Lady Cats finish runner-up at Garnett

Louisburg’s Klara Riester clears a hurdle during the 100-meter hurdle race Thursday at the Anderson County Invitational in Garnett. Riester finished second in the 300 hurdles and third in the 100 hurdles. 

GARNETT – It seemed all the Louisburg High School girls track and field team needed was a warm Spring day to get itself back into a rhythm.

The Wildcats took advantage of the nice weather and showed big improvement in several areas during the Anderson County Invitational on Thursday in Garnett.

Louisburg finished second in the team standings won three events. The Lady Cats recorded 126 points to finish runner-up behind champion Anderson County (163 points) in the seven-team meet.

The Lady Cats picked up several medalists on the day and had a good outing in the field events.

Sophomore Isabelle Holtzen had her best performance of the season in the pole vault as she cleared 9 feet, 6 inches to win the event and senior teammate McKinley Mathews was third at 8-6.

Louisburg had its best day in the discus ring as it swept the top three placings. Sophomore Sophie McMullen had a season best throw of 105-8.5 to take first place. Junior Ellie Katzer was second with a toss of 96-7.25 and sophomore Lexie Reece was third at 95-4.5.

Sophomore Isabelle Holtzen vaults over the bar during the pole vault Thursday at the Anderson County Invitational. Holtzen won the event after she cleared 9-6.

“Isabelle just keeps getting better and I’m really excited to see where she ends this year,” Louisburg girls coach Greg Darrington said. “The discus throwers are all working hard and are finally getting into a rhythm. I really feel like they are going to begin to make some nice gains. They do have a long ways to go to catch some other girls in our league but I feel like they will get there with a couple more weeks of practice.”

In the triple jump, Kaitlyn Urban finished second overall with a leap of 31-3.5 to earn several points for the Lady Cats.

Eileen Benne (4-6), Shae Murphy (4-4) and Makenna Allen (4-4) took fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the high jump. Paige Buffington rounded out the field event point getters as she finished fifth (84-0) in the javelin.

Sophomore Mikayla Quinn had a season-best time in the 400-meter dash to lead the Lady Cats on the track as she ran a time of 1 minute and 5.4 seconds to take first place. Teammates Reilly Alexander (1:09) and Kaitlyn Gaza (1:10) came in fourth and sixth.

Klara Riester had a personal-best finish in both hurdles as she took second in the 300-meter hurdles in 52.20 and third in the 100 hurdles in 18.13. Lilly Mick came in fifth in the 300 hurdles in 55 seconds.

In the distance races, Madelynn Yalowitz was runner-up in the 3,200-meter run in 13:57, while Shaylor Whitham (14:34) and Alex Miller (14:39) finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

Liz Hildreth medaled third in the 800-meter run in 2:43 for a season-best finish. Hanna Becker was sixth in the 200 dash in 29.84.

“I felt the girls on the track did a great job,” Darrington said. “Liz and Madelynn did a good job and was nice to see them compete and medal. Klara is a good competitor with guts and some raw talent. It was nice to see her have some success as well.”

The Lady Cat relay teams also placed high and started with the 4×800 team. Hildreth, Holtzen, Whitham and Lauren Becker finished runner-up in 11:07, while Alexander, Quinn, Gaza and Lemke helped the 4×400 to a second-place finish as well in 4:36.

Gaza, Lemke, Quinn and Hanna Becker ran a time of 54.44 seconds in the 4×100 relay to take third overall.

Louisburg returns to the track Thursday when it hosts the Louisburg Invitational at Wildcat Stadium. The meet is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.

Other Louisburg results are:

100 dash: Grayson Anderson, 11^th, 14.86

200 dash: Mikayla Quinn, 9^th, 30.08; Anderson, 10^th, 30.66

400 dash: Megan Lemke, 7^th, 1:11

800 run: Isabelle Holtzen, 9^th, 2:57; Lauren Becker, 10^th, 2:58

1,600 run: Madelynn Yalowitz, 8^th, 6:29; Shaylor Whitham, 9^th, 6:31; Alex Miller, 10^th, 6:32

Long jump: Lemke, 9^th, 13-6; Eileen Benne, 15^th, 12-11.5; Kaitlyn Urban, 16^th, 12-8; Shae Murphy, 19^th, 11-0

Triple jump: Makenna Allen, 9^th, 27-10.5; Benne, 10^th, 27-7.5

Shot put: Morgan Strumillo, 9^th, 28-4.5; Ellie Katzer, 10^th, 28-4; Zoie Gilliland 20^th, 25-7.5; Ainsley Vance, 24^th, 18-11.5

Discus: Holly Turner, 10^th, 77-6; Ryann Kramer, 14^th, 69-9.25

Javelin: Kramer, 8^th, 83-5; Gilliland, 9^th, 82-0; Turner, 12^th, 69-3; Lexie Reece, 17^th, 63-10

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