Those fans were treated to some incredible showings as well, but most of all from the West Marshall girls, who defended their 2017 title by taking the 2018 team championship with a score of 155.

Senior Isabelle Gradwell was the star for the Trojans. Shel won the high jump by matching her season-best of 5 feet, 2 inches, then on the track she won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.4 seconds, the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:10.52, and she anchored the shuttle hurdle relay to a win, running alongside Lexi Keigan, Morgan Schuh and Addi Moore.

Just a few minutes after finishing her final race of the day in the 400 hurdles, Gradwell said she had a good time going against some talented athletes, particularly Melinda Puumala from East Marshall.

“There was a lot of good competition, especially in the high jump. I had to jump a little higher today,” Gradwell said. “In the 100 hurdles I also almost got beat, Melinda Puumala ran really well tonight. And from the 400 hurdles I am still really dead, that’s a terrible race.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Grundy Center junior Hailey Wallis, middle, leads the pack in the 100-meter dash while East Marshall’s Genesis Wanatee, left, and West Marshall’s Ashlen Young attempt to catch up during Monday’s NICL West Division championships.

Gradwell actually missed the 2017 NICL West meet due to injuries from the basketball season, so she said this was a great way to close out her time competing in the conference.

West Marshall of course had other great showings on the day, including the relay team of Avril Sinning, Emma Meyer, Kayla Cripps and Keigan winning both the 4×100 and 4×200 and the distance medley team of Keigan, Sinning, Cripps and Grace Girard also taking a victory.

AGWSR finished second with a score of 103. The Cougars also had an incredible individual performance, theirs coming from junior Aubrie Fisher, who was the 2017 meet MVP.

On paper Fisher won three individual events and anchored the 4×800 team to a victory, but saying she won those events really doesn’t do it justice. She had an enormous amount of running to do, going nearly four total miles in her four races, and when they all finished she was alone on the finish line. Fisher won the 3,000 with a time of 11:57.07, the 1,500 with a time of 5:24.99, and the 800 with a time of 2:32.45. Her 3,000 time was nearly 20 seconds faster than second place, and her 1,500 and 800 times were over 10 seconds faster than second.

After a performance like that, Fisher said she’s ready to go show her stuff at the state qualifying meets on Thursday.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • AGWSR junior Aubrie Fisher, left, heads down a straightaway during the 3,000-meter race on Monday in the NICL West Division championships while Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Lily Ehlers gives chase. Fisher won the race, as well as the 1,600 and 800.

“I am feeling good going into districts, I didn’t want to completely burn myself out tonight, I just knew I needed to do what I had to do to win so I could maybe save some for Thursday,” she said. “I really want to be ready to run my best times then.”

Joining Fisher on the 4×800 relay win were Mandy Willems, Ali Gerbracht and Haley Bakker. Katelyn Pfaltzgraff took second in the 400 hurdles for AGWSR as well, while the distance medley team of Willems, Gerbracht, Pfaltzgraff and Makenna Kuper also took second.

Meet-host Grundy Center took third in the meet, finishing just behind the Cougars with a score of 101. Junior Hailey Wallis and sophomore Kyah Luhring were both the leaders of the Spartans, with both winning twice individually and twice with a relay team.

Wallis won the 100 with a time of 13.42, and she took first in the 400 with a 1:04.36. Luhring won the 200 with a time of 26.49, and she finished atop the list in the long jump with a vault of 16-4.25.

They both were on the sprint medley team that placed first, along with Landry Luhring and Brooke Flater, and Kyah led off the same group in the 4×400 with Wallis anchoring the team to a win. After the meet, Wallis said those victories in the relay are more enjoyable than the individual wins because of what it takes to win in those races.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“I think when people think of track they don’t necessarily think of a team sport, they think of individually, but in these relays we all have to stick together and encourage each other and I think track is one of those sports where you have to come together the most,” Wallis said. “You have to encourage each other and lean on each other in those team relays.”

Brittany Burroughs had a great day in the discus, placing second in the event, while Kylie Willis also took fourth in the shot put for Grundy Center.

East Marshall was next in the meet, placing fourth with a score of 87. A rash of second-place finishes were the highlight for the Mustangs, as Genesis Wanatee placed second in the 100, Puumala took second in the 100 hurdles by finishing just two hundreths of a second behind Gradwell, Raeann Meling placed second in the high jump, as did the 4×100 team of Wanatee, Puumala, Madison Duncan and Brittany Anderson and the 4×800 team of Duncan, Cindy Liera, Wendy Liera and Morgan Kremer-Awes.

