The 2026 MICDS Track and Field season had many rollercoaster moments, with highs and lows all season long. Justyce Sanders ’27 had an exceptional season, starting with her 7th-place finish in the Invitational 400m at the Arcadia Invitational. There, she took the state performance lead and was never beaten at that distance all season, culminating in the MSHSAA Class 5 Championship. This win avenged last season’s runner-up finish. Sanders followed up her 400m win with the 200m title, which made her a back-to-back champion at that distance. She was called to the starting line just 32 minutes after leaving the 400m award stand and was able to capture the title away from previous district and sectional champions from Ladue and Cardinal Ritter. Sanders was 1m behind at the 100m mark but surged to the lead with 40m to go and separated from the field on her way to the win.
Blaike Borders ’28 managed to continue her fast running this season at the 800m distance. She finished second at the District championship to the eventual State champion from Eureka and finished as the 4th qualifier at sectionals after losing her shoe 300m into the race and finishing the remaining 500m with only one shoe left on her foot. In the State final, Borders opened with a 63-second first lap, right there with the lead group, then followed with a 68 and fought her way to 5th place, as the gap from 2nd to 7th was less than a second. Borders finished with a time of 2:12.83, the fastest of her short career. That time put her second on our all-time performance list behind only Grace Coppel ’25 from a year ago.
The 4x800m relay team included Narya Phatak ’26, who ran an exceptional lead-off leg. Captain Morgan Macam ’26 ran second, handing off to Nika Landrum ’29, who competed hard in her first Championship race, then Borders anchored the team to 11th place at 9:49.35. This team had punched well above its weight all season long in Class 5 and had improved by almost a minute since the beginning of the season.
The 4x400m relay was defending State champions coming into the week, although the team had stepped up in class from 4 to 5 this season. They had competed well and started to gain momentum at the Henle Holms Invitational. They ran some great races leading into the District meet, and the team of Sanders, Macam, Landrum, and Borders had really started to gel. In the District championship, MICDS managed a 3rd place finish, slightly behind Cardinal Ritter and Ladue. At the Sectional championship, the girls finished second, behind Ritter, and lowered their season’s best to 3:55, a three-second improvement from the District meet. At the State Championship, the Rams led off with 400m champ Sanders, who managed to hand off with a lead to Macam, who battled and ran her fastest leg of the season but gave up a couple of places. Landrum took the baton and held fifth place with anchor Borders waiting anxiously at the line. Borders took the stick and immediately moved into 4th place in the first 20m. Borders shot down the backstretch and managed to gobble up Lafayette and then Liberty North. She blazed around the curve, closing ground on rival Ladue. She was able to pull even with the Ladue anchor leg with 50m to go and was passing her to move to second place. As she was going around Ladue, the opposing runner moved out slightly to keep Borders from passing, and as they battled with 30m to go, she was what was called incidentally contacted by the Ladue runner, knocking Borders down on the track. No call was made by an official, making the option to protest moot, although Coach Lohr did give the MSHSAA officiating crew a piece of his mind following the race and blatant no-call down the stretch. The effort made by Borders to catch Ladue will not be forgotten by the MICDS team or staff. It was remarkable. In another scenario where prelims were held, this team would have qualified for the final and still hit the podium for the effort, even after the incident. It would not have made the team feel better, but an All-State finish would have eased the sting a little.
Other outstanding performances from this season were by High Jumper Gerti Habel ’27, who broke the high jump record (5-5) previously held by Alexis Bellamy ’21. Abby Selner ’28 was a sectional pole vault qualifier.
The Harriet Green Award went to Macam.
