Raider girls track, field claims dual team championships

What a week it was for the Williamsburg track and field girls as they claimed back-to-back team championships in the Ruth Ahrens Invitational at Marengo and Bobcat Co-Ed Relays at Van Horne.

RUTH AHRENS INVITE

The Raiders won 10 events and accumulated 225 points to dominate the Class A Division of the Ruth Ahrens Invite Monday, April 10. Williamsburg's closest challenger was Prairie City Monroe with 123 points.

Elle Ridgeway gave championship performances for the Raiders in the shot put and discus, Carly Rich won the long jump, Phoenix Gryp and Kadie Read finished first in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles, and Macey Marovets and Zada Buchholtz owned the 1,500 and 3,000 meter runs.

Williamsburg's sprint medley, distance medley, 4 x 100, 4 x 200, 4 x 400 and 4 x 800-meter relay teams also claimed victories. Runners on those teams were as follows:

Sprint medley — Elizabeth Stohlmann, Mya Simmons, Tayler Long, Ashlynn Hoffman.

Distance medley — Stohlmann, Lexi Mochal, Lilly Andrews, Analise DeWitt.

4 x 100 — Makenna Hughes, Shannon Finn, Stohlmann, Ailea Wetjen.

4 x 200 — Hughes, Finn, Hoffman, Wetjen.

4 x 400 — Reagan McMenomy, Andrews, Gryp, Finn.

4 x 800 — Marovets, Tori Yunggebauer, April Phillips, Natalie Bemer.

BOBCAT RELAYS

Williamsburg performed as well if not better in the Bobcat Relays Thursday, April 13, at Van Horne, winning seven events and totaling 146 points, 23 more than second place Cedar Rapids Xavier, in the 13-team field.

Wetjen swept the 100- and 200-meter dashes, Finn and Marovets won the 400 and 800 meters, and the Raiders ran first in the 4 x 800 (DeWitt, McMenomy, Bemer, Phillips), 4 x 100 (Stohlmann, Finn, Hughes, Wetjen) and 4 x 400 (Marovets, Hughes, Hoffman, Finn) meter relays. The 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 squads ran season-best times of 51.97 and 4:15.49.

Williamsburg coach Nick Nordheim said this of the Benton meet. "It was a lot of fun seeing us shift our focus to scoring a lot of team points. We scored really well in a lot of events which shows the overall depth of our team. It's exciting to see different people stepping up."

Nordheim singled out the efforts of Wetjen, Finn, Hughes and Marovets.

"Ailea and Shannon had really big nights earning three gold medals each," Nordheim noted. "They're really tough, just love to compete and are becoming strong leaders for us."

"Mak (Hughes) also was amazing tonight," Nordheim added. "She placed high in the 100 and 200 and got two golds in the relays, making for a pretty huge meet for her. She is just always so solid no matter what event we put her in."

"Macey (Marovets)," Nordheim continued, "is just becoming an absolute star. Going 2:23 to win the 800 with no competition to push her is just phenomenal. Then she comes back and has a personal best to lead off the 4 x 400. She is shaping up to have a huge finish to the season."