Lady Cats win Prairie View Invitational

By Andy Brown
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Updated: May 4, 2016

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg junior Madelynn Yalowitz leads a pack of runners in the 1,600-meter run during a meet earlier this season. Yalowitz and the Lady Cats won the Prairie View Invitational last Thursday with 97 points.

LA CYGNE – Going into the final event of the night, the Louisburg girls track and field team found itself just out of first by a handful of points Thursday at the Prairie View Invitational.

The Lady Cat 4×400-meter relay team of Megan Lemke, Reilly Alexander, Kaitlyn Gaza and Mikayla Quinn had an opportunity to put the team on their back and get Louisburg’s first team title of the season.

They did just that.

Lemke, Alexander, Gaza and Quinn blew away the field by more than five seconds to win gold in 4 minutes and 33 seconds and vault ahead in the team standings to give Louisburg the team title with 97 points and finished 10 points ahead of runner-up Kansas City-Lutheran.

“The 4×400 team really came through with a good performance when we needed it and got us a win, which was great to see,” Louisburg coach Greg Darrington said.

Although the relay was the only event the Lady Cats won on the day, Louisburg scored points in 16 of the 18 events.

The Lady Cats got several points on the track and Quinn was second in the 400-meter dash in 1:05.63 and Gaza was right behind her in third in 1:05.73. Alexander came in fifth in 1:08.

Also in the sprints, Jordon Leach had a strong day as she took fourth in the 200 dash in 29.22, Gaza, was fifth in 29.26 and Hanna Becker came in sixth with a time of 29.46. Leach finished fifth in the 100 dash in 13.88 seconds.

In the distance races, Liz Hildreth was fourth (2:40) in the 800-meter run. Madelynn Yalowitz (14:10), Shaylor Whitham (14:27) and Alex Miller (14:57) finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run. Yalowitz also scored points in the 1,600 run as she took sixth (6:26).

Klara Riester placed in both hurdle events as she came in fourth in the 300-meter hurdles in 53 seconds and was fifth in the 100 hurdles in 18.07. Teammate Lilly Mick also scored points in the 300 hurdles as she took fifth in 56.04 seconds.

The 4×800 relay team also scored some big points as it came in second in 10:59 and the 4×100 squad was third in 54.79.

“I’m really proud of our runners for competing and scoring in just about all our events,” Darrington said. “We may not have placed many in the top three but almost all of the running events we scored in. I really think Klara has a chance to be a state qualifier if she keeps improving in the hurdles.”

Junior Chloe Renner had a big day for Louisburg in the jumps as she scored points in all three of her events. Renner finished third in the high jump (4 feet, 8 inches) and long jump (16-0). Later she took fifth in the triple jump (31-4.5).

Sophomore Kaitlyn Urban led the way in the triple jump and finished third (31-8.5). Freshman Eileen Benne was fourth in the high jump (4-8) and Lemke came in sixth in the long jump (13-10.5).

In the throws, Lexie Reece scored points in the discus with a throw of 86-0.50 to take fifth and Zoie Gilliland was sixth in the javelin with a toss of 85-10.

“I was really proud of Renner and Urban as both girls really competed well,” Darrington said. “My throwers had a rough day, but they are going to keep working hard to improve.”

Although many of the varsity boys didn’t attend the meet, the Wildcats still scored points in a few events.

Freshman Ian Combs led the way as he took runner-up in the pole vault after he cleared 10-6 and senior Bradley Trageser was fourth in the shot put with a mark of 42-8.75. Senior Marshall Rooney was sixth in the triple jump (35-10).

The 4×400 relay came in fourth in 3:52 and the 4×800 relay was fifth in 9:38.

Louisburg will return to the track Friday when it competes at the Redbud Relays in Wellsville. Field events are set to begin at 3:30 p.m.

Other results from the meet are: