The Ballard track teams participated in the Raccoon River Conference Meet in Carroll on Thursday.  The women finished fifth in the meet and the men finished eighth.  Carlisle won the women and men's titles.  To see the women's results, CLICK here.  To see the men's results, CLICK here.

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

"It was an almost perfect night to run and we competed hard in a very competitive meet.  We hit some personal PR's and season bests tonight and I am feeling ok about the results as I look them over them this morning.

We did have 2 events that were conference champions.  Rachel Newell won the conference title in the 100 meter dash with a winning time of 13.03.  We started placing her in the open 100 last meet when we saw how she was getting out of the blocks really well and running consistent splits in the mid-upper 12 range.  That switch paid off tonight as she is now 2-0 on the season and heading into state qualifying competition with some confidence.

The other champion on the track tonight was the distance medley team of Rachel Newell, Carley Wilson, Natalie Maher and Caitlin Maher who won in a time of 4:29.90.  Carley Wilson was a new addition to this relay after we noticed a nice progression in her 200 and 400 times.  The other 3 have been in those slots all season and also continue to develop.  This time was a season best time by nearly 5 seconds and all 4 played a key role in that.

The 4x800 relay team of Josie Fleischmann, Brooke Loewe, Mya Ehresman and Kate Huisinga ran a season best time of 10:09 to cement a 2nd place finish for the Bombers.  That time is also an improvement over our previous season best by nearly 5 seconds.  This is a young group of runners (1 sophomore and 3 freshmen) and I am really excited by the potential I see.  Josie Fleischmann started the relay off with a PR in her split of the relay with an excellent time of 2:27.

The shuttle hurdle relay team of Taiylor Wright, Alexis Kluender, Ali Buban and Sarah Stolte competed admirably in a loaded field to come up 4th in a time of 1:12.  Although it wasn't our best run of the season, they have the potential to run a full 1-2 seconds better when all athletes hit at the same time.  We will look to see that next week at regional competition.

The other key to our night was the performances by the middle distance and distance crew.  It was a very competitive meet in the 800-3000 meter races with several state quality athletes in our conference.  We had double place winners in the:

• 3000 with Ellie Twedt finishing 3rd in a season best time of 11:11 and Hailey Cole was 7th in her season best time of 12:21.

• 1500 double place winners were Caitlin Maher finishing 3rd in a time of 5:13 and Kate Huisinga placed 7th in a time of 5:34.  The 5:13 was a career PR for Caitlin as she continues to bring that time down.

• 800 double place winners were Ellie Twedt placing 4th in a time of 2:32 and Josie Fleischmann placing 5th in a time of 2:33.  That capped off two good nights for them.

We will have a few things to think about in terms of athlete placement for next week's regional at Gilbert.  Once again, the competition level will be high, but we have several events that we have potential to qualify for the state meet.  We are improving and I am confident that we will perform well next week and at the state meet."

Comments From Head Coach Darren Herrold:

"Very good times were posted for our athletes.  We had another evening of several PR's being set against very tough competition.  The Raccoon River Conference is very strong this year in men's track.  We also were unable to run 2 athletes tonight due to injuries.  The team is hoping those two athletes will be cleared to compete in our State Qualifying Meet.

TEAM SCORE - WOMEN

1. Carlisle, 168

2. ADM, 153

3. Bondurant-Farrar, 112

4. Carroll, 83.5

5. Ballard, 77

6. Winterset, 62

7. Boone, 61.5

8. Perry, 22

TEAM SCORE - MEN

1. Carlisle, 176

2. ADM, 140

3. Winterset, 118.5

4. Boone, 91

5. Bondurant-Farrar, 71.5

6. Carroll, 68

7. Perry, 46

8. Ballard, 25

The Bombers are back in action on Thursday - May 9 when they travel to Gilbert for the State Qualifying Meet.  The meet will start at 4:00 PM.

Photo Credit: Dee Newell