Jacer Brower left Jefferson City with an early graduation present on May 18.

The Montgomery County senior earned another all-state medal in the 400-meter dash at the Class 3 state track meet at Jefferson City High School’s Adkins Stadium, just a day before his high school graduation. He placed seventh with a season-best time of 50.67 seconds to finish with all-state honors in the 400 for the second year in a row.

Brower qualified for finals in the 400 by running 50.81 seconds in the preliminaries the day before. After the race, he described his emotions in only two words.

“Just blessed,” Brower said.

Brower left MCHS as the top performer in the 400 in the boys division in the history of the track program. In addition to his two all-state medals, Brower holds the school record time of 50.47 seconds that he set in last year’s fourth-place finish at the state meet and has 11 victories in the event.

Brower said even though he had success in the 400 throughout his high school track career, competing in the event hasn’t been easy for him.

“That race hurts,” Brower said. “It’s a love and hate relationship. The love is the winning and the hate is the pain. It hurts. When you sprint a whole lap, it hurts.”

Brower was first penciled in to compete in the 400 in his freshman year after not participating in track in his eighth-grade year at Montgomery County Middle School due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He had three victories in the event, but didn’t qualify out of districts as he finished fifth, coming up one place short of qualifying for sectionals.

The next year, he ran a school-record time of 52.08 seconds in the first-place finish in the 400 at the Montgomery County Invitational, breaking the old mark of 52.14 second that was set by Jim Jordan in 2014. He also qualified for state in the event, but didn’t get out of preliminaries. He still got out of Jefferson City with an all-state medal as he helped the 800-meter relay team finish sixth.

In his junior year, he broke his own school record in the 400 in the preliminaries at the state meet and qualified for finals, where he finished fourth.

This season, Brower competed in the 400 in just seven meets this season. He won his first Eastern Missouri Conference title in the event after placing second in each of the last three years. He also participated in the University of Kansas Relays. Brower qualified for state for the third year in a row after placing second in the sectional meet at Paris High School.

Brower also qualified for state in the long jump, where he had three second-place finishes. He also competed in the 100, 200 and a couple of relay events.

“I had a rocky start,” Brower said. “I pulled my hamstring in week two in practice, so it really halted my season. But I ended up making something out of it.”

Now, Brower is setting his sights on a legal career as he plans to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“I’ve been looking forward to the next chapter for a long time,” Brower said.