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As Huns Pitia willed himself down the homestretch of the 1,600-meter relay — his sixth race of the Missouri Class 3 State Track and Field Championships  — he could think only one thing: Go faster.

“I felt good the first 300, then the last 100 — I felt good up here,” Pitia said pointing to his chest area. “But my legs just weren’t moving. Too much racing.”

Early in the season it was the Staley High girls track and field team that grabbed the headlines.

While there are still some female Falcons making noise heading into the Class 3 State Track and Field Championships on Friday, May 29, and Saturday, May 30, the boys have begun to steal the headlines. Staley advanced two athletes in four events each at the Class 3 Sectional 4 meet Saturday, May 23, at Kearney High.

With the championship season — as Staley High track coach Todd Warner likes to call it — in full swing, the Falcon boys were on the mark at the Class 3 District 8 meet. Not only did Staley win the boys district with 118 points, they advanced five athletes and two relays to the Class 3 Sectional 4 meet at Kearney High on Saturday, May 23.

The catch is that three of the five boys advanced in four events — three individual events apiece and one relay. Sprinter Eric Pierce qualified in the 100, 200, 400 and the 1.600-meter relay. Pierce won the 200-meter dash in a time of 20.46 seconds, and took second in the 100 and 400.

With their season on the line, the Falcons just couldn’t get the hit they needed.

Staley High baseball saw its inaugural season come to a disappointing end after a 5-3 loss to Kearney in the first round of the Class 4 District 16 tournament Saturday, May 16, at Oak Park. Staley lost two out of three meetings with the Bulldogs this spring and failed to advance in the districts.

Warner did exactly the opposite, putting his team up against stiff Class 4 competition.

“I think it is simply confidence,” Warner said of what his team gained from the tough schedule. “The fact that we have gone up against the Raytown Souths, Blue Springs, Rockhursts and some of the big schools and held our own. They can go out and know they belong there. Throughout the year it has been a confidence-gaining process for everybody.”

A 3-2 win against Kearney on May 5 was a big help though in getting the Falcons to the No. 4 seed at the Class 2 District 8 tournament. The Falcons will open play against the Chillicothe Hornets at 3 p.m. Monday, May 18, at Excelsior Springs High.

For 12 holes nothing could go wrong at the Class 3 District 8 golf tournament Monday, May 4, for Staley High’s Grant McNeley.

He had navigated the Shiloh Springs Golf Club layout in 1 over par, but a bad lie for a chip shot on No. 13 set off a horrifying final six holes. In the end his score of 80 was enough to push him through to the Class 3 state golf tournament at Fremont Hills Country Club in Nixa on May 18 and 19.

Staley High boys and girls track and field coach Todd Warner got a good look at how his team would handle a big setting over the weekend. With the Falcons competing at the Kansas Relays on Friday, April 17, and Saturday, April 18, Warner saw some things he liked.

“I was pleased with the way the kids competed,” he said. “For heading over there with a smaller group of kids and jumping in with some of the St. Louis teams, teams from Colorado and the Kansas schools, I thought we did a pretty good job.”

If you had looked at the heat sheets heading into the Jerry Crews Invitational on Friday, April 10, there was no seed length listed next to Brynn Williamson’s name on the triple jump entry form.

That’s because the Staley High athlete had never competed in the triple jump before.

Chances are Williamson will be a triple jumper the rest of the season after winning the event with a jump of 35 feet, 5 1/4 inches. She also won the long jump with a distance of 16 feet, 2 3/4 inches.

They have run in only two meets so far, but the Staley High boys and girls track teams have already put some nice marks on the board. The Falcon boys placed second Saturday, April 4, at the Bill Summa Relays, taking home their first-ever trophy. The girls finished fifth.

The Summa relays use a unique format. It is a strict relay format for running events, and instead of using individual distances for field events, three teammates’ best efforts get added up to give one big score to determine a placement.

Coach Todd Warner was more than pleased with his team’s effort, especially with prom and ACT tests scheduled for the same day.