Nine firsts equal second place         

By Rick Hobler

[APRIL 20, 2006]  The LCHS girls' track team competed at home last night for the first time this season. The triangular meet pitted Lincoln against a deep squad from Pekin High School and a smaller but talented squad from Peoria Manual High School. On the strength of nine first-place finishes, the Lady Railers finished in second place in the team standings with 69 points. Pekin won the meet with 86 points, and Peoria finished third with 24 points.

The nine Railer first-place finishes came in the following events: 800-meter medley relay, 400-meter relay, 800-meter relay, 1,600-meter relay, 100-meter dash, long jump, 400-meter dash, 300-meter hurdles and the 200-meter dash. An additional 11 second-, third- and fourth-place finishes rounded out the Railer team totals.

Lincoln once again won every relay event in which it was entered. The meet began with a Railer win in the 800 medley, as Courtwright, Sparks, Berglin and Martin claimed first with a time of 2:01.3. Lincoln's relay dominance continued with the 400-meter relay team of Bunner, Berglin, Martin and Hobler, who finished in a time of 53.5. The 800-meter relay team, consisting of Schonauer, Sparks, Hyde and Bonaparte, won easily again, in a time of 1:48.9. The Lincoln 1,600-meter relay team won the meet's final event of the evening with a time of 4:24.32. The 1,600-meter relay is run by Hyde, Sparks, Martin and Berglin.

Individual first-place finishes came twice to the Railer's Ashley Bonaparte: in the 100-meter dash at 13.09 and in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 8 1/2 inches. Other first-place individual performances went to Kylie Sparks in the 200 meter at 26.81, Bridgette Hyde in the 400 meter at 1:07.66 and Alissa Martin in the 300-meter hurdles at 51.47

Three Lady Railers also grabbed second-place finishes: Kelsey Bunner in the 100 meter at 13.19, Emily Berglin in the 400 at 1:07.98 and Bonaparte in the 200 at 27.84.

The Lady Railers added to their team's point totals with six third-place finishes: by Gilmer in the discus at 71 feet, 7.5 inches; Courtwright in the high jump at 4 feet, 10 inches, and in the shot put at 29 feet, 1 inch; Hobler in the long jump at 14 feet, 11 1/2 inches; Schonauer in the 100 hurdles at 19.1; and Bunner in the 300-meter hurdles at 56.6.

LCHS capped off its team effort with fourth-place finishes by Barry in the 800-meter run at 2:59.6 and Courtwright in the discus at 71 feet, 3 1/2 inches.

The Lady Railers travel to Chatham on Friday to participate, along with the Railer boys' team, in the Glenwood Invitational. The always exciting Lincoln Relays are scheduled for Tuesday, beginning at 5 p.m.

GO, RAILERS!!

[Rick Hobler]

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