Another season, another track and field conference championship for the Washington Lady Jays.
Washington’s girls and Ft. Zumwalt East’s boys won team titles at the GAC North track and field meet last Thursday and Friday at Washington High School.
Washington’s boys finished fifth in the team standings.
“We had total team efforts on all levels. We always get points from certain events, but for team success, we need points from every event,” said Washington Coach Mike Olszowka. “We had many kids step up and get us points and many of them also ran their season bests and set new PRs (personal records). We are very proud of the sacrifices and hard work that our kids have put in all season. It’s paying off. We’re peaking at the right time.”
The Lady Jays accumulated a team score of 190, well ahead of second-place Ft. Zumwalt South’s 154.
St. Charles West finished third with 99 followed by St. Charles with 49, Ft. Zumwalt East with 42, Warrenton with 42, Duchesne with 37 and Ft. Zumwalt North with 27.
Ft. Zumwalt East had a team score of 172 to take the boys title.
Ft. Zumwalt South finished second with 141 followed by St. Charles West with 123, Ft. Zumwalt North with 70, Washington with 63, St. Charles with 56, Warrenton with 56 and Duchesne with 12.
Washington also won the girls junior varsity title and was second in the boys JV standings.
Lady Jays
Washington won nine girls events.
Leading the Lady Jays was Kirstie Leslie, who won all four of her events.
•Leslie won the high jump, clearing 5-3, the pole vault, clearing 9-6, the long jump with a leap of 17-4, and the triple jump with an effort of 37-3.
•Abi Brown won both the 100-meter high hurdles in a time of 16.07 and the 800-meter run in 2:23.72. She also was second in the 300-meter low hurdles in 48.18.
•MC Landolt won the 100-meter dash in 13.2 and was second in the 200-meter dash in 27.47.
•Kiersten Engel won the discus with a toss of 100-10.
•The 400-meter relay team of Megan Bauche, Lauren Brinkmann, Emily Stricker and Landolt won in 51.94.
•Emily Stricker finished second in the 100-meter dash in 13.43 and fourth in the 200-meter dash in 28.05.
•Abby Stricker finished third in both the high jump at 4-10 and the pole vault at 8-6. She also was fourth in the triple jump at 30-3.
•Kayla Rugen placed third in the shot put at 32-5.
•The 800-meter relay team of Emily Stricker, Bauche, Brinkmann and Landolt placed third in 1:52.36.
•The 1,600-meter relay team of Erica Diener, Ashley Garrard, Bauche and Brinkmann finished third in 4:21.32.
•Abigail Mellovitz ended fourth in the shot put at 30-3.
•Bauche was fourth in the 100-meter high hurdles in 17.81 and seventh in the long jump at 15-1.
•Garrard finished fourth in the 3,200-meter run in 12:14.14 and fifth in the 1,600-meter run in 5:38.3.
•The 3,200-meter relay team of Anna Bretzke, Diener, Brown and Garrard was fifth in 10:35.38.
•Bretzke was sixth in the 1,600-meter run in 5:41.78 and seventh in the 3,200-meter run in 12:29.9.
•Diener placed sixth in the 400-meter dash in 1:07.16.
•Gabrielle Borcherding ended seventh in the discus at 90-11.
•Hannah Leslie finished eighth in the 400-meter dash in 1:09.44.
Blue Jays
•Trevor Shockley finished third in the discus at 136-0 and fifth in the shot put at 41-8.
•Dillon Quaethem placed third in the 110-meter high hurdles in 16.82 and fifth in the high jump at 5-10.
•Max Phinney finished third in the long jump at 19-9 1/2.
•Alex Schull was fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles in 16.92.
•Adam Jones ended fourth in the 400-meter dash in 52.96.
•The 1,600-meter relay team of Caleb Curran, Chase Hellebusch, Quaethem and Jones placed fourth in 3:35.05.
•Taylor Juergens was fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:06.73.
•Ian Smith ended sixth in the 3,200-meter run in 10:45.46 and eighth in the 1,600-meter run in 4:51.52.
•Braden Roberts finished sixth in the 800-meter run in 2:06.89.
•The 800-meter relay team of Curran, Jones, Hellebusch and Quaethem was sixth in 1:37.23.
•Austin Subke placed seventh in both the discus at 110-2 and the shot put at 40-3.
•David Tutt was seventh in the pole vault at 10-6.
•The 400-meter relay team of Phinney, Curran, Hellebusch and Jones ended seventh in 46.48.
“The track team and the coaches would like to thank all the parents, staff members and administrators for their help in making the GAC meet a great event,” Olszowka said. “It takes a lot of time to set up and to administer and we could not have done it with out everyone pitching in. These are the kind of efforts that teach our student athletes the most important meaning of Blue Jay pride.”
Washington travels to Jefferson City High School Saturday for the Class 4 District 5 meet starting at 11 a.m.
