Puente wins high jump; girls take 3rd at Missota
The New Prague Trojan girls track and field team placed a respectable third at the eight-team Missota Conference meet Thursday, May 23, at Chanhassen High School.
he host team won the meet with an impressive 214.5 points, easily outstanding second place Farmington, which had 145. New Prague was third at 121, followed by Shakopee (111), Chaska (86.5), Northfield (82), Red Wing (71) and Holy Angels (67).
"Everyone stepped up today. It was a total team effort." coach Johnny Josephson said after the meet. "I am extremely proud of this team and had a blast watching them compete.”
Among the highlights Josephson noted:
• All the relays were exciting to watch. Excellent handoffs made a huge difference in all of them. All four relays had a season’s best.
• Field events came up huge today. Sydney Samson received honorable mention in the triple jump and Marissa Ekness placed in both horizontal jumps. Monica Keuhl place second and was All- Conference in the triple jump. Sophie Puente took first in the high jump and earned all-conference honors. The throwers placed five in the shot and discus, with Emily Vikla taking third in the shot to earn honorable mention. The Niedermayer twins both placed in the pole vault, with Jess beating Jaimie. Jaimie came up big in both the 100 m and long jump.
• Hurdles were again a solid, placing four, with Jessica Allar getting a personal best in the 300 m and Grace Yackly also doing well.
Puente was the only firstplace finisher, clearing 5-feet in the high jump, while Keuhl was second in the triple jump at 34-11.
Placing third for New Prague were Samson (100 hurdles), Vikla (shot put) and the 4x100 relay (Mallory Applegate, Jessica Niedermayer, Lilly Rezac and Jaimie Niedermayer).
Fourth place finishers were Samson (triple jump) Rachel Thompson (shot put) and the 4x400 relay team (Annie Dittberner, Hannah Maddaus, Mikaela Algren, Grace Yackly).
Taking fifth for the Trojans were Algren (800 m), Samson (300 hurdles), Jessica Niedermayer (pole vault), Samson (long jump), Marissa Ekness (triple jump), Juliana Lewis (shot put), and the 4x800 relay team (Maizie Deihl, Ella Grote, Algren, Yackly).
Taking sixth was Vikla (discus).
Finishing seventh were Jaimie Niedermayer (100 m), Yackly (300 hurdles), Jess Allar, (high jump), and the 4x200 relay team (Maddaus, Rachel Haecherl, Karlee Blanchard, Ekness).
Eight place finishers were Ekness (100 hurdles and long jump), Jaimie Niedermayer (pole vault) and Thompson (discus).
The Trojans are competing this week in the Section 2AA championships. Preliminaries and finals in four events were held on Wednesday, May 29, with the rest of the finals scheduled for Friday, May 31, at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. Teams competing will be Buffalo, Chanhassen, Chaska, Dassel-Cokato, Delano, Holy Family Catholic, Hutchinson, Mankato East, Mankato West, Marshall, Mound Westonka, New Prague, New Ulm, Shakopee, Waconia and Worthington.
