Tiger Girls Run Away from Panthers, Other Foes; Merrideth Spiers Throws 127 Feet Into the Wind

Worth County’s girls reversed the results of the Quarterfinal basketball game in track, running away with the Early Bird over Mound City and a host of other competitors, coming away with 131 points. Mound City had 86, Stanberry 85, East Atchison 83.33, and King City 64.

The highlight of the meet was Merrideth Spiers, who ran away with the Discus with a throw of 127 feet into a stiff east wind. She beat the rest of the field by almost 30 feet; Emma Craig (North Harrison) finished second with a throw of 97’1”. Kennedy Galanakis was fourth with a throw of 93’7½. Spiers also won the Shot Put, getting a throw of 35’4”, beating out Keagan Madison (South Harrison) by over a foot.

Worth County ran away with it despite not winning any of the open running events, although they got some points. The purple shirts won the speed events, but thankfully, they were the ones from King City. Grace Schottel won all three of the speed events for the Wildkats, beating out Hannah Wedlock (Mound City) in the 100, Peyton Gage (Stanberry) in the 200, and Halley Wilmes (Stanberry) in the 400. She also anchored the winning 4x200 team for King City, so the future Missouri Western track athlete picked up 40 of her team’s 64 points.

Worth County picked up some points in the speed events as Liz Lyle was third in the 100 with a time of 14.70. In the 400, Allison Larison was fifth with a time of 1:12.75.  King City also dominated the 800 as Shae Gilbert won with a time of 2:41.33; Braidy Hunt was third with a time of 2:45.38.
Mound City was strong in the distance events, with the Panthers picking up a 2-3 finish in the 1600 and Emma Derr winning the 3200. But Kristin New was right behind in the latter event, picking up a second place finish of 14:31.27.

Anna Gladstone picked up a pair of wins for Worth County in the hurdling events, holding off Paige West (NEN) in both events. She got a time of 17.83 in the 100 Hurdles and a time of 53.06 in the 300 Hurdles. Also placing for Worth County was Morgan Beagle, who was fifth in the 100 Hurdles with a time of 19.96, and third in the 300 Hurdles with a personal best time of 56.38, almost four seconds better than her previous best.

Mound City ran away with the 4x100, but Worth County was able to pick up some points, as the team of Liz Lyle, Navada Hoff, Jessi Badell, and Regan Allee was fourth with a time of 57.85. The 4x400 team of Kristin New, Braidy Hunt, Jill Hardy, and Megan Cassavaugh was fifth with a time of 5:00.24. Mound City ran away with the 4x800, but Worth County was able to pick up points as the team of Kristin New, Braidy Hunt, Jill Hardy, and Megan Cassavaugh was third with a time of 11:50.82.

Anna Gladstone picked up a pair of seconds in the field events. She was second in the High Jump with a jump of 4’8”, and second in the Long Jump with a jump of 15’10”.

Worth County dominated in the Pole Vault as Regan Allee won with a personal best of 9 feet, while Keelin Engel was tied for second with a vault of 7’6”. Liz Lyle was third in the Triple Jump with a jump of 31’5”, while Jill Hardy was fifth with a jump of 29’9”.