Lilly Thompson winning the 800. Teammates Payton Birkel, Tessa Rainforth and Haylee Kaufman in background. Photo courtesy Mike Peterson
The O’Neill Lady Eagles Track and Field team braved the elements to compete in the Plainview Invite on Friday, April 1st. From snow, to sleet to sun and wind, the Lady Eagles managed to put together a great meet to win the team title defeating runner-up Norfolk Catholic 172.5 to 150. This was their first invitational team title since 2011.
O’Neill won the meet despite just having one individual champion, freshman Lilly Thompson in the 800 meter run. Lilly won the event with a time of 2:40.5. Teammates Payton Birkel and Tessa Rainforth finished in 3rd and 4th places respectively in the event.
The Lady Eagle throwers also had a fine day, medaling three individuals in the shot put. Blair Langan finished in 2nd place with her personal best throw of 31’ 4”. Emily Morrow also had a personal best throw of 31’ to finish just behind Blair for 3rd. Gabbie Scott rounded out the placers in the shot by placing 4th with a toss of 28’ 3”. Gabbie and Blair also medaled in the discus. Gabbie threw the disc 84’ 4” to finish in the 4th spot while Blair finished in 6th with a throw of 78’ 11”
O’Neill’s jumpers also placed well led by Allison Ludwig’s 2nd place finishes in both the triple and long jumps. Allison jumped 29’ 3/4” in the triple and 13’ 5” in the long jump. Freshman Claire Morrow finished just behind Allison with a long jump of 13’ 4” to finish in 3rd. Julia Bauer and Gloria Turpin also placed in the triple jump. Julia finished in 3rd with a jump of 28’ 5 3/4” and Gloria finishing 5th with a jump of 25’ 8”.
The vaulters also had a nice showing with all three vaulters placing. Mikayla Marvin finished as runner-up with a vault of 9’. Teammates Caleigh Miles and Amanda Pischel also placed. Both cleared 7’ 6” to finish in 4th and 5th places respectively.
In the hurdle races, Aurora Gutshall placed in 2nd place in the 100 high hurdles and 4th in the 300 low hurdles. Teammate Samantha Eichelberger also had a nice showing in the hurdle races by placing 3rd in the highs and 2nd in the lows. Samantha also scored for the Eagles in the 100 meter dash with a 3rd place finish.
O’Neill’s distance runners also scored with Abby Gillham finishing 3rd in the 3200 and 2nd in the 1600. Alexis Montes finished right behind Abby for 3rd and Whitney Watson finishing in 4th. Whitney also placed 4th in the 3200.
O’Neill’s relay teams all scored with the 3200 relay leading the way with a first place finish. The team consisting of Payton Birkel Lilly Thompson, Tessa Rainforth and Claire Morrow won the event with a time of 11:40. The 1600 relay team finished in 2nd place with a time of 4:54.3. Team members included Briaunna Parks, Claire Morrow, Mikayla Marvin and Lilly Thompson. The 4 x 100 relay team finished out the relay placers with a 3rd place finish. Team members were Aurora Gutshall, Briaunna Parks, Allison Ludwig and Samantha Eichelberger.
“I really liked how hard we competed in less than ideal conditions. We have not one a team title since 2011 and this should be a big boost to our team. We had many athletes compete very well in many different areas. I like the competitiveness of this group. They really want to do well. We look forward to competing on Saturday, April 9th, in the super competitive Aurora Invitational.”
