City Girls Place 3rd at West High Invitational

City placed 3rd, narrowly getting beat by Linn-Mar, with West in first place.

Grace Parrott|March 30, 2017

In the second outdoor meet of the year, the girls track team faced off against top ranked teams including Xavier, Linn-Mar, Muscatine, and West High.

“Considering that we didn’t fill all the events up with our girls and we got 3rd place, it shows that we are a strong team,” Assistant Coach Tom Mittman said.

Senior Mary Arch, coming off an injury, was able to run the second leg of the varsity 4×800. Also, Emily Bywater ’17 started off the meet with a bang, placing 3rd in the 3000 meter run, scoring some of the first few points for City. This was also a personal record for Bywater. Her time on Tuesday is the 8th fastest time in the state.

“I’m really happy because I got a PR but I’m not satisfied because my goal for this season is to qualify for Drake,” Bywater said.

A freshman runner that is quickly contributing to the team is Azzura Sartini-Rideout in the sprint relays. She also competed in the 4×200, and the 4×400 meter relays.

“We are a very young team. We don’t have a lot of seniors. We are going to improve greatly over the course of the year,” Tom Mittman said. “It reminds me a little bit of the Iowa Basketball team. They have a lot of freshman and sophomores. A lot of inexperience.”

Michelle Jennings ’17 is one of few track athletes to compete in both throwing and hurdles events. Jennings has run times in the 100 meter hurdles and the shuttle hurdle relays that compare to City’s varsity hurdlers. This last meet, she competed in four different events, getting personal records in the shot put and discuss and then running the shuttle hurdle relay and the 400 meter hurdles.

“I guess I’m just really glad that I got to do throwing and running because I got to meet more people and interact with more people,” Jennings said.

Luci Murphy ’17 got 2nd in shot put and 3rd in discus. All seven of the varsity relays got season’s bests. The 4×200 meter relay had a 1st place finish and the 4×800 placed 2nd. The 4×100 ran the 6th fastest time in the state.

“We are going to improve greatly I think,” Tom Mittman said. “Particularly our group I think is going to improve a lot over the course of the year and I’m excited about it.”