More conference titles.

That was the case this past Spring for several former Owensville High School (OHS) track athletes competing at William Woods University (WWU) in Fulton.

Back in early May, Owensville’s Freddy Zheng, Mekayla Gibson, Saylor Richardson and Kyah Weirich helped the Owls and Lady Owls sweep both the men’s and women’s American Midwest Conference (AMC) Outdoor Track and Field titles during their annual conference meet held at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis.

Richardson started her meet placing 11th in the women’s 100-meter dash in a preliminary time of 13.40 placing her .26 out of the top eight and the finals.

She also competed in the women’s 200m dash where she placed 14th overall in a time of 28.27. That time was a second shy of the top eight and the finals.

While she may not have earned All-AMC honors individually, Richardson helped the Lady Owl 4x100m relay team sprint to an AMC Title.

Teaming up with Madison Dixon, Nia Hawkins and Hallee Wengert, Richardson helped WWU win a conference title in the women’s 4x100m relay with a first-place time of 49.22.

Richardson will be a sophomore at WWU during the upcoming academic year.

Gibson started her AMC meet with a fifth-place time of 5:15.40 in the women’s 1500m run.

Coming back later in the women’s 5000m run, Gibson posted a second-place time of 19:41.92 behind WWU teammate Hailey Gerard’s winning time of 18:33.04.

Saving the best for last, Gibson topped the field by nearly two minutes in the women’s 10,000m run with a winning time of 41:23.92.

Lady Owl teammates Mary Grove (2nd, 43:18.93) and Gerard (3rd, 43:19.40) made it a sweep of the top three in the event picking up 24 team points for WWU.

Gibson will be senior for the Lady Owls during the upcoming academic year.

At the end of the meet, Richardson teamed up with WWU teammates Myra Baker, Emma Clifford and Hawkins for a fourth-place time of 4:30.23 in the women’s 4x400m relay.

Weirich made her mark on the meet for the Lady Owls teaming up with Crystal Ruden, Baker and Clifford to run a third-place time of 10:20.39 in the women’s 4x800m relay.

Entering her junior season in Fulton, Weirich will continue to work on improving her times.

Sweeping both team titles during the AMC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, WWU’s men racked up 257 points to hold off runner up Columbia College’s 227 points.

Amassing 176 team points, the Lady Owls also held off Columbia College’s second-place team total of 162 points.

WWU was not the only AMC school with Gasconade County athletes at the meet.

Columbia College (CC) and Hannibal-LaGrange University (HLGU) also had student athletes representing the county.

CC’s Peter Giles narrowly missed scoring a team point for the Cougars in the men’s 800m run with a ninth-place time of 2:04.06.

Giles was a former Hermann Bearcat and will be a senior this coming academic year.

Also competing in the men’s 4x800m relay for the Cougars, Giles teamed up with Kalieb Redda, Conner Diaz and Oscar Curry to post a second-place time of 7:53.08 giving the quartet All-AMC honors.

Diaz is also a former Steelville Cardinal.

A four-time Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) champion in the 800m run, Diaz capped his freshman season in Columbia winning an AMC title in the men’s 800m run with a time of 1:54.65.

Now a junior at HLGU, former Lady Bearcat thrower Kaylyn Powers won an AMC Title for the Lady Trojans in the women’s shot put with a throw of 12.97m.

That mark was good enough to qualify Powers for the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Track and Field Championships.

Another former Lady Bearcat was also throwing at the AMC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

CC freshman Tirzah Dodorico placed ninth in the women’s shot put with a throw of 11.01m.

Looking for her second AMC title in as many events, Powers settled for second place in the women’s discus with a mark of 38.17m.

That throw also qualified her for the NCCAA Track and Field Championships.

Dodorico also placed ninth in the women’s discus for CC with a throw of 30.98m.

In her final event, Powers topped the field in the women’s hammer throw by nearly four meters with a winning throw of 44.50m.

Dodorico earned team points for the Lady Cougars with a fifth-place throw of 39.74m.