By: Corey Stott
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.- 5/21/22- The Long Brothers, Alex and Hayden, took the Tiger men’s track team and put it on its shoulders when they traveled to Jefferson City to compete in the MSHSAA Class 2 State Track Meet on Friday and Saturday, May 20th and 21st. They used those broad shoulders to power their way to a 13th place finish for the Tiger men’s team… an impressive feat considering they were only two guys competing in four events.
In the 300m hurdles, Hayden Long finished 13th in the preliminaries, just missing the top-eight cutoff necessary to advance to the finals.
It was a much different story in the field events, however. Hayden threw the discus 47.17m, good enough for a 3rd place state medal. Meanwhile, brother Alex Long got himself on the podium with a 4th place toss in the shot put finals.
The top performance of the day came when Hayden launched the javelin for a 52.35m toss. That throw earned him a silver medal and the second-highest step on the podium for his second-place state finish.
Coach Troy Carper said he was impressed that the smallest school competing in class two only sent two young men to compete at state and still finished 13th out of 59 schools that participated in the state meet. Both Alex and Hayden will be competing for the Truman State track and field team next season.
