Highland finishes second at home triangle meet
The Highland High School girls track and field team finished in second place at a home triangle meet on Tuesday of last week.
The Lady Bulldogs, who are coached by former HHS track and field standout Erin Strackeljahn Cotto, totaled 54 team points. Breese Central’s scored a winning total of 71 points, but Highland’s final team score was good enough to double up third-place Madison’s final tally of 27.
The Bulldogs merited first place in four different events. Senior Allison Zobrist doubled up on victories in the long distance events as she was first to the finish line in both the 3,200-meter run (12:21.6) and the 1,600 (6:11).
Also for Highland, junior Sarah Beth Wiegman was the champion in the discus with a mark of 84 feet, 4 inches, and sophomore Rece Portell captured first in the 800 with a two-lap time of 2:35.
Also placing in the top four for the Bulldogs were: Wiegman, second in the 3,200 (12:47.5); Portell, second place in the high jump (4-6); junior Polly Czar, second in the discus (82-3); junior Ariel Smock, second in the 100 hurdles (22.2); ; sophomore Kali Rutz, second in the 300 hurdles (66.9); sophomore Leah Sutton, third in the long jump (10-11.5); Czar, third in the shot put; senior Brianna Becherer, third in the 100 (13.7) and 400 (68.1); freshman Lily Becker, third in the 3,200 (14:17.7); freshman Abby Beyer, fourth in the shot put (29-8); junior Sydney Nyquist, fourth in the 800 (3:04.4); and Becker, fourth in the 400 (70.9).
Greenville Relays
Highland finished in 11th place out of 16 teams at the Greenville Relays on Saturday.
Mattoon was the team champion in both girls and boys. The Green Wave girls won with a final team score of 99 points to beat out the rest of the top five in the 16-team field: Pleasant Plains (81), Rochester (79), Pana (74) and Olympia (58).
Sophomore Alyssa Freimann scored the best finish for the Bulldogs after taking third place in the 400 with a strong one-lap itime of 1:03.77.
Also posting top-eight finishes for Highland were: the 4 x 800 relay team of Portell (2:32.8), Wiegman (2:42.5), Freimann (2:47.4) and Zobrist (2:41.9), second place (10:44.61); Wiegman, fifth in the discus (94-8); Czar, fifth in the shot put (31-10.50) and sixth in the discus (89-9); freshman Lily Becker, eighth in the 1,600 (6:21.14); and the 4 x 400 relay team of Zobrist (67.8), Becherer (68.1), Wiegman (71.2) and Portell (67.6), eighth place (4:34.70).
Mascoutah meet
On Tuesday, March 22, Highland placed fourth out of five teams at Mascoutah.
Cahokia racked up 118 final team points, which edged runner-up Mascoutah (116) by two points. Rounding out the field were Jerseyville (51), Highland and Althoff (25).
Winning one event apiece for the Bulldogs were Zobrist, Wiegman and the 4 x 800 relay team.
Zobrist took the title in the 1,600 with a good four-lap time of 5:45.02.
Wiegman was the victor in the shot put with a distance of 89-7.
Zobrist and Wiegman each ran a leg on the winning 4 x 800 relay team. Portell (2:34.1) led off and she was followed by Wiegman (2:37.7), Becker (2:43.5) and Zobrist (2:31.6), the anchor. The quartet teamed up for a total winning time of 10:27.
Also placing in the top five individually for Highland were Becker, third place in the 1,600 (6:03.52); Portell, fourth in the high jump (4-6); Beyer, fourth in the discus (78-4) and the shot put (29-0); junior Courtney Hengehold, fourth in the 800 (2:57.91); and Nyquist, fourth in the 3,200 (15:44.38).
This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Highland finishes second at home triangle meet."