HHS posts impressive results at Granite City Relays
The Highland High School girls track and field team had some impressive performances, including several first-place finishes which equal meet-record standards for others to shoot for in the future, at the inaugural Granite City Warrior Relays Friday at Granite City High School.
Highland junior Sarah Beth Wiegman established the standard in the discus for after flinging it farther than anybody else at the inaugural meet. She already had the top throw with her first throw of 95 feet, but she was far from done. Before she was done in the event, Wiegman raised her meet-record mark up to a new personal-record distance of 100 feet, 11 inches, which provided the bulk of her four-person relay team’s winning total of 233-10.
Freshman Abbey Beyer had the next best throw for the Bulldogs at 74-4.
Wiegman also played a key role in the 4 x 1,600-meter relay team which got Highland off to a great start to the meet after capturing first place with a winning team time of 22:50. That was 36 seconds ahead of runner-up Mascoutah. Wiegman was the lead leg and ran the second best time of the quartet with a four-lap time of 5:40.7. Senior Allison Zobrist was the anchor and took the team’s top time honors at a 5:19.8. Also contributing to the triumphant foursome were sophomore Rece Portell, who ran a 5:47.5 second leg, and freshman Lily Becker, who clocked a 6:02.6 third leg.
Also posting victories for Highland at Granite City were the freshman/sophomore 4 x 400 relay team of sophomore Alyssa Freimann (1:05.7), Becker (1:08.6), freshman Mackenzie Schoeck (1:12.8) and Portell (1:03.3), which combined for the top team time of 4:30.3, and the shot put team of Beyer (29-0), sophomore Taylor Braswell (26-6), sophomore Morgan Mesle (25-11) and junior Courtney Hengehold (18-5), with a victorious team distance of 81-5.
In addition, the Bulldogs scored points by placing in the following events: the pole vault relay team of Freimann (7-0), sophomore Kali Rutz (6-0) and Wiegman (6-0), second place (19-0); the varsity 4 x 400 relay team of senior Brianna Becherer (1:06.0), Wiegman (1:07.0), Hengehold (1:15.8) and Zobrist (1:04.3), third place (4:33.0); Portell, fourth place in the high jump (4-4); the long jump team of sophomore Leah Sutton (11-8.5), Mesle (9-11.75) and junior Sydney Nyquist (9-9), fourth place (31-5.25); the triple jump team of junior Ariel Smock (28-8), Braswell (24-0), fourth place (52-8); the sprint medley relay team of Sutton (14.2 in the 100), Schoeck (15.0 in the 100), Becherer (30.2 in the 200) and Freimann (1:04.1 in the 400), fifth place (2:03.5); the 4 x 100 relay team of Freimann (14.0), Becherer (14.5), Sutton (14.8) and Portell (13.2), sixth place (56.4); and Sutton, eighth place in the 100 (14.2).
The Lady Bulldogs finished fifth out of seven squads with a final score of 73 points. O’Fallon won the girls meet with 128 points. The Panthers were followed by Jerseyville (105), Mascoutah (89), host Granite City (78), Highland (73), Madison (32) and Alton Marquette (13).
Madison County Championships
A day earlier at the Madison County Championships at Edwardsville, Highland’s top two finishes were second-place finishes and they both came from relay teams, the 4 x 800 and the 4 x 400.
The 4 x 800 team of Portell, Wiegman, Zobrist and freshman Kate Marti joined together to clock the second best time of 10:01.22, while the 4 x 400 team of Marti, Becker, Zobrist and Portell combined for the runner-up time of 4:20.16.
Also contributing points toward the team total for placing in the top six in an individual event were: Wiegman, third place in the 1,600 (5:59.69); Freimann, third place in the 400 (1:02.34); Smock, third place in the triple jump (29-8); Portell, fourth place in the 800 (2:32.61) and fourth place in the high jump (4-8); Becker, fourth place in the 3,200 (13:19.80); Wiegman, sixth place in the discus (100-1); and Becherer, sixth place in the 400 (1:06.89).
This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 1:35 PM with the headline "HHS posts impressive results at Granite City Relays."