The Perry track teams combined their invitationals this season into a coed relays, with Kaufman Track hosting a variety of teams in excellent weather conditions Thursday.
Winterset edged North Polk, 122-120, for the girls team title, with Roland-Story third at 99 team points. Greene County (86) was fourth, with Perry (77) and Clarke (76) completing the field.
“Our team score of 77 points does not reflect the tremendous effort the girls put forth tonight,” a pleased Jayette head coach Matt Hardy said. “We had season-best efforts in almost every event.”
Perry lowered their season marks in five relays, dropping 13 seconds in the 4×800, eight seconds in the 4×200 and six seconds in the 4×400, with five seconds taken off the previous season standard in the sprint medley and two seconds in the 4×100.
“Emma Olejniczak and Sid Vancil competed at a very high level in four events, and Grace Stewart and Mariah Duffy continue to score a bunch of points for us in the 1500,” Hardy noted. “Haileigh Kenyon scored in the 200 and in the long jump, which is our first points in a jumping event since 2014.”
Hardy said Breanna Penenger was “an integral part in the much-improved times of the relays” and said Isabel Saemisch had run “a great anchor leg” in the 4×200, an effort which moved Perry from fifth place to third in the event.
Olejniczak and Vancil were 2-6 in the 400 in 1 minute, 5.88 seconds and 1:07.37, respectively, and were 4-6, in 2:39.58 and 2:41.73, in the 800. Stewart and Duffy placed 2-3 in the 1500 in 5:33.28 and 5:36.34, with Stewart second (11:59.24) and Joselyn Carrillo fifth (13:53.06) in the 3000 while Kenyon’s 30.28 second trip placed sixth in the 200.
Vancil, Penenger, Duffy and Olejniczak were second in the 4×800 (10:42.31), with Penenger, Saemisch, Maddie West and Alejandra Rivera third in the 4×200 (2:03.4) while Vancil, Saemisch, Penenger and Olejniczak were fourth in the 4×400 (4:37.46). The quartet of Kenyon, Penenger, Mariah McNamara and Taylor Lathrum teamed for fourth in the sprint medley in 2:10.62, with Saemisch, Duffy, Lathrum and Kenyon fifth in the distance medley in 5:05.78.
Kenyon landed 12 feet, six inches from the board for sixth in the long jump, with Perry scoring in both throwing events as well.
“Taylor (Lathrum) had another strong showing in the throws,” Hardy said. “She also ran two good 400 splits for us in the sprint and distance medleys.”
Lathrum’s 32’10 shove was third in the shot put, with her personal-best spin of 88’1-1/2 landing third in the discus.
Both Perry teams will be in action Monday at the Greene County Relays in Jefferson.
