ENDING ON A HIGH NOTE
JEFFERSON CITY – The Spartans gave Richmond varsity track and field coach Mike Long a few high notes for ending his career.
One of those notes was a state boys 800-meter relay title. Another was a state runner-up 400 relay finish. Both relay performances set school records.
Consisting of Evan Vandiver, Jordan Alexander, Keyshaun Elliott and Adrian Church, the 800 relay team won the title May 29 at the Class 3 state meet at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City. The group’s time of 1 minute, 29.6 seconds broke the Richmond High record of 1:30.6, set in 1993.
Church, who graduated in May, was happy he could break the record at his final meet with his fellow runners.
“I couldn’t have done it without … the rest of the three,” he said.
Vandiver, for one, knew he and his teammates had the record once he saw the official time.
“It was just in my head when I was running,” he said. “(I was) just, like, ‘Gotta go get that.’”
The foursome had to adapt to break the record. Typically, they run…