Mt. Pleasant girls dominate relays at West Branch

Chloe Haffarnan finished first in the 800 meter run while Kaitlin Jones won the 400 meter hurdles on Thursday, April 14, as the Mt. Pleasant girls' track team also finished second in seven events at the West Branch Invitational.

Haffarnan posted a time of 2:36.1 in the 800 while Jones' winning time was 72.5 seconds.

Jones also finished second in the 400 meter dash, with a time of 68.15 seconds, while Grace Lutovsky's high jump of 4'-8" was also a second-place finish.

In the relay events, Mt. Pleasant dominated, winning the 4x100 meter (Rebekah Kimzey, Chelsey Stark, Kelsey Smith, Shayla Knudsen) in 56.77, 4x200 meter (Sierra Wyse, Smith, Lutovsky, Kimzey) in 1:57.3, 4x400 meter (Emma Ludwig, Lutovsky, Natalie Myers, Haffarnan) in 4:42.5, 4x800 meter (Wyse, Ludwig, Myers, Haffarnan) in 10:50.0 and sprint medley relays, in 2:04.2 (Kimzey, Stark, Smith, Knudsen).

Kimzey, Stark, Knudsen and Jones picked up a third place finish in the shuttle hurdle relay with a time of 1:14.93. Abigail Feldman was fourth in the 100 meter dash, finishing in 15.13, while Ludwig was fourth in the 200 meter with a time of 29.85.

"The girls gave great effort in very bad weather conditions. They could have just went through the motions and then put their sweats back on but they raced hard and did their best," said coach Dave Hutchcroft. "I was very proud of their effort. [The] best race of the night was Chloe Haffarnan's 800 when she found a way to sprint by two West Branch runners in the last five meters to win her race."

Despite the strong finishes, Mt. Pleasant finished fifth in the five team field at West Branch, with 98 points.

Mt. Pleasant hosts the Panther Relays on Monday, April 18, at Mapleleaf Athletic Complex, starting at 5 p.m.

Final team scores

1. Solon 143

2. West Branch 119

3. Iowa City High JV 104

4. Lone Tree 102

5. Mt. Pleasant 98