan Ogle in the pole vault and Hendren in the 200-meter dash as qualifiers for the 2013 State Championships, which will begin on Friday and conclude with the finals in each event on Saturday.