Washington boys win Demon Relays; girls capture second

    The Washington High School boys? and girls? track teams put on quite a show for their hometown fans Thursday at the Demon Relays at Case Field. The boys won their meet and the girls came in second place behind Fairfield.

    The Demon boys ended the day with 159 points, ahead of Clear Creek Amana in second place with 137 points. Fairfield came in third with 130.5 points, while Davis County was a distant fourth with 59 points. Columbus Community garnered 37.5 points, and WACO captured 26 points.

    Fairfield won the girls? meet comfortably with 176 points, nearly 50 more than Washington which had 129. Fort Madison followed with 92 and Columbus Community raked in 82. WACO?s 48 points put it in fifth place, ahead of Wapello with 47.

    Demon boys? track coach Steve Roth said that he was especially pleased with the performance of his seniors.

    ?Our seniors are very good leaders and they performed well,? said Roth.

    Roth said he was also impressed with his team?s field events. Jake Redlinger won the high jump with a jump of 5?10.? Landon Coker won the long jump with a leap of exactly 19 feet. Parker Turner placed sixth in the long jump, posting a jump of 17?1.5.?

    The Washington girls tallied 129 points, but Fairfield tallied a few more to win the meet with 176 points. Girls? coach Howard Bean said he was very pleased with his team?s performance, especially considering they were without Lucy Libe. Libe is still suffering from muscle spasms that began Tuesday.

    ?Our team did a fantastic job,? said Bean. ?The young kids stepped up and did their part. I really look forward to the next track meet.?

    One of the youngsters who impressed Bean was Freshman Sammy Ellingson, who took second place in the high jump. Ellingson jumped 5 feet, just an inch below the victorious Kelsey Lyon from Columbus Community whose jump broke the Demon Relay record. Ellingson?s teammate Hannah Rich jumped 4 and a half feet, which put her in a tie for fourth place.

For more, see our April 9 print edition.