Mt. Pleasant track teams host first home meet

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

The Mt. Pleasant track teams hosted their first home meet for both boys and girls on Thursday night. The Panthers competed in a stacked field, which included conference foes in Class 2A, 3A and 4A.

Mt. Pleasant once again had a great day in the throwing events. In the four throwing events, the Panthers took three wins and tallied seven total top-three finishes.

Bailey Johnson led the throwers with a win in both the girls? discus and the girls? shot put. Her discus throw, of 102-11 was ahead of second place Abbie Liechty, who threw a 95-07. Johnson?s winning shot put throw was 33-09.

On the boys? side, Keegan Pullis and Cori Fitten each picked up two top three finishes.

Pullis won the discus, with a 150-02, ahead of Fitten who threw a second place 148-02. Fitten was second in the shot put, at 50-01, and Pullis finished third, with a throw of 46-08.

Jonathan Ita had the next best finish in the field events for Mt. Pleasant. He finished second in the high jump with a leap of 5-08.

In the track events, the Panthers were able to scoop up a good number of top three finishes and one win. The win was in the boys? distance medley, where the team of Jake Lowe, Brady Sartorius, Jack Davis and Kyle Vanderham finished in 3:48.83.

The boys had four second place finishes in track events, two individually and two in relays.

Adam Bodenham started his day off with a second place finish in the 3200, in 10:21.63. Jake Lowe was the runner up in the 110-meter high hurdles, in 15.72 seconds.

The boys? 4X800 team of Jacob Stukerjurgen, Davis, Cody Mertens and Vanderham placed second, in 8:40.43. The shuttle hurdle team of Keegan Rich, Cole Burns, Nolan Quade and Sartorius was second, in 1:00.24.

Another top three finish came from the boys? 4X100 team of Lowe, Pat Canby, Quade and Sartorius. They finished third, in 45.45 seconds.

The girls had three second place finishes in the track events and one third place finish. Two of the second place finishes came in relay events.

The girls? shuttle hurdle team of Ashlee Menke, Mikayle Lance, Maddie Williamson and Allison Buckert placed second, in 1:09.97, and the 4X200 team of Katie Ensminger, D?Jannay Patterson, Willie Mae Brooks and Peyton Coffin earned the silver, in 1:51.74.

Patterson took second in the 100-meter dash. She finished the race in 13.20 seconds. Coffin was third in the 200-meter dash, in 27.19 seconds.

The Mt. Pleasant track and field teams will be back to action next week. The Panther boys will be in Mediapolis on Tuesday, April 5, at 5:30 p.m. On Thursday, April 7, both teams will be in Centerville for a meet starting at 4 p.m.