GHV girls qualify five events

It was a successful day for the Garner-Hayfield-Ventura girls track team at the Class 2A Qualifying meet held on Thursday, May 11, at Garner.  The Cardinals qualified in five events to compete at the State Track Meet to be held this week at Drake Stadium.

Jadyn Hughes, Jillian Heitland and Emma Whelan will do the honors of representing GHV at the State Meet as individuals.  The shuttle hurdle team also qualified.

“We are beyond excited to be sending five events down to State,” said Coach Dyan Childress.  “The girls have worked so hard and set out to reach their goals.  They found the extra fight in themselves to have the opportunity to be down on the blue oval.”

Hughes qualified by placing second in both the 100 and 200 meter dash.  She qualified in the 100 with a time of 13.01 and in the 200 in 27.44.

Heitland placed second in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:09.75.

Whelan will compete in the high jump at the State Meet.  She tied for first with a jump of 4’10”.

The shuttle hurdle team of Madeline Hinz, Mara Anderson, Rachel Hejlik and Heitland placed fifth at the meet, but because their time of 1:11.14 was one of the better ones in the state, they qualified.  Rebekah Larson is the alternate.

“The excitement started with

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the individual events that made it automatically and the excitement continued when we found out the shuttle hurdle team made it from the slow heat and fifth place.  They ran fast enough to secure one of the next eight spots,” said Childress.

GHV finished fifth as a team in the 12-team competition with 60.5 points.  Pochontas Area won the meet with 137 points, followed by Osage with 132.

Hannah Whelan and Rebekah Larson also had good days, with both placing in the 1500 and 3000 meter runs.  In the 1500, Whelan was seventh with a time of 5:45.94 and Larson was eighth in 5:49.11.  They were back-to-back again in the 3000, with Whelan finishing in 12:31.03 for sixth place and Larson was seventh in 12:38.38.

In the field events, Amanda Bierle was third in the high jump, clearing 4’8”; Hinz was sixth in the long jump with a leap of 14’6.50” and Hejlik was seventh in the shot put with a toss of 32’10”.

The Cardinals had three other relay events that earned points. The 4x200 relay team of Alison Johnson, Hinz, Hejlik and Hughes was sixth in 1:55.52.  The sprint medley team finished in seventh place with a time of 2:01.69.  Members of the team were Bierle, Heitland, Hinz and Johnson.  The distance medley team of Summer Eenhuis, Ashley LaBounty, Rachel Sokol and Hailey Mullins was eighth in 4:58.55.

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