Thursday’s nice weather led to strong marks from the area’s girls track athletes at the Girls Night Out Track Meet.
Wormek runs away from 100-meter field
Camdenton’s Grace Wormek threw down the gauntlet during Thursday’s Girls Night Out event at JFK Stadium.
The senior sprinter won the early-season 100-meter race, despite being under the weather for several days leading up to the meet.
“I’m starting off pretty slow, I feel like,” Wormek said. “I’ve been sick for about a week, so this is my first race back. It’s going pretty good, and I can’t complain for what I’m running being sick.”
Wormek ran away from Jefferson City’s Caitlin Anderson, Carl Junction’s Shiloh Sluder and Monett’s Kelsey Dalton, finishing with a time of 12.65 seconds. Anderson finished in 12.79 while Sluder and Dalton tied for third with finishes of 12.89 seconds.
“Today, it’s just anyone’s game, because we’re here with all these big schools that we normally don’t see,” Wormek said. “I just run; there’s really no strategy to it for me. I just go.”
Wormek followed up her 100 win with a victory in the final heat of the 200; however, her winning time of 26.29 was bested by Ozark’s Ashley Childers mark of 26.23 in the previous heat (Girls Night Out does not hold preliminaries).
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE MEET
Meier captures gold in the 100-meter hurdles
After keying last season’s state championship run, Camdenton’s sprinters aren’t exactly sneaking up on anyone this season.
Senior Kylie Meier continued the Lady Laker dominance, winning the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 15.40. After a slow start, Meier surged late and outdistanced a deep field including Blue Springs’ Sarah Coy (15.49), Kickapoo’s Jaden Wiley (15.50) and teammate Natalie Basham (15.56).
“The very last hurdle is where I felt I might be able to do it,” Meier said. “I noticed the Blue Springs girl whenever she came out, she came out really strong and had a great start. I kind of stepped heel-toe and had a weird step on it, but I knew I had to just push through and lean to that line to get ahead.”
Meier’s bid for a hurdle double came up just short in the 300-meter race. She finished in second place with a time of 45.42 seconds, behind Wiley’s winning time of 44.80 seconds.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL MEET RESULTS
Monett girls continue javelin dominance
While javelin is still a fairly new sport to the Missouri high school scene, one area school is staking an early claim to event dominance.
Monett teammates Kaesha George and Kelli McCallister finished first and fourth at Girls Night Out, with George throwing for a personal best 133-2 on her second of four attempts.
George’s throw bested Coley Rezabek of Camdenton (126-8) and Kickapoo’s Tayte Koslowski (120-5).
“We just kind of push each other and help each other out,” George said. “We’ve been throwing together for a year now, so we just help each other if we see something that’s kind of off. We both play softball, and we incorporate a little of that into our throwing.”
McCallister, who threw for 117-9 and holds a personal best of 127 feet, likens the relationship with George to having another coach around at all times.
“I think it’s a really awesome benefit that we have,” McCallister said. “Not everyone has multiple girls that are good at the same event, so we’re really lucky to be able to know what we’re capable of and how to push each other.”
After making noise at the Class 4 state meet last season, George (3rd) and McCallister (9th) have made considerable strides during the offseason. Both now hold personal bests that would have placed in the top three at last year’s state competition, and goals of a 1-2 finish this season are certainly a possibility.
“We just want to keep pushing ourselves to hit that 140 this year,” George said. “We definitely want to go back to state together.”
Roeder’s long wait pays off with meet record
When your personal best is nearly two feet beyond your closest competitors in the pole vault, you’re forced to deal with a different kind of adversity during meets.
Waiting.
By the time Central’s Elaina Roeder cleared her opening attempt, the pole vault competition was well past the three-hour mark.
“It’s pretty difficult,” Roeder said. “I try not to watch. Watching is the worst for me, because I just sit there and watch the bar go up so slow, and I get anxious. I did two jumps in warm-up, and then I just tried to stay as calm as possible and not let my adrenaline and nerves get the best of me.”
After Ozark’s Katie Beets and New Covenant’s Paige Cummings each went out after 10-0, Roeder cleared 11-0 to take the victory.
But she wasn’t done. The Wake Forest commit cleared 11-9 on her next jump for a meet record.
“Part of my motivation for that was the meet record,” Roeder said. “But 11-9 tends to be a height that will win state a lot, so I thought if I had an 11-9 under my belt early in the season, then it sets me up well for state and the rest of this year.”
Roeder’s next attempt was a 12-1, an inch beyond her personal best but a height she had already attained in practice this season.
“I cleared 12-1 in practice over a bar maybe Thursday,” Roeder said. “I had the confidence under my belt, but I just didn’t get it today.”
