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Saturday, May 8, 2004
Women of Troy cruise
West High shines on cool day
By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
CEDAR RAPIDS - Stocking caps, gloves, hooded sweatshirts and heavy coats were fashionable clothing at the Mississippi Divisional
meet.
The air was cool, the wind was brisk, and a Friday night track meet in May felt more like an October evening cross country
race.
For the West High girls, the dreary conditions were absolutely beautiful.
"I think they're perfect," West's Claire Hall said after the Women of Troy won their fifth Mississippi Valley Conference divisional
title in seven years on Friday in Cedar Rapids Prairie. "Everyone else (on other teams) is thinking, 'This is my worst day.'
West High track thinks, 'This is my best day.'
"Mentally, they're going to be thinking 'This is the wrong weather for me, I can't run fast in this.' At West, we're always
thinking this is the best weather, this is when we run the best."
The final standings don't dispute Hall's argument. West High cruised to the team title by racking up 159 points - 57 ahead
of second-place Dubuque Hempstead.
"Elements or not, what we hoped to gain out of this meet was a conference title," West High coach Mike Parker said. "As we
talked about before we got here, I don't want to hear that it's windy, it's cold; it's the same for everybody."
Parker said the Women of Troy took a cross country approach to the meet.
"You come in and your time doesn't mean anything," he said, "but your place means everything."
West's evening was highlighted by a sweep of the individual distance events and underlined by a strong showing in field events.
Sarah Wickman and Julia Frudden finished first and second in the 3,000. Hall and Frudden were one and two in the 800. Wickman
and Janet Dobyns were the top two in the 1,500.
Wickman said she and her teammates take pride in following the storied past started by other West distance runners.
"We hope it'll carry on," she said. "I feel good I'm carrying their tradition on."
The Women of Troy got a victory from Nicole Novak, Naomi Hillsman, Hall and Lizz Huntley in the 4x400, and West piled up 41
points solely on the strength of its performance in the field events.
Kolie Eko won the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 10 inches. Steph Koepp's toss of 123-6 won the discus. Danica Haight placed
second in the shot put, and Allison Dirks finished second in a field that included the top three among Class 4A high jumpers.
Cedar Rapids Prairie's Jessica Statler, Dirks and Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Alyssa Fisher entered the meet with the three best
jumps of the year.
Statler won the event by clearing 5-4 to finish ahead of Dirks, West's Cae Lamb and Fisher, who each cleared 5-3.
Dirks said she was looking forward to jumping against Statler, but the wind created problems for all the high jumpers.
"It's more mentally hard," Dirks said. "You try not to think about it, but (it's hard) when it's blowing in your face. I was
trying to wait for the wind to die before I jumped, but you've got a time limit."
MVC Mississippi Divisional
Team scores - 1. West High 159; 2. Dubuque Hempstead 102; 3. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 73; 4. Linn-Mar 64; 5. Waterloo West 61;
6. Cedar Rapids Prairie 35; 7. Waterloo East 8.
Winners, West place-winners
3,000 - 1. Sarah Wickman (W) 10:30.09; 2. Julia Frudden (W) 10:37.60.
4x800 - 1. Cedar Rapids Kennedy (Maggie Bobbin, Andrea Wacker, Megan Yossi, Audrey Smith) 10:24.71; 3. West (Cindi Klein,
Maggee Mitchell, Jacqueline Astor, Christine Skopec) 10:50.06.
Shuttle hurdle relay - 1. Dubuque Hempstead (Nina Schnee, Nichole Schnee, Cali Lyons, Leah Timmerman) 1:04.31; 2. West (Katie
Johnson, Christina Swift, Lindsay Freeman, Kristen Shaffer) 1:05.25.
Distance medley relay - 1. Linn-Mar (Melissa Becker, Nicole Novy, Lindsey Digmann, Chelsie Hoststedler) 4:24.67; 2. West (Heather
Brechtel, Lisa Mellecker, Nicole Novak, Janet Dobyns) 4:27.72.
100 - 1. Lindsey Derby (DH) 13.23; 6. Johnson (W) 13.67.
400 - 1. Alyssa Fisher (CRK) 59.27; 2. Lizz Huntley (W) 1:00.14; 3. Steph Mount (W) 1:03.72.
Shot put - 1. Ashley Simpson (DH) 42-51/2; 2. Danica Haight (W) 37-8; 3. Jane Ebot (W) 34-1.
Long jump - 1. Kolie Eko (W) 16-10; 5. Huntley (W) 15-11.
Discus - 1. Steph Koepp (W) 123-6; 4. Haight (W) 97-5.
High jump - 1. Jessica Statler (CRP) 5-4; 2. Allison Dirks (W) 5-3; 3. Cae Lamb (W) 5-3.
4x200 - 1. Dubuque Hempstead (Lyons, Timmerman, Nina Schnee, Derby) 1:51:06; 4. West (Naomi Hillsman, Rachel Park, Annie McAleer,
Jenna Holida) 2:00.44.
100 hurdles - 1. Lyons (DH) 16.00; 3. Swift (W) 16.69; 4. Freeman (W) 17.01.
800 - 1. Claire Hall (W) 2:25.18; 2. Frudden (W) 2:31.08.
200 - 1. Fisher (CRK) 26.28; 4. Huntley (W) 27.19; 5. Johnson (W) 27.25.
400 hurdles - 1. Chelsea Ronemous (WW) 1:10.49; 3. Kristen Shaffer (W) 1:15.39; 6. Chloe Mellecker (W) 1:18.98.
Sprint medley relay - 1. Dubuque Hempstead (Nicole Schnee, Nina Schnee, Derby, Melissa Dupont) 1:54.63; 3. West (Brechtel,
Sarah Minor, Mellecker, McAleer) 1:56.71.
1,500 - 1. Wickman (W) 4:52.34; 2. Janet Dobyns (W) 5:05.84.
4x100 - 1. Linn-Mar (Katelin Blasingame, Linsey Digman, Amanda Spencer, Marissa Becker) 52.17; 3. West (Brechtel, Freeman,
Swift, McAleer) 53.62.
4x400 - 1. West (Novak, Hillsman, Hall, Huntley) 4:08.08.
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