Panther girls run at Dickinson Indoor

CEDAR FALLS — Seven members of the Panorama girls track team competed in eight different events in the Dickinson Indoor Relays Monday. The unscored meet had all classes competing as one, with some events having 200 or more individual entrants.

Senior Morgan Johnk has committed to compete for the University of Northern Iowa track team and so was an obvious choice for head coach Greg Thompson to bring along. Thompson chose the others for a variety of reasons.

“We took Hope Arganbright, Lydia Lindstrom, Kassidy Bremer and Gwen and Olivia Steffen to reward them for the work they put in over the winter,” he explained. “Ella Waddle was chosen because of her running resume and to fill out the 4×800 relay.”

Johnk had competed Sunday in a hurdle and high jump clinic and was competing on tired legs, Thompson said, but still managed to top her own school indoor record in the 60-meter hurdles in 9.65 seconds. She cleared 4 feet, 10 inches in the high jump.

Four other school indoor records fell, led by Lindstrom, Waddle and the Steffen twins finishing the 4×800 in 10 minutes, 30.51 seconds, besting the 10:34.57 set in 2010 by Madigan Maere, Kelcee Benton, Allison Bump and Elly Arganbright.

Bremer ran an 8.5 60-meter dash to clip the 8.6 set by Miranda Mleyenk in 2016, with Bremer’s 28.28 in the 200 topping the 28.48 set by Sarah Tighe in 2006.

Waddle also reset the record book, crossing in 5:23.92 in the 1500. The old mark of 5:24.78 had been set by Elly Arganbright in 2009.

Thompson noted the 1:04.84 from Gwen Steffen, the 1:07.05 from Olivia Steffen and the 1:07.64 posted by Lindstrom in the 400 all finished in the top 60 among a field of 199.

Hope Arganbright ran the 60 dash in 8.75, a drop of .21 from her previous best, while she also dropped a second from her 200.

Bremer competed in the long jump, with all three of her attempts landing farther than 15 feet, 3 inches.

Thompson noted his team finished in the top four among Class 2A schools in the events they entered, and that seven of the eight events finished in the top 25 overall.

“This sets a great tone for the upcoming season,” he said. “These kids are awesome to work with and are very competitive with positive attitudes. They have not let the weather slow them down. Our theme this year is #MORE (Meet Opportunity, Rise Every time) and these seven girls definitely rose to the occasion.”