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Strong showing for West
By John Riehl
The Gazette
Saturday, April 12, 2003, 11:17:31 PM
IOWA CITY -- The Iowa City West girls' track team could have remained huddled together for their post-meet talk well into
the evening Saturday after winning their sixth straight Women of Troy Relays title.
After every competition, Coach Mike Parker challenges his athletes to come up with a teammate's personal-best performance
from that particular meet.
Saturday afternoon, so many hands went into the air that the coach didn't have time to call on everyone.
Nothing new there. It's that way after every meet.
"Everyone knows how well everyone else is doing in the events," freshman Claire Hall said. "I can walk up to a hurdler and
say her time was great today and actually know what I'm talking about."
Parker had glowing remarks about Hall and junior Amanda Judisch after West used a strong showing to beat second-place Mount
Pleasant, 154-135, for the title at Trojan Field. West and Mount Pleasant finished second and fourth, respectively, in Class
3A at last year's state meet.
Hall ran a 1-minute, 1-second leadoff leg on the winning 1,600 relay team that set a meet record of 4:04.628, which also is
the state's fastest time. Steph Mount, Lindsey Windauer and University of Illinois recruit Lynn Dobyns rounded out the team.
Judisch won the 200 (26.683) and anchored the second-place 400 relay to its fastest time of the season (51.895).
"The biggest surprise to this point would have to be Claire Hall. She's just running phenomenal for us," Parker said. "Amanda
Judisch is by far the fastest girl on the team.
"They are the difference for us."
Judisch is encouraged by the contributions of Hall and her fellow freshmen, which is fueling her high hopes for the Women
of Troy.
"I'm really excited about what we can achieve this year," Judisch said. "Last year was good. We got second, but we're hoping
for a little more this year. Nobody is expecting us to do it."
Xavier sophomore Erin Penticoff established a meet record in the 800, winning in 2:17.699. She nipped Dobyns, who finished
in 2:17.981.
"I didn't shoot to break the meet record, but I knew I wanted to try and break 2:20," said Penticoff, who finished sixth in
the event at state in 2002. "I had never broke 2:20 before. Before today, I had a borderline time to get into the Drake Relays.
Now, I'm in for sure."
Prairie, led by Holly Joens' victories in the shot put (37-3) and discus (113-8), placed third with 84 points.
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