North Shelby wins state title, Knox County places third

Published 2:38 am Tuesday, May 26, 2026

By NICK KOETTERS

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Coming into Saturday’s finals at the MSHSAA Class 1 track and field state championships, Knox County and North Shelby were both looking to have big days and bring home team trophies.

The two teams had different routes to accomplish that.

North Shelby had already scored 17 points with a 4×800-meter relay team taking fifth, Drake Prange taking second in the discus, and Jake Geisendorfer taking fourth in the pole vault. They were relying on throws on day two.

Knox County had yet to score a point, but they came in to day two with the best times in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, as well as the 4×100 and 4×200-meter relays.

“I told the boys on the way to the meet today that we needed 28 to 30 points to have a shot at winning overall,” said North Shelby head coach Donny Williams.

Gannon Bowen and Talon McCoy of North Shelby started the day off by both earning All-State honors in the javelin. Bowen had his best throw on his fourth attempt as he had a toss of 50.24 meters (164’ 10”). McCoy was consistent throughout the competition staying in the 45 meter range on his throws. His first attempt of 45.87 meters (150’ 6”) was his best throw leading up to the sixth and final attempts.

Then the North Shelby junior let one fly. McCoy’s final attempt went 48.44 meters (158’ 11”) to move him to third.

“I knew Yalon had it in him to move up,” said Williams. “I wasn’t expecting 48.”

After Tina-Avalon’s Jaxon Capps scratched his final attempt, a two three finish was looked to be secured for the Raiders. Then Gannon Bowen decided to one up his team mate and had a final throw of 54.55 meters (178’ 11”). The move all of a sudden had the Raiders earning 16 team points on the event.

Hermitage’s Levi George however had one more throw to go and ended up taking the state title with a toss of 54.69 meters, beating Bowen by six inches.

“Gannon fed off Talon and PR’d by three meters,” said Williams.

The result was still great as the Raiders earned 14 team points for a team pushing for a team championship.

Next up was Cooper Clair. The speedy senior for Knox County had a busy day on Saturday as he was in the finals of four events.

Clair started off the day running the 100-meter finals. In the semi-finals on Friday he ran a time of 10.97 to post the best time in the event. On Saturday he ran an 11.05 and was beat out by Tina-Avalon’s Tanner Briddle who ran 10.96.

It was the first All-State honor for Clair’s career, but would not be the last. Next came the relays.

“After the 100 my mind went straight to winning the relays as the best way for our team to place at state.” said Clair.

Clair would team up with Grayson Miller, Anthony Burgenhemke, and Creighton Korkhoff for both the 4×100 and 4×200-meter relays.

In the 4×200, the team won with a time of 1:30.98 beating second place Wellington-Napoleon (1:31.08). They repeated their performance in the 4×100 winning in a time of 44.25. To finish up the long weekend, Clair ran the 200 and did not let up.

“Going undefeated all season was even more special because I was able to win at state,” said Clair.

Clair won his third title of the meet winning the race in a time of 22.01.

Going into the final events of the day, Knox County was sitting in second place as a team with 38 points and North Shelby was hanging behind at third place with 31 points. Both were trailing Thomas Jefferson Independent who had 40 points.

The Raiders had the shot put left. Drake Prange took the lead early with a throw of 16.2 meters (53’ 1”) and never surrendered it the rest of the way. The Raiders had two throwers in the finals with Gannon Bowen also looking to score points. Bowen threw 14.94 meters (49’ 0.25”) to take fourth place.

“Drake winning the shot put was an exclamation mark,” said Williams. “And beating his dad’s school record was a perfect ending to the meet.”

The result was a state championship for the North Shelby Raiders, a first-ever trophy for the track and field program.

Knox County would finish third, also the first trophy for a guy’s track and field team in school history. The significance was felt by Clair who said “placing as a team meant so much because everyone got to celebrate the hard work we put in all season.”

Canton’s Zachary Logsdon earned eighth place in the High Jump with a height of 1.85 meters (6’ 0.75”).

Taylin Prange of North Shelby finished fourth in the Class 1 Discus with a throw of 35.05 meters (115’) and Scotland County’s Matyson Buford finished sixth with a throw of 32.23 meters (105’ 9”).