For the first time in 30 years, the best high school football team in Missouri resides in Columbia. The Hickman Kewpies won their first state title since 1974 on Friday, beating Hazelwood East 34-7 in the Class 6 Championship game. Hickman dominated most of the contest. The Kewpies outgained Hazelwood East 348-139. Hickman quarterback Andrew Perkins ran for three touchdowns. Hickman finishes the year 11-1. Hazelwood East finishes 9-4……..Clayton won its first state championship with a 27-26 overtime win over Webb City in the Class 4 title game. Jairus Byrd threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Torrey Tate in overtime to give Clayton the lead. Webb City responded with a touchdown, but fumbled on the two-point conversion. Clayton finishes 13-1, while Webb City finishes 12-1……..In Class 2, Blair Oaks capped off a perfect season with a 27-26 win over Cameron in the championship game. Derek Verslues ran for 176 yards and three touchdowns for Blair Oaks. His final score came with 2:00 left in the game, and gave the Falcons a 27-26 lead. Cameron drove all the way to the Blair Oaks 6-yard line, but Alex Joannes intercepted a pass in the endzone with 30 seconds left, sealing the first football state title in school history. Blair Oaks finishes the year with a spotless 14-0 record. Cameron’s season ends at 11-3.

Three more state championship games will be played on Saturday. At noon, East Buchanan faces St. Vincent in the Class 1 Championship game. East Buchanan is perfect so far this season, as they enter the game with a record of 13-0. St. Vincent enters the game at 12-1. At approximately 3:15 this afternoon, MICDS takes on Harrisonville for the Class 3 Championship. MICDS is 13-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 3. Harrisonville is 12-1 and the defending state champion. The weekend wraps up tonight with the Class 5 title game between Raymore-Peculiar and McCluer North. The game is scheduled to get underway around 6:30. Ray-Pec is 12-0 and has been ranked No. 1 in Class 5 most of the season. McCluer North is 10-1 going into the game.

The era of the Paige Sports Arena is officially over. The Board of Curators at the University of Missouri voted on Friday to change the name of the new facility to the Mizzou Arena. University President Elson Floyd proposed the new name during a teleconference yesterday. The board unanimously supported the name. The change comes after Wal-Mart heiress Paige Laurie, the arena’s original namesake, was accused of cheating her way through college at USC. Laurie’s parents donated $25 million toward construction of the new arena and named it after their daughter. But the Laurie’s gave the naming rights back to the university after Paige Laurie was accused of paying a college roommate $20,000 over three-and-a-half years to do most of her school work.