Busy day at the track

MT. PLEASANT - An always adventure-packed Mapleleaf Athletic Complex might have been quiet as a mouse in early April of 2020, but one year later, the roar of Mt. Pleasant's home track was heard once more, as a packed field of competitors competed in the Panthers' co-ed invitational on Thursday.

Among the area's teams were Washington, Fairfield, Mid-Prairie and the hosting Panthers.

The meet was unscored, but that didn't stop a couple of area squads from sticking out. The Mid-Prarie girls flexed their muscles with three wins and a handful of second place finishes, and the Washington boys took down three events.

The Golden Hawk girls packed the Top-2 all night long, but their three wins came in 400 meters or less. Mitzi Evans had the lone individual win for the Hawks, taking down the 400-meter dash in 59 seconds.

Mid-Prairie's 4X100 relay team of Amber Swart, Alyssa McDowell, Maddie Edgington and Amara Jones finished atop the field in 51.74 seconds. The 4X400 team of Evans, Ella Groenwold, Maya Nonnemann and Behla Schmidt won in 4:29.83.

Mt. Pleasant had just one win on the girls' side. Jadan Brumbaugh dominated the shot put competition, winning with a throw of 40 feet, eight inches. Mid-Prairie's Tori Boyse took second in that event, throwing a 35-05. That was one of six second-place finishes for the Golden Hawk girls on the day.

The Fairfield girls were the lowest-seeded team of three shuttle hurdle relay squads, but the Trojans crossed the line before anybody else. Anna Dunlap, Kelsey, Pacha, Maya Lane and Brynley Allison won the race in 1:10.86, just ahead of the Mt. Pleasant quartet of Josie Gilmore, Jenna Gilmore, Kenna Lamm and Karsyn Lamm, who crossed in 1:11.37.

The Mt. Pleasant girls had four second place finishes on the day. Fairfield took second in two events.

On the boys' Washington took three events, all on the track. Lance Sobaski had two of those, winning the 800-meter run and the 3200-meter run.

Sobaski had to beat out Mid-Prairie's Jamie Stutzman in both events. In the 800, Sobaski crossed in 2:03.34, under one second better than Stutzman's final time of 2:04.17. In the 3200, Sobaski cruised to a win in 9:54.17, and Stutzman finished in 10:08.07.

The Mid-Prairie boys had one winner on the day. Cain Brown took the high jump with a leap of six feet and four inches. The Golden Hawks also had three second place finishes, while Washington had one.

Mt. Pleasant's Cooper Pullis took down the boys shot put to give the Panthers a sweep in the shot put circle. Pullis threw a 48-00. The Panther boys also had three second place finishes.

Fairfield had one second place finish on the boys side, when the sprint medley team of Conner Lyons, Landen Schafer, Aiden Lyons and Kevin Kretz took second in 1:42.37. That was just over three seconds worse than the winning Mediapolis quartet, which finished in 1:39.20. The Trojan boys had no wins on the day.