BCLUW placed fifth in the meet with a score of 59. Kiersten Kruse had the best placing of the day, taking second in the long jump and third in the high jump. Lizzie Garber finished just behind in the high jump in fourth, and she took third in the 100 hurdles.

South Hardin was sixth as a team with a score of 47. Most of that scoring came in the throws, where junior Brylie Ziesneiss continued to dominate.

Zeisneiss started her day with a win in the shot put, throwing a 44-3 1/2, but her best performance came in the discus. Zeisneiss had been struggling with her discus throws, placing 17th in the Drake Relays after entering as the No. 3 seed, but she shrugged off those struggles with a beautiful throw of 140-7 1/2, which broke both her personal record and a Tiger school record.

“I saw it soar past the third line and thought ‘oh it won’t go too far,’ but it just kept going and going,” Zeisneiss said of her mammoth toss. “It came down at 140 feet and I couldn’t have been happier, I looked at [coach Mike Olson] and I was trying not to smile in the ring but I couldn’t hold it back, I was so happy.”

Gladbrook-Reinbeck was the final team in the meet, taking seventh with a score of 24. Lily Ehlers made of 22 of those 24 points, placing second in the 1,500 and 3,000 and third in the 400 individually.

NICL West Division Championship

At Grundy Center

GIRLS

Team Standings — 1. West Marshall 155, 2. AGWSR 103, 3. Grundy Center 101, 4. East Marshall 87, 5. BCLUW 59, 6. South Hardin 47, 7. Gladbrook-Reinbeck

24.

Event Results (top 3)

100 — 1. Wallis, GC, 13.42; 2. Wanatee, EM, 13.8; 3. Kuper, AGWSR, 13.88.

200 — 1. K. Luhring, GC, 26.49; 2. Meyer, WM, 27.37; 3. Kuper, AGWSR, 28.7.

400 — 1. Wallis, GC, 1:04.36; 2. Young, WM, 1:07.94; 3. Ehlers, G-R, 1:10.2.

800 — 1. Fisher, AGWSR, 2:32.45; 2. Hohnstein, WM, 2:42.90; 3. C. Liera, EM, 2:45.86.

100 HURDLES — 1. Gradwell, WM, 16.4; 2. Puumala, EM, 16.42; 3. Garber, BCLUW, 16.63.

1,500 — 1. Fisher, AGWSR, 5:24.99; 2. Ehlers, G-R, 5:35.76; 3. Girard, WM, 5:37.42.

3,000 — 1. Fisher, AGWSR, 11:57.07; 2. Ehlers, G-R, 12:14.73; 3. Rivera, GC, 12:59.18.

400 HURDLES — 1. Gradwell, WM, 1:10.52; 2. Pfaltzgraff, AGWSR, 1:12.52; 3. Puumala, EM, 1:13.16.

DISCUS — 1. Zeisneiss, SH, 140-7 1/2; 2. Burroughs, GC, 102-7 1/2; 3. Schaper, WM, 102-5.

HIGH JUMP — 1. Gradwell, WM, 5-2; 2. Meling, EM, 4-10; 3. Kruse, BCLUW, 4-10.

LONG JUMP — 1. K. Luhring, GC, 16-4 1/4; 2. Kruse, BCLUW, 15-1 1/2; 3. Hames, AGWSR, 14-5 1/2.

SHOT PUT — 1. Zeisneiss, SH, 44-3 1/2; 2. Schaper, WM, 36-10; 3. Asche, BCLUW, 33-7 1/2.

4×100 — 1. West Marshall 52.24, 2. East Marshall 53.41, 3. BCLUW 55.9.

4×200 — 1. West Marshall 1:49.99, 2. Grundy Center 1:57.13, 3. South Hardin 2:00.7.

4×400 — 1. Grundy Center 4:21.04, 2. West Marshall 4:28.18, 3. AGWSR 4:38.63.

4×800 — 1. AGWSR 10:38.19, 2. East Marshall 11:13.42, 3. West Marshall 11:47.79.

SHUTTLE HURDLE — 1. West Marshall 1:10.96, 2. BCLUW 1:11.05, 3. East Marshall 1:11.5.

SPRINT MEDLEY — 1. Grundy Center 1:55.25, 2. South Hardin 2:06.21, 3. West Marshall 2:09.05.

DISTANCE MEDLEY — 1. West Marshall 4:34.93, 2. AGWSR 4:52.55, 3. Grundy Center 5:09.01.

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