The Ballard women's track team placed sixth at the Saydel Invite on a warm Monday night.  The 4x200 relay team (Molly Ihle, Katie Tollefson, Natalie Maher and Carley Wilson) finished with a personal record of 1:53.27.  The 4x800 relay (Kate Huisinga, Mya Ehresman, Ava Vance and Josie Fleischmann) came in second place with a 10:43.07.

Fleischmann ran the 800 meter run and finished second with a time of 2:34. and Kate Huisinga finished third in the 400 M run in a time of 1:06.  Ava Vance took third in the 1,500 M run (5:29).

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

"It was the warmest night of the season with quite a bit of wind, but we had several good performances tonight and showed some progress in events with a handful of personal records on the night.  We were without the services of Shewaye Johnson who stayed home due to illness, which limited a few points that she usually hauled in on her own.

The highlight of the night came from the 4x200 meter relay team of Molly Ihle, Katie Tollefson, Natalie Maher and Carley Wilson who ran a season PR of 1:53.27 which eclipsed their previous season PR by over 1.5 seconds.  This relay is developing nicely and putting itself in position for a potential postseason run.

The 4x800 meter relay team of Kate Huisinga, Mya Ehresman, Ava Vance and Josie Fleischmann ran a solid time of 10:43.07 on a windy night to place second.  The distance medley relay matched with their own runner-up finish is a time of 4:34.94 with the team of Molly Ihle, Katie Tollefson, Kate Miller and Caitlin Maher. Caitlin Maher anchored that relay with a good split time of 2:30. 

In our individual events Josie Fleischmann took home the silver in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:34.  Kate Huisinga took home the bronze in the 400 meter run with a time of 1:06 and Ava Vance also took home a 3rd place finish in the 1500 meters with a time of 5:29. 

Another relay that is quickly developing is the 4x400 meter relay team of Kate Huisinga, Mya Ehresman, Caitlin Maher and Natalie Maher who took 4th in a time of 4:22.96 which is a season PR by 5 seconds after cutting 6 seconds in the previous meet. 

It was nice to see the development of some of our sprint relays tonight.  We are showing progress and moving in the right direction.  We now have a 10-day break from meets which will help us do some fine-tuning heading into the conference meet on May 6th."

SAYDEL INVITE SCORES

1. Indianola, 124.5

2. North Polk, 96

3. Gilbert, 82

4. Bondurant-Farrar, 69

5. Mason City, 60

6. Ballard, 57

7. Roland-Story, 40.5

8. Kuemper Catholic, 35

9. Nevada, 16

10. Saydel, 5

11. Des Moines North, 4

The Bombers are back in action on Thursday - May 6 when they compete in the Raccoon River Conference Meet at Bondurant-Farrar.  The meet will start at 4:00 PM.