An outstanding season for the Steelville High School track and field team concluded on May 23 after five Cardinals spent two days competing in the Class 2 State Tournament at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City. 

Hunter Starbeck finished his storybook senior season in Steelville as the state runner-up in the 400 meter dash. After setting and re-setting the school record in the 400 meters multiple times throughout the season, Starbeck once again reset the record after bursting through the finish line in 49.24 seconds to take second place. He finished just 1.21 seconds behind Jefferson (Festus) senior Matthew Waltman, who earned the title of State Champion for his efforts.

Starbeck’s second-place finish in the state meet was an exclamation point ending to his high school career and lone season competing for the Cardinals. Due to medical reasons, Starbeck hadn’t participated in school sports until this year, where he emerged as a standout in baseball, basketball and track.

Starbeck was also a member of Steelville’s 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams that earned All-Conference, All-District and All-Sectional honors along with Landon Rutledge, Owen Rutledge and Alexander Martin.

The speedy quartet was unfortunately disqualified in the 4x800 preliminary qualifying race on May 22 due to a dropped baton, but were able to qualify for the finals in the 4x400 after earning fourth place in the preliminaries that afternoon. 

After returning to Jefferson City on May 23, the Cardinals 4x400 team crossed the finish line in a season-best 3:29.31 time to earn fourth place. Steelville finished 1.02 seconds behind third place West Platte and were 2.2 seconds behind the State Champion team from Jefferson (Festus) who completed the race in 3:27.51 seconds. 

After qualifying for the state finals in the 300 meter hurdles on May 22 in the preliminary qualifiers with a 40.79 second finish, Landon Rutledge capped his illustrious individual career in Steelville by running a personal-best and school-record time of 40.22 seconds to finish in sixth place. Rutledge crossed the finish line only 1.14 seconds behind Pierce City senior Eli Genzler, who took third place and just over two seconds from State Champion Demeterius Thompson from Brentwood who completed the race in 37.97 seconds.

Rutledge also competed in the 110 meter hurdles preliminary qualifiers, missing the top-8 and advancing to the finals in heartbreaking fashion, after finishing 0.02 seconds behind eighth-place finisher Logan Duffy of Crest Ridge. Rutledge’s career on the track and in cross country will continue next year when he will compete for Mineral Area College under head coach Steve Davis.

Steelville junior Emeri Perkins was the lone Lady Cardinal represented in the state meet. Perkins qualified with a 9.84 meter leap in the triple jump at the May 16 Class 2 Sectionals in Dexter and passed that mark in the state meet. Perkins leapt 10.08 meters, finishing in 13th place in the state. She was less than one meter away from Lutheran’s Avery Harmon, who earned fifth place with a 10.92 meter hop. She will return for her senior season as a decorated volleyball, basketball and track and field athlete for the Lady Cardinals.

After losing Landon Rutledge, Starbeck and Martin to graduation, Owen Rutledge and field event standouts Max Harmon and Will Bailey are expected to lead the boys’ team in their season seasons while Perkins, her younger sister, Adalei Perkins, and fellow freshmen standouts Brooklyn Thomas, Alex Helms and Vivian West are set to anchor the girls’ team. This year’s Steelville teams were coached by Lydia Sexton, Ashley Bailey, Tanya Brown and Matt Hammonds.