Standout Northeast Nodaway athlete Jacqueline Schulte once again outdid herself as she took three first place finishes at the District Track Meet Saturday. Northeast Nodaway does not have a track of its own, but it seems that Jacqueline has found a home away from home as she won her specialty events of the 1600 and 3200 and added a surprise win in the Triple Jump as well. Her two best performances of the year in the 3200 were both at Worth County; she shattered two meet records and set a personal best in the 1600 earlier this year at the Tiger Relays. And at the Early Bird, she established dominance in both the 1600 and 3200 after she had been in several thrilling races in those two events last year.
Things started out innocently enough for Jac as she had two ordinary jumps in the Triple Jump of 30'2" and 31'4" going into the wind. She was not even expecting to qualify as there were four other athletes who had beaten her during the year and only the top four advance from districts to sectionals. But then it was obvious that it was going to be her day as she would go on to do some of her best jumping all year; she jumped 32 feet into the wind and never looked back. All three of her remaining jumps were over 32 feet, with her best jump being 32'8". That was good enough to tie her for first place with Mound City's Taylor Miles, who had finished ahead of her all year in that event. Schulte got the tiebreak in the event as her second-best jump was farther than Miles', who didn't have a second jump farther than 31'4".
It looked like another duel between Schulte and Mound City's Jordyn Pankau was in the offing, but Pankau fell to fourth by the middle of the second lap and didn't even finish the race. It was Rock Port's Abbey Lawrence, running one of her best times of the year, who pushed Jacqueline in the 1600, keeping up with her stride for stride in the first two laps of the race. But Jacqueline steadily pulled away and finished with 5:44.03, which she was pleased with, given the brutal conditions.
But it was the 3200 in which she really shined as she ran away from Rock Port's Lacy Kirkland early and was never threatened. It became a race for Jacqueline against time as she sought to erase the 17-year record held by Jefferson's Dana Luke. She fell behind five seconds at one point after starting off several seconds ahead, but she picked up the pace and erased it by the last lap. Then, thinking that she wasn't going to get the record and just wanting to finish as strongly as she could, she picked up the pace on the final lap even more. As she made the final turn, everyone from all the schools gave her a big round of applause as she came into the straightaway on a dead sprint. And when it was all over, she had set the new District Record with a personal best time of 12:14 -- all done in the wind and the cold.
Teamwise, Northeast finished with a total of 52 points, which was good enough for 5th place. Michelle Schulte missed qualifying in the High Jump as she jumped 4'8", but had more misses and finished 5th in tiebreaks. However, she did qualify in the Long Jump, finishing second to Jefferson's Shanna Welch. She struggled with her location, jumping behind the board much of the event, but got stronger as the event progressed and saved her two best jumps for last. Sarah Teaney got a break in the 300 Hurdles as both of the top two seeds ahead of her faltered; one of them false-started and one of them fell on the 5th hurdle and didn't finish the race. Consequently, Teaney placed in the event, getting 5th and running one of her better times of the year with a 57.17.
Michelle Schulte won the 800 and qualified with a time of 2:32.71. Continuing her duel with Larissa Kirkland and Abbey Lawrence, she took the lead early this time and did not let the Rock Port duo catch her. It was Lawrence who Michelle passed at the last possible moment to win in Rock Port, but this time, it was Kirkland who pushed Michelle, staying 1-2 steps behind her until the final stretch when Michelle finally opened some breathing room. Michelle won with a time of 2:32.71, just over one second ahead of Kirkland. Lawrence was third, almost three seconds behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment