Washington girls claim WACO meet title

The Washington girls? track team had one goal in mind on Thursday, and they came through with an impressive showing.

The Demons went down to the Eckstrand Relays hosted by WACO on the day, and the girls? team came away with the meet title, scoring 151 points to outpace second-place West Branch, who posted 129 at the meet.

?Our goal going in to the meet last night was to win the team title,? Washington girls? track coach Stefanie Tschantz said. ?We have been close at several meets this year, but for us to finally get a title was pretty exciting. It was definitely a team effort as we placed in every event last night, and we were able to double up in the opens.?

The impressive night was highlighted by one individual championship, coming from Meredith Raber in the 800-meter run, with a time of 2:44.00.

?Meredith had a great race, she was able to get out strong and maintain and then have a nice kick the last 200,? Tschantz said. ?It was her first-ever individual win, so she was pretty excited. Meredith has come a long way this season; she has shown much more confidence in her abilities. It was great to see her win the race last night.?

The Demons swept the 800, with Molly Sparks taking second overall in the event.

Individually, the Demons earned seven other individual top-3 finishes, led by the 400-meter hurdle group of Mackenzie Knutson and Jessie Buchholz. Knutson took second in the event with a 1:15.69, while Buchholz finished one second behind her with a 1:16.62. Buchholz also took third in the 100-meter hurdles with a 17.77.

Kelly Wheeler sprinted to a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash with a 14.07, while Isabel Bailey took third in the 200-meter dash with a 29.40.

Maggie Voss took third in the 3000-meter run, posting a 13:25.95, while McKayla Miller threw 33 feet ? 6.25 inches in the shot to finish in third.

In the relays, Washington?s Drake Relay qualifying 4x100-meter relay team had a strong race, claiming first on the night, and will be traveling up to Des Moines on Friday for their run in Des Moines.

Wheeler, Jenah Greiner, McKenzie Marek and Amber Salow will be making the Drake trip and competing on Friday night, and Tschantz said she is excited to watch them compete on the big stage.

?The 4x100 is extremely excited to be running up at Drake,? Tschantz said. ?It is such a fun experience for the girls; not only are they able to run on the track, they are also able to watch some of the best track and field athletes in the world compete. I know in the past the girls have come back from Drake with so much more excitement about the sport and goals they want to accomplish.?

The Demons also claimed a first-place finish at the Eckstrand Relays in the distance medley with the team of Marek, Knutson, Ashley Telleen and Claire Horak.

Washington had four second-place finishes in the relays, with  the 4x200-meter relay (Salow, Bailey, Greiner and Wheeler), 4x400 (Bailey, Telleen, Sparks, Horak), 4x800 (Sparks, Raber, Emme Keith, Jasmine Mares) and sprint medley team (Marek, Salow, Wheeler, Greiner) all posting strong races.

On the boys? side of the meet, the Demons took fifth place, posting 96 points, behind Central Lee?s meet-winning score of 148.

Washington had a number of strong finishes, with five athletes posting top-3 individual finishes, and three relays finishing among the top 2 on the day.

?It was a good night,? Washington boys? track head coach Steve Roth said. ?A lot of different names scored. I really liked the way they competed last night. It was a cool, chilly night, and it was awesome to see.?

One of the biggest performances came in the field events, with Cale Hobscheidt notching a personal best in the discus with a throw of 107 feet ? 8 inches to take second overall.

The Demons also saw Mark Engelken place fifth in the discus, while Collin Murphy took fourth in the shot put (38 feet ? 1.5 inches) and Kyle Schindler finishing fifth in the long jump (17 feet ? 5.5 inches).

?We haven?t had that (in the field events) yet this year, and they set PRs to do it,? Roth said. ?That?s what?s nice about it. It?s their best and they are being rewarded for that.?

In the running events, Schindler posted a strong time in his return to the 100-meter dash, taking second with a 12.35, while Jack Giardino took second in the 200-meter dash with a 24.47.

Caleb Bex finished in second in the 110-meter hurdles with a 16.80, while Brennan Horak took third in the 3000-meter run with a run of 11:16.59.

In the relays, the Demons excelled in the sprints, with Giardino, Bryce Rickey, Ethan Hansen and Jose Tapia winning the 4x100-meter relay, and Hansen, Rickey, Schindler and Tapia claiming the title in the 4x200.

Bryce Craff, Jose Tapia, Jack Giardino and Cade Hennigan combined for a second-place finish in the shuttle hurdle relay.

The week off in between meets helped the Demon boys prepare for the final stretch of the season.

?It helped us a lot, because I got some legs back,? Roth said. ?They were tired and so we were able to do some fine-tuning and get some technique stuff done. We wanted to get our legs back for the next two or three weeks, because that?s going to be big. I was impressed last night how it all worked out.?

Both the Demon track teams will be in action on Monday at Fairfield.