Kaden Cross competed in his final Eastern Missouri Conference meet on May 1.

It turned out to be an outstanding one for the Wright City senior. 

Cross won titles in both the 100 and 200 at the conference meet, held at Montgomery County High School. He ran 11.37 seconds in the 100 and 23.21 in the 200. His time in the 200 tied a season best that was also set at the Montgomery County Invitational on April 20. 

Cross won the 100 and 200 at the conference meet for the second year in a row, giving him four first-place EMO finishes for his high school track career. Last year, he won both races at the league meet, which was also held at Montgomery County.

“I’ll be honest that it wasn’t my best meet, but the fact that I got to pull away with first place for my events, I’m very grateful, for sure,” Cross said.

The Wildcats also got a first-place finish from sophomore Kaveon Schulte in the 100-meter hurdles and its boys 1,600-meter relay team of seniors Terrance Love and Hunter Shoults and juniors Andrew Staats and Janyxan Tiscareno Sandoval. 

Schulte ran a personal-best time of 15.90 seconds and the 4x400 relay team finished with a 3:39.07 to win by two seconds over Louisiana.

Wright City finished third with 104 points in the boys division and fifth with 68 points in the girls division. The Wildcats finished with 20 medals in the individual events and medaled in six relay races.

The girls team got second-place finishes from Adalyn Ferrell (100-meter hurdles), Victoria Riggs (1,600), Madison Goodman (high jump), Sadie Sehnert (javelin) and the 400-meter relay team of Ferrell, Anna Klekamp, Jolee Lockhart and Makiya Harris.

Cross won a very close race in the 200. He beat Bowling Green’s Jackson Perkins by six one-hundredths of a second in the 200. Perkins ran a 23.27. 

“The only thing that was going through my head was this is the second time I can earn a conference title in my senior year,” Cross said. “That was racing through my head in the final backstretch. I think that is what allowed me to ease them out for the final 50 meters.”

Cross also beat Perkins in the 100. With the two wins at the EMO meet, Cross now has eight first-place finishes this season, four of them are in the 100.

“For me, when I go into any race I do, it’s really about my time and me really wanting to push what I’ve done before, such as getting a new PR every race,” Cross said. “Stepping onto the track, I really wanted to focus on getting better each time.”

Cross is now setting his sights on turning in a strong showing in the postseason as he and the Wildcats will be competing in the Class 3, District 4 championship meet on May 9 at Owensville. Last year, he qualified for sectionals in the 100 after finishing fourth with a personal-best time of 11.11 seconds at districts.

“I’m looking forward to districts so much,” Cross said. “Last year, I barely fell off because I wasn’t feeling alright. I can say all of these excuses, but I didn’t qualify for state. This year, I’m very determined in my senior year.”

In his victory in the 110-meter hurdles, Schulte surpassed his previous-best time of 15.99 seconds that was set the week before at the Orchard Farm Invitational. He also placed second in a personal-best 42.31 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles at the EMO meet.

Schulte is enjoying a strong first season with the Wright City track team that includes five first-place finishes, four of them are in the 110-meter hurdles.

“Last year, I took a year off from eighth grade,” Schulte said. “I went into my freshman year thinking it was going to be hard and the hurdles are too tall. But in my sophomore year, I finally realized what I’m capable of doing and never being scared of anything.”

Wright City’s 4x400 team picked up its first win of the season at the EMO meet. It finished two seconds shy from its season-best time of 3:37.41 that was set at the Wright City Invitational on April 16.

“We’ve been working on it really hard,” said Shoults, who ran the anchor leg. “I’m very happy and I’m very excited to share this win with some of my best friends I’ve known for a while.”

The Wildcats won the EMO title in the boys 4x400 for the second year in a row.