PARK HILLS, Mo. --The final race of the MSHSAA Class 5 District 1 track and field meet was set to decide the boys team champion Saturday afternoon, until it didn't.
That came after the race when a rules committee voted.
Poplar Bluff led Jackson by three points as the teams lined up for the 1600-meter relay, the final event, at Park Hills Central High School but the Mules didn't finish.
On the backstretch of the second leg, after runners broke from their lanes, Poplar Bluff's Adam Vincent landed off the track at the base of several hurdles, unable to continue, after tangling up with the Jackson runner.
The Indians won the race and the team title by seven points as the rules committee decided not to disqualify Jackson.
"To lose it on the track is one thing, to lose it on a judgment call is (nonsense)," Mules coach Mark Barousse said.
Poplar Bluff girls coach Beth Lewis-Muse, who was on the rules committee, said there was no option to restart the race and that any video taken was not used during discussion.
"If Jackson goes first and we go second we win the meet," Barousse said. "Only way they can beat us is get four points better.
"If we get beat on the track, we get beat on the track."
Poplar Bluff came in with the top time this season at 3 minutes, 30.39 seconds. Jackson won in 3:29.38 while Seckman followed at 3:30.39.
"It depends on who you ask. I saw it very clearly," Jackson coach Jimmy Stoverink told the Southeast Missourian. "I thought our kid maintained his position, and I thought Poplar Bluff got in front of him and cut him off.
"...They got tangled up, and Poplar Bluff went down and our kid stayed on his feet."
Poplar Bluff coaches said Vincent was pushed and that a coach from another school also saw it.
The runners had already made it to Lane 1 after coming off the break line when they got tangled up. Vincent, coming from an outside lane, didn't have a full stride in front of the Jackson runner. The two exchanged elbows, Lewis-Muse said, before Vincent ended up on the ground.
"We did impede on Jackson," Lewis-Muse said. "Does that make it okay for Jackson to clearly violate another rule?"
It was a wild finish to a long day.
Poplar Bluff won four events --to Jackson's three --and qualified for the sectional meet next week in nine more events.
Isaiah Johnson swept the hurdles while Vincent won the pole vault and helped two relays advance. A day earlier, Logan Bell won the javelin.
"Had some good things happen," Barousse said. "Got a lot of kids through. That's the important thing."
The top four in each event advance to compete at the sectional meet at Marquette in St. Louis County.
Johnson won the 110 hurdles in 15.81 and took the 300 hurdles in 40.24 while Rufus Ward followed in 41.45 to advance.
Vincent cleared 14-feet to win the pole vault while Brett Barousse cleared 13-0 to tie for third, advancing when he cleared on the first attempt.
Bell's throw of 161-2 won the javelin while Rashawn McCain took third at 126-10. McCain, however, finished fifth in the discus at 127-9, nearly 10 feet shorter than his best of the season, and sixth in the shot at 44-9.5.
Makarius Bell placed second in the shot at 47-7 and in the discus at 149-3.
Wyatt Murphy advanced in the 100 at 11.19 and fourth in the long jump at 20-3.5 but missed the cut in the high jump. He cleared 5-8 for sixth but missed at 5-10 after jumping 6-2 earlier this season.
Poplar Bluff's 400 relay of Murphy, Vincent, McCain and freshman Josiah Kilgore placed third at 44.27. The 800 relay also placed third at 1:33.37 with Johnson, Vincent, Ward and Danarius Moore, who injured a quad in the race. He later finished 12th in the 400 at 57.42, a race he won in 50.83 last week at conference.
"That lost us eight to 10 points," Coach Barousse said of the injury. "He tried to run."
Xavier Bartlett placed seventh in the 400 at 53.89 but missed the cut by 1.3 seconds. Ward placed fifth in the 110 hurdles at 16.38, missing the cut by 0.24 of a second. Gage Rowland was fifth in the triple jump at 39-0.25 while Chaz Casey was eighth at 38-5.
Wesley Moore finished ninth in the 3200 at 11:04 and 10th in the 1600 at 4:59 while Caden Foster placed 10th in the long jump at 17-11.
The Mules won the district title last year in Class 4 and moved into the largest class this season. They beat Jackson by 33 points in the conference meet last week.