Lady Cats finish second at Wellsville as relay breaks school record

The Louisburg 4×100-meter relay of (from left) Kendall Crossley, Mackenzie Rooney, Emma Lohse and Suzanna Dansel broke the school record in the event Friday at Wellsville with a time of 50.14.

WELLSVILLE — The Louisburg girls track and field team had, quite possibly, its best finish on the season Friday at the Red Bud Classic in Wellsville.

The Lady Cats made a little history to go along with it.

Louisburg finished runner-up at the 15-team meet with 97 points, just 10 points behind champion Spring Hill.

“It has been a while since we have placed top two at Wellsville,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “It is a testament to how hard they have been working and preparing for the postseason.”

The Lady Cats also rewrote a little part of their track history. The 4×100-meter relay team of Mackenzie Rooney, Suzanna Dansel, Kendall Crossley and Emma Lohse, not only won the event, but broke the school record time with a time of 50.14 seconds.

They broke the old record of 50.59, that was set in 2019 by Jordan Leach, Carlee Gassman, Rain Pugh and Sydni Keagle.

“The 4×1 ran a great race, and not only broke the record, they blew it up,” Reece said. “They are setting themselves up to run very fast here at the end of the season.”

Lohse continued that dominance in her individual races as she took first in the 100-meter dash in 12.61 seconds and first in the 200 dash in 26.67 seconds.

“Emma is a fierce competitor,” Reece said. “She does not always show it in her expressions, but definitely in her performance. She has also been a great leader this year for the underclassmen with her work ethic and preparation at meets.”

Freshman Suzanna Dansel was second in the 100 dash in 12.84 and finished fourth in the 200 in 27.19 to help the Lady Cats. 

Also on the track, Rooney scored points in both hurdle events. She took third in the 300 hurdles in 49.47 seconds and seventh in the 100 in 17.40.

Junior Emma Vohs finished fourth in the 400 dash in 1:03.94, while Crossley was sixth at 1:04.58. In the distance races, junior Maddy Rhamy was seventh in the 3,200 run in 13:13.

The Lady Cats also scored points in the other two relay events as the 4×400 team of Rooney, Lohse, Vohs and Crossley finished third in 4:21. Vohs, Rhamy, Erin Apple and Delanie Tally took seventh in the 4×800 relay in 10:48.

In the field events, junior Katie Elpers finished runner-up in the javelin with a throw of 120 feet, 10 inches. Junior Maddy Carpenter-Ross also took second in the pole vault after she cleared 10 feet.

Senior Emma Prettyman scored points in all three throwing events. Prettyman finished fifth the discus (109-4), javelin (113-10) and shot put (35-0.5).

“As a whole team, the girls are competing well,” Reece said. “You can’t PR every meet, but you can step up to the competition and perform your best to put pressure on your competitors. Great things are in the future for this team.”

Louisburg is back in action today for the Frontier League meet at Baker University and Liston Stadium. Events begin at 2 p.m.

Other results are:

800 run: Nova Ptacek, 12th, 2:45; Erin Apple, 13th, 2:46

1,600 run: Ptacek, 15th, 6:11; Delanie Tally, 17th, 6:18

100 hurdles: Kate Frederick, 9th, 17.87

300 hurdles: Frederick, 10th, 53.77

Discus: Kenna Lohse, 17th, 92-7

Javelin: Lohse, 17th, 89-9

Shot Put: Lohse, 10th, 31-2.5