Girls track team competes hard at Conference

The track team traveled to Sandy Creek on Saturday, April 28 for the Conference track meet. The Fairbury athletes performed well at the meet, with the girls’ team placing third overall.

The Lady Jeffs throwers had a productive day at Sandy Creek, with four of the girls placing. Izze Schwab ’20 made it to finals and placed sixth in shot put with a throw of 36’9″, Myranda Humphrey ’18 placed fourth in shot put and fifth in discus, Jessa Eden ’19 placed second in discus and Sara Huss ’20 placed fourth.

“Izze and I both got season PR’s which is always something to be proud of…” Humphrey said. “Discus was a little rough with a sore shoulder for me and Jessa and Sara running back and forth from running events to throwing events.”

Many of the other girls running and field event athletes placed well at the conference meet. The 4×4 team placed second, Josephine Blatny ’20 placed fifth in the mile and fifth in the 3200, Mikwena Lierman ’21 placed third in the 800 and sixth in triple jump. Cora DeBoer ’20 placed fourth in the 100, Jaelle Johnson ’20 placed third in high jump, and Claire Shumard ’20 placed fifth in pole vault. The ever-improving 4×1 team also placed fourth at Sandy Creek, but their chances for the future could be different due to injury.

“We’ve done pretty good most of the season. Our handoffs have improved tremendously from last year,” Rielee Achtemeier ’19 said. “But now Janessa and I are both injured so it will be different. I’ve placed at every meet except the last one.”

The track team will be in action again on Thursday, May 3 at Raymond Central and then the following Thursday, May 10 at the District meet, which will be held at home. The team continues to improve in anticipation for districts and State.

“The numbers went up a lot and that’s really good because we’ve won a meet and that hasn’t been done in a very long time,” Achtemeier said. “I look forward to making it to State and a lot of other girls making it to State.”