By Seth Herrold
R-T Sports Editor
Kristi Ewing, Lexi Gott, McKayla Blackburn and Lexi Whitaker stepped onto the third rung of the podium at Walton Stadium in Columbia nearly one year ago.
The medals presented to the Trenton High School girls 4×400-meter relay team were third-place medals. In that moment, however, the number on the back of the medals was insignificant. The time next to Trenton’s name read 4:06.02 – a new school record. The moment on the podium as cameras clicked in front of them represented the end of a long journey for a team that had just realized a goal they had chased for a while.
The thing is, that moment was the end of the journey for these four as a collective unit. It shouldn’t have been. All four were underclassmen at the time. There was another season coming. With all four sprinters back, Trenton was poised to chase a state championship in the 4×400-meter relay event in 2020.
By now you know, 2020 never came.
The COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the globe, hitting high school sports especially hard. The Missouri State High School Activities Association announced cancellation of all spring sports championships on April 9, effectively closing the book on one of the greatest relay teams in Trenton school history.
Trenton girls track and field coach Chris Parks built the team that would be emblazoned on the record board in the THS commons ahead of the 2018 season. Whitaker had burst onto the scene the previous year as a freshman and Ewing and Gott were incoming freshmen sprinters. Parks tabbed Blackburn, who had been a sprinter in middle school, but moved into the 800- and 1,600-meter runs as a freshman, as the fourth member of the team. Blackburn took on the extra miles while remaining on the 4×400-meter team. She adjusted seamlessly and, in 2018, the 4×400-meter relay quickly became one of Trenton’s top events.
“My freshman year (Parks) wanted me to run distance while continuing to be on the 4×4,” Blackburn said. “That was definitely a challenge because I had never done that, but after some practice I adapted.”
The 4×400 is the final event at every track meet and can be a hammer for schools competing for team titles. Trenton is nearly always in the hunt for a meet championship so Parks wanted the very best team possible in that last event.
He had just that.
Heading into districts in 2018, Trenton had one of the better times in the field. Ewing, Gott, Blackburn and Whitaker justified that with a district championship in the 4×400, winning with a time of 4:12.14.
A shot at a state medal was dashed at sectionals that year, however, as a judge ruled one of the Trenton runners stepped out of their lane. Despite finishing second that day, Trenton was disqualified and would not compete in the 4×400 at state.
While Whitaker and Ewing each advanced individually and medaled at state in the open 400-meter dash, the disqualification help motivate the 4×400 team entering 2019.
“That was honestly the worst experience ever,” Blackburn said. “I had already left the meet, like I was easily 20 minutes away from Odessa. Then I get a call from a weird number and it’s Coach Parks. The first thing he says is we got disqualified and at first I didn’t believe him. That was definitely a hard pill to swallow. The worst part was there was nothing we could do when we knew none of us did anything wrong.”
Trenton’s top team went back to work, newly motivated, and the results showed early in 2019.
Ewing, Gott, Blackburn and Whitaker won their first time out in 2019, closing the Husker Relays in Higginsville with a gold medal as Trenton won the team championship. The group continued to win, helping the Bulldogs to nine team titles in their first 11 meets. At the Lafayette Relays in St. Joseph, Trenton’s 4×400-meter team won with a time of 4:09.96. It was the first time that season they topped their district time from the previous year and it signaled the team’s ability to potentially break the school record in the event – 4:06.13 set by Chandler Wilson, Maddie Hooyman, Mackenzie Mack and Scotlin Hurley when they won gold at the Class 2 state meet in 2012.
At sectionals in 2019, Trenton’s 4×400-meter relay team again won, this time with a time of 4:06.62.
“At sectionals we were actually under a second away (from breaking the record),” Whitaker said. “We were like, ‘we got this, state will push us.’ I knew we had a chance.”
State did push Trenton and when Whitaker crossed the line, looked at the board and saw the 4:06.02, she knew they had done it.
“Beating the school record was definitely a proud moment for us,” Whitaker said. “It was something we had been working toward for a long time.”
It was a fantastic moment for the group, but there was still more to be penned by the foursome. With state third-place medals in hand, a state title was on the team’s radar.
It is impossible to know what the competition would have been like at the Class 3 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships, but Trenton was certainly eyeing competing for the championship title in the 4×400. The team’s third-place finish in the event last year came behind a pair of teams that were looking at replacing some big pieces.
Cardinal Ritter, which won the state title in the 4×400-meter relay in 2019, was looking at replacing two members of its team. John Burroughs, which finished second, was looking at replacing one senior, Madison Fuller, who was the anchor leg. She ran the fastest split of any athlete in the race at a blazing 55.01 seconds and is now a member of the Vanderbilt University track team.
On paper, with everybody coming back, Trenton certainly looked like a frontrunner for the state title in the 4×400.
The last chapter, however, only lasted for two weeks of practice before Trenton closed the school due to the Coronavirus and all activities were placed on pause.
“I was planning on all four being back in the 4×4,” Parks said. “They work so well together. We only got two weeks of practice in (this season), but they were looking really good.
“For the seniors, it was wanting to go out on top. The underclassmen were wanting to do it for the seniors.”
Whitaker and Blackburn are seniors and their athletic careers at Trenton are over, although Whitaker will run track at Northwest Missouri State next year and Blackburn will play softball for North Central Missouri College. What could have been will have to remain just that – what could have been.
“I think we all were reaching for that goal of a state title and this season would have really pushed us to make that effort,” Whitaker said. “I will definitely miss high school track, no doubt about it. It’s hard to take in that I won’t be competing again for THS, especially since this past year has really pushed me to show what the program has taught me. I had a lot of goals set for myself this year, including a first-place state medal, that I was really motivated and driven towards, but the virus is something that isn’t in my control and I just have to live with that.”
For Parks, the longest tenured coach in a current position at Trenton, he was sure his 4×400 team would only get better this year. He saw them as a state title contender and bemoans the fact that he didn’t get the chance to see Whitaker and Blackburn finish out their careers as Bulldogs.
“You always like to see the improvement each athlete can make from year-to-year,” Parks said. “These seniors have been an outstanding part of this program for a long time. It would have been nice for them to finish it.”
Ewing and Gott are both juniors and will have another shot at track and field next year. But Trenton will still need to find new runners for the 4×400 and it is not very likely that Trenton’s record set at state last year will be touched anytime soon.
But, despite having an opportunity ripped from them, the members of one of Trenton’s greatest relay teams will always have a school record, a state medal and dozens of memories to fall back on. That’s not a bad consolation.
“At the beginning of (2019) our 4×4 team said we were going undefeated all regular season again and going to state to get a medal,” Blackburn said. “We accomplished these goals with lots of hard work and had so much fun along the way.”