Cold and windy conditions did not stop the girls track team from improving their performances on Tuesday as they competed at the Wildcat Invitational at Eagan.

On the track side of events, the sprinters had some excellent performances.

In the 100 meter sprints, Khanaila Kielo and Myah Cloutier finished in 9th and 10th place, respectively.

Senior captain Sara Beneke leaped into a 9th place finish in the 100 meter hurdles.

Senior captain Olivia Anger continues her reign in the 1600 meter race. Her snappy pace of 5:21 was enough to fend off the rest of competitors in her event.

Senior captain Bailey Roberts finished second in her heat in the 800 meter race.

Junior Amanda Berg excelled in her performances. She claimed 7th in the 200 meter sprint with a time of 27.62 seconds. In her 400 she finished 6th with a time of 1:03.

“We’re pretty young… [we’re] moving around people to find out where their best event is,” said head coach Raedi Zimmer.

Building a team on young athletes is important, but leadership for younger teams is critical in order to build a strong team.

“We have very good senior leadership,” said Zimmer.

This is especially important so that younger athletes have role models to look up to as they continue to develop their own skills.

On the field side of events, the girls performed well:

Madison Reed –an 8th grader– captured 6th place overall, leading Apple Valley’s girls discus with a throw of 104’ 4”.

In shot put, senior Taylor Wangerin lead the Apple Valley girls with a 12th place finish, with a distance of 31’ 5.5,” and Madison Reed finishing 13th with a distance of 31’ 1.25”.

Senior captain Amanda Sonnenberg had a remarkable performance in her area of expertise, pole vaulting. She jumped a height of 10,’ which claimed a 2nd place finish at the Invitational.

In the high jump competition, Mykel Parham landed a 4th place finish with a height of 4’ 10”.  

The team as a whole will continue to build and improve as they approach their most important meets in the upcoming month.

One of their primary goals is “to perform well and put everything together for our true team section,” said Zimmer.

True Team is one of the most important meets of the year for both boys and girls track and is scored in a unique way, where every person receives points.

The girls next competition is alongside the boys at Prior Lake as conference teams will meet at the South Suburban Relays on Tuesday May, 3rd.

Other notable performances:
The 4×100 relay team finished with total time of 52.11 seconds claiming 3rd out of 10 places.