Demon girls place second at home invite

It was a big night for the Washington girls? track and field team, as they inch closer to the end of the season.

The Demons hosted five other teams in their home invitational, and came away with a second-place finish, scoring 119 points on the day.

Benton won the meet with 144 points, and the Demons knocked off conference foes Fort Madison and Mt. Pleasant in the meet.

?This week I was very pleased with everyone?s effort; we showed a lot of guts and determination this week,? Washington girls? track and field head coach Stefanie Tschantz said. ?These girls have been working hard all season and it is nice to see their hard work paying off.?

The Demons were led by one individual meet title on the day, with Demon senior Mackenzie Knutson posting a time of 1:13.65 in the 400-meter hurdles to finish in first place.

?Mackenzie had a solid night,? Tschantz said. ?Before the 400 hurdles she wasn?t too thrilled about running them again, but once the race came she left it all out there. There was a girl closing on the last hurdle and she was able to hold her off. She had a PR by 2 seconds last night and is now sitting second in our district.?

The Demons also picked up meet titles from its 4x100-meter relay team of Makenzi Marek, Jenah Greiner, Amber Salow and Kelly Wheeler posting a time of 52.00.

Currently the 4x100 team sits at 57th in the state (based on Quikstats), which would be good enough to qualify for the Drake Relays. Official announcements will be made late Friday or early Saturday.

?The 4x100 was a picture-perfect race for us,? Tschantz said. ?Our hand-offs were perfect and we were able to win the race by .01. They were really hoping to drop a little time to secure their spot for the Drake Relays.?

Washington also had nine other events finish in the top three on Thursday afternoon, led by three second-place finishes in the sprints.

Senior Kelly Wheeler took second in the 100-meter dash, while Isabel Bailey finished second in the 200 and Ashley Telleen ran a hard race to take second in the 400.

?(Ashley) really got out hard and dug in that last 100 meters,? Tschantz said. ?Her times have been dropping every meet out, but for her to run a 64 in the open I was very pleased. Ashley has run anything from the Shuttle hurdle to the mile this spring and has given us her best effort in whatever we put her in.?

Emme Keith finished in third in the 3000-meters, while Molly Sparks took fourth in the 800 and Jessie Buchholz notched fifth in the 100-meter hurdles.

Washington also set a season-best time in the shuttle hurdle, taking second place with a 1:10.51.

The Demons also had a strong run from the 4x800-meter team of Sparks, Meredith Raber, Telleen and Madelyn Janecek to take second place.

In the field events, the Demons saw Marek take second in the high jump, while Bailey finished second in the long jump and McKayla Miller earned a third-place finish in the shot put.

The Demons will have time to rest up for their next meet, on Thursday in WACO, and they hope to take full advantage of it.

?it will be nice to actually get some practice time in and try to figure out where we are going to put everyone at the upcoming meets,? Tschantz said. ?It?s hard to believe we only have four meets before the State Meet. It has a been a great season so far and I expect that to continue as our season comes to a close.?