Trailing Montgomery County’s Malia Rodgers after the first two laps of the 1,600-meter run at the Eastern Missouri Conference meet on May 5 at North Callaway High School, Zoe Riggs didn’t …
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Trailing Montgomery County’s Malia Rodgers after the first two laps of the 1,600-meter run at the Eastern Missouri Conference meet on May 5 at North Callaway High School, Zoe Riggs didn’t panic.
“I should be leading this,” the Wright City junior said. “I have the fastest time. I should be first. So I just pulled out in front of her.”
Riggs took the lead after the third lap and went on to capture her EMO championship. She won the 1,600 by less than two seconds over Rodgers and finished with a season-best time of 5:25.80.
“It’s good,” Riggs said. “I’m really glad I could do it and push through. I know the top two was all-conference.”
Riggs also earned all-conference honors in the 800-meter run and 1,600-meter relay after getting second-place finishes in both events. She finished with a 2:31 in the 800 and ran the anchor leg of the relay team that finished with a 4:33.1. The other athletes on the girls 4x400 team were Kobie Griffitt, Teagan Riley and Elizabeth Riggs.
Riggs picked up her second victory of the season in the 1,600 after coming out on top at the EMO meet. She placed first in the North Callaway Thunderbird Invite on April 13, finished second in a meet at Bowling Green on April 6 and got a fourth-place finish at the Montgomery County Invitational on April 19.
Riggs had competed against Rodgers in the 1,600 two other times this season. Rodgers beat Riggs by one second in the Bowling Green meet. A week later, Riggs knocked off Rodgers by three seconds in the Thunderbird Invite.
At the conference meet, Riggs came into the 1,600 race as the No. 1 seed, while Rodgers was seeded third.
“I knew this girl (Rodgers) was going to fight,” the junior said. “But I just got to go and win my race. I want to get my PR.”
Riggs also was the top seed in the 800. But she lost the race to Montgomery County’s Lyric Ford by three seconds. Riggs finished with a 2:31.
The junior had a victory in the 800 at the Wright City Invite on April 15. She also finished second by seven-tenths of a second to Centralia’s Jozelynn Bostick.
“The 800 is my favorite race,” Riggs said. “It’s actually my best race. I’m actually a half of a second from breaking the school record at Wright City. I ran it a few weeks ago and came within a half of a second all by myself. They really wanted me to break it. I’m going to keep fighting for that.”
The Wildcats finished sixth in the girls division with 46 points and seventh in the boys division with 29 at the EMO meet.
Wright City’s best finish in the boys meet was a third-place finish from its 4x400 team of David Riggs, Jackson Mazella, Demetrice Le Noir and Joseph De Anda.
The Wildcats will compete in the Class 3, District 3 meet at Wright City on May 15. Riggs said since Billy Garrett is stepping down as Wright City coach after the season, her goals are to break the school record and qualify for the state meet.
“Since he’s been helping me so much, I don’t know what I’m going to do without him next year,” Riggs said. “I want to get it for him and go to state for him. It’s more than just me winning a race.”
