Highland girls track gets strong individual performances at MVC Meet, look to sectionals
The Highland girls track team entered last Thursday’s Mississippi Valley Conference championship meet less focused on team success and more focused on individual success and getting more state qualifying marks.
Highland did well in the latter and that left Bulldogs coach Nick Schaible feeling good about his teams as they prep for the Class 2A sectional meet later this week.
“Performance wise I thought we did really good,” Schaible said. “I wasn’t really running them trying to place them that high in conference and we were kind of looking at overall times for this Thursday for sectionals. So with that and still getting fourth, I was really happy with the results.”
Senior Julianne Lindsco led the way for Highland with second place in the 400-meter run (1.00.75) and fifth place in the long jump (4. 69 meters).
“That was incredible,” Schaible said. “That was the first time she’d ever run the open four, and as a senior to crank out a 60-second open four time which is right at state qualifying was amazing. Long ump she’s doing great at still and we’re looking forward to seeing what she can do this Thursday.”
Junior Payton Frey came up big in the middle distance events, finishing second in the 800-meter run (2:21.34) as she continued her strong campaign.
“She’s really cranking out for trying to break her previous record that she set last year which was a 2:20 which was for the school record for Highland,” Schaible said. “She really wants to beat it again and I think she needs to work on her pacing a little bit.”
Rowan Passmore had a good day middle distance as she turned in s fifth-place finish (13:35.86) in the 3,200 meter run.
The Bulldogs also turned in top-shelf efforts in the relay races with fourth-place finishes in the 4 x 100 relay, 4 x 200 relay, 4 x 800 relay, and a third-place finish in the 4 x 400 relay.
Schaible was thrilled with the performance of Lindsco, Maya Pollard, Sophia Thomas, and Frey as they clocked a time of 4:08.16 to take third in the 4 x 400 race.
“The relays are fantastic and that 4 x 4 is something we’re gonna keep watching because they are one second off of our school record and they’re about five seconds into state qualifying time,” Schaible said. “The 4 x 4 is something we haven’t seen a lot of success with the last couple of years, so to have a group of girls that can get those numbers consistently is awesome.”
In the throwing events, senior Larissa Taylor and Kylee Sowers placed second (9.22 meters) and third (9.11) in the shot put. The pair also solid showing the discus with Sowers placing fifth (28.73 meters) and Taylor placing sixth (28.25 meters).
Schaible believes Taylor has a good chance to qualify for state in the shot put. I think there’s a good chance for it,” Schaible said. She’s just gotta lock in and focus here for the last couple days of practice.”
Now HHS turns its attention to the Class 2A sectional meet on Thursday at Civic Memorial in Bethalto. Highland will compete with the likes of Triad, Civic Memorial, Mascoutah, and East St. Louis to qualify for several entries for the Class 2A meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on May 16-18.
“So, really we’re looking at state qualifying time standards,” Schaible said. “We’re looking to hit those and overall placement, I haven’t really too much just at too much because we really don’t see the difference between going for fourth or third in that aspect, so we’re pushing for individual times, trying to break some records, and looking at overall state standards.”