 What may have changed is the attention captured by the Railer
program due to a number of strong individual performances from
several Lady Railers. One performance in particular, a CS8
championship, by the Lady Railer 800-meter relay team, drew lots of
attention. One CS8 "expert" even classified it as the performance
that spoiled the plans of the favored Southeast Spartans to again
become conference champions.The Railers began the evening with
some strong performances in the field events. Freshman Gracie Wood
vaulted her way to a third-place finish in the pole vault event with
a 7-foot, 6-inch mark. Gracie, following in the footsteps of her
successful sister, LCHS alum Mary Woods, performed well in her first
conference meet in spite of windy conditions.
Not far away, her teammate Hilary Hobler managed a fourth-place
finish in a strong field of long jumpers. The CS8 is chock-full of
talent in the long jump this year. Three of the 13 jumpers
(including Hobler at 17 feet, 1/2 inch) have personal records over
17 feet, and one jumper consistently exceeds 18 feet. Hobler managed
a jump of 16 feet, 10 1/2 inches to bring home the fourth-place
ribbon.
As the running events began, most all eyes were focused on the
battles that would occur between teams OTHER than the Lady Railers.
Pre-meet anonymity may have been to the Railers' advantage. The
Railers, ignoring being ignored, spoke with their feet instead of
their mouths. And their feet spoke loudly.
In the 100-meter preliminaries, only two teams emerged with two
runners each in the finals -- Springfield High School, as expected,
and Lincoln High School, as not expected. Both Hilary Hobler
and Kelsey Bunner advanced to the 100-meter finals. Hobler's time in
the preliminary was 12.53 and Bunner's time was 12.80. When the
finals rolled around an hour later, Hobler came out with a personal
record time of 12.44 to bring Lincoln a second-place finish. Bunner
captured the fourth-place spot in the finals with a time of 13.00.
As the relay events were set to begin, both of Lincoln's sprint
relays were seeded no higher than third place. Southeast and
Springfield High were set to do battle in both events as the No. 1
and 2-ranked teams. The 400-meter (4x100) relay held true to
pre-meet expectations, with Southeast taking the win over SHS with a
time of 49.7. Lincoln held its seeded position with a third-place
finish in a time of 51.4. The Lady Railer relay team consisted of
Bunner, Hobler, Bridgette Hyde and Allissa Martin.
Then came the 800-meter (4x200) relay race. All stop watches were
on Southeast and SHS once again. Lincoln's foursome consisting of
Hyde, Bunner, Sparks and Hobler, a lane over, was again expected to
be mentioned in the "also ran" category. But not this time. Hyde
began the race by gaining ground on SHS through the first 200
meters. Both excellent running into a strong wind by Bunner and a
better-than-everyone-else's handoff between Bunner and Sparks caused
the Lady Railers to forge ahead right after the third exchange took
place between them. When Southeast fumbled the relay baton at the
same exchange, Lincoln went for the kill. Sparks held the lead to
the fourth exchange handoff with Hobler. Hobler, running into a
stiff wind, refused to relinquish that lead to the SHS and Southeast
runners determined to take it from the Railers. The Lady Railers
turned in another personal best time of 1:48.09 to claim the CS8
championship in the event. Lincoln had put itself on the CS8 track
map.
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Apparently, those counting team point totals also noticed.
Southeast, counting on a first place in both this 800-meter relay
and in the 200-meter dash, got neither. With Lincoln taking the
800-meter relay, and freshman phenom Ayanna Scott from Lanphier
winning the 200-meter dash, the numbers for Southeast just didn't
add up. SHS ended up winning the team title by a six-point margin
over Southeast by a score of 108 to 102.
As the meet was drawing to its own finish line, Lincoln pulled
out another third-place finish. Allissa Martin, Lincoln's 300-meter
hurdle runner, ran and jumped the distance in a time of 50.90 to
finish behind the Meade twins from Taylorville High School. Martin's
third-place finish completed the Railers' point total for the night.
The Railers' overall team total was then stunted by its lack of
depth, especially in the longer distance events. Lincoln presently
lacks runners in the 3,200-meter run and the 1,600- and 3,200-meter
relays. Without athletes in these distance races, the Lady Railers
cannot garner the necessary numbers to compete for the conference
team title, and Friday night was no exception.
But, maybe, just maybe, Friday night's strong individual and
sprint relay successes gave some much-deserved and hardly ever given
respect to the current Railers team. Maybe it will also give
inspiration to the Lady Railers of the near future. And to others in
the CS8 who routinely write off the Lady Railers track team -- I'm
sure Coach Alexander and this year's team enjoyed crashing your
otherwise private party.
GO, RAILERS!!
___
Complete LCHS results
High jump -- Sparks, 9th, 4'06"; Bunner 10th, 4'06"
Shot put -- Hailey Cooper, 13th, 21'11"
Pole vault -- Wood, 3rd, 7'06"
Long jump -- Hobler, 4th, 16'10 1/2"
Triple jump -- Hyde, 9th, 28'07"; Sparks, 10th, 28'04"
4x100 meter -- 3rd, 51.4, (Hyde, Bunner, Martin, Hobler)
100 meters -- Hobler, 2nd, 12.44; Bunner, 4th, 13.00
800 meter -- Amy Kelley, 12th, 3:04.60
4x200 meter -- 1st, 1:48.09 (Hobler, Sparks, Bunner, Hyde)
400 meter -- Ashley Sutton, 1:14.50
300 hurdles -- Martin, 3rd, 50.90
200 meters -- Hyde, 6th, 28.40
1,600 meters -- Katelyn Harmsen, 9th
[By RICK
L. HOBLER]
Respond to the writer at
rhobler@lccs.edu.
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