Central girls edge South Winn to repeat as conference champs

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

The Central girls track and field team started last week at the Ed-Co Girls Invitational, in preparation for the UIC meet that followed. According to coach Martha Bauder, it was one of the windiest meets she can remember.

“The Ed-Co meet was one for the books as far as weather goes…Runners were almost at a standstill around the first corner and the discus was sometimes dropping 30 feet less than normal,” Bauder said. 

The rough conditions meant personal records and season bests were hard to come by, with the Warriors achieving just eight total. They finished the meet with 22 top 10 finishes in 19 events and scored 69 points, which put them in fourth place. 

Bauder said it “was still good to compete and see what you could do under extreme conditions. We were also trying to still gather information on our athletes in order to help figure out possible conference and district line-ups, so we had to make the best of the conditions.”

The weather did little to slow down the Warriors in the field events, where Brooke Tieden continued to compile top-five finishes in the high jump, this time with a third-place height of 4-08. Eva-Rosa Van Der Heide followed in seventh with a jump of 4-02. 

In the long jump, Hannah Asche landed a second-place distance of 15-08.75, less than two inches out of first place, while Lexi Loan leapt into eighth place with a jump of 14-02.75. 

In the throwing events, the wind held Layla Embretson to a distance of 80-07 in the discus, which put her ninth, and Delaney Scherf was seventh in the shot put with a mark of 30-09.50. 

The sprint races resulted in just two top-10  finishes for the Warriors. One came in the 100-meter dash, where Tori Sylvester ran  to ninth in 13.67, a little over one second out of first place. Oakley Armstrong was 19th, but her time of 14.79 seconds was a new personal record. 

In the 200-meter dash, Staci Herman led Central with a 14th-place finish in a personal record time of 31.12 seconds, and Savannah Orr finished 16th. The 400 featured a 10th-place mark for Alexis Thiese, while Aspen Rork placed 15th. 

The Warriors fared slightly better in the distance races, starting with a 16th-place finish by Coral Rork in the 800. Rork improved to fourth in the 3000, followed by Layla Embretson in fifth. In the 1500, Thiese and Aspen Rork were a respective ninth and 12th. 

The Warriors achieved three personal records in the 100-meter hurdles, as Taylor Moser finished eighth in 17.79 seconds and Loan 10th in 18.22. Alivia Wiley hit the finish in 20.85 seconds, which as good for 19th. 

Moser returned for the 400 hurdles, placing eighth, while teammate Jaydin Dettman was fifth.

The relays were led by a third-place time in the sprint medley with Tori Sylvester, Loan, Grace Kuehl and Scherf, whose 2:00.97 time was less than two seconds out of first.

Central added a fourth-place finish in the shuttle hurdle with Loan, Gracie Cummer, Madylen Gregerson and Moser coming in less than six seconds out of first place. Then, it was another fourth-place time in the 4x400 with Berns, Armstrong, Wiley and Eva Embretson. 

The Warriors put together a fifth-place run in the 4x200 thanks to Kuehl, Sylvester, Dettman and Asche, then had a pair of sixth-place relays in the distance medley and 4x100. Wiley, Herman, Eva Embretson, and Reese Berns made up the former, while Kuehl, Cummer, Gregerson and Herman comprised the 4x100.

With that meet finished, the Warriors took aim at the May 4 Upper Iowa Conference meet at Clayton Ridge, where they looked to repeat as conference champions. 

“The weather at Clayton Ridge was glorious. The setting for their track facility is in a wonderful spot along the Mississippi. The temps and breeze were near perfect. Maybe a touch more wind than we would want on the finish stretch, but manageable compared to Ed-Co. Then, as the full moon rose in the sky, it was for sure the nicest meet of the season. And from the get-go, our girls were on a mission…and with every single event we either finished as expected or better than expected,” Bauder said. 

Central totaled 12 personal records and four season best marks, double placing in 10 out of the 12 individual events, grabbing six first-place finishes, five second places and 29 top 10s. 

The Warriors’ 169 points edged South Winneshiek by six points to claim the team title. In the last 16 years, the Warriors have either won or finished second at the UIC meet 13 times.

The field events were also a points mecca for Central, with 24 coming from the four events overall. Layla Embretson recorded four points with a fifth-place finish in the discus, while Gregerson just missed securing points with a ninth-place throw in the shot put. 

However, Brooke Tieden’s third-place finish in the high jump, where she cleared 4-10 feet, was good for six points, and Van Der Heide added three more by placing sixth. 

The long jump produced 11 points and two personal records, with Loan finishing eighth with a distance of 14-11.50 feet, while Asche won the event with a jump of 16-08.  

Central then hit the track running in the 100-meter dash, where Sylvester and Kuehl crossed a respective second and third, both coming within a half-second of taking the victory. 

Both athletes returned in the 200, with Sylvester hitting the line in fourth in 28.82, less than a second out of first place, and Kuehl finishing sixth in 29.71. 

It was a one-two finish in the 400, as Asche claimed victory in 1:01.49, followed closely by Scherf, who ran the race in 1:02.24. Both runners achieved new personal records.

Scherf was back on the track in the 800, putting together a third-place performance in 2:32.16, while Eva Embretson took fifth in a personal record time of 2:47.89. The 1500 added another fifth-place finish for the Warriors, this time with Thiese running the race in 6:12.11. Aspen Rork ran a personal best 6:33.50. Coral Rork competed in the 3000 and finished fourth in 14:36.88, while Layla Embretson was fifth. 

The hurdles produced an abundance of points for the Warriors, including a second-place finish in the 100 by Moser, who ran the race in 17.93 seconds. Berns took sixth. 

Moser returned for the 400 hurdles to claim third in 1:17.25, but she was outdueled by teammate Dettman, who crossed ahead of her in second in 1:15.75. 

In the relays, the 4x100 of Tessa Sylvester, Orr, Armstrong and Herman was fifth, and Gregerson, Wiley, Eva Embretson and Thiese were third in the distance medley.

The Warriors were second in the 4x200, with Kuehl, Dettman, Herman, and Tori Sylvester being edged by Kee High.

In the shuttle hurdle relay, the Warriors would not be denied the win, as Loan, Cummer, Gregerson and Moser finished in 1:17.10, two seconds ahead of second place. The Warriors also took the victory in the sprint medley behind a 1:56.08 from Kuehl, Loan, Sylvester and Scherf, who were almost three seconds ahead of second. 

The victories didn’t end there, though. Central won the 4x800 with Asche, Moser, Berns and Dettman, whose 10:32.78 was just ahead of the 10:32.93 by South Winn.

Then, what decided it all was the 4x400, as the Warriors were in a hotly contested battle for the conference championship against South Winneshiek. Scherf, Dettman, Berns and Asche carried the team to victory, easily defeating South Winn by almost 10 seconds.

“With the team race tight the whole way with South Winn, it came down to the 4x400 relay, where we were pretty sure we would be first or second if things went as planned. The girls came out blazing from our first runner to our last runner, with the mindset that no one was going to be close to them on the last race if they had anything to do with it. We ended up winning the race and the meet, so it was a pretty fun day,” Bauder said. 

The Warriors will ride that momentum into the state qualifying meet at Ed-Co on May 11.