The Iowa Mennonite girls track team took advantage of the excellent weather conditions Thursday to establish some new personal best performances at the 1A state qualifier meet hosted by WACO .  Mike Jay, announcer at the Drake and Mt. Sac Relays announced the meet to give it a championship feel.  Riley Schmieder had a great night in the distance events.  She placed third in the 3000 meter run behind Ella Feldman of Lone Tree and Brenna Conger of Pekin .  Her time was 12:15.58.  This was her first attempt at the event.  Later in the evening Schmieder placed sixth in the 1500 meter run with a time of 5:50.89.  Michaela Prihoda placed fifth in both the long jump (14’ 10.5”) and 100 meter dash (13.89 FAT).  This is her best time ever in the 100 meter dash.  Anya Slabaugh was sixth in the high jump clearing 4’ 10”.  This equaled her best jump set at Lone Tree April 2.  Anya was also ninth in the 200 meter dash with a season best time of 29.64 FAT and eleventh in the 100 meter hurdles in 18.92 FAT.  Bridgette Brenneman smashed her previous best time in the 400 meter dash by three seconds to place eleventh in the event.  Her time was 1:15.28 FAT.  Abbie DeWild placed seventeenth in the 100 meter dash with a time of 15.14 FAT.  Senior Amber Davis was eleventh in the shot put with a best throw of 28’ 8.25”.  Amber’s contributions to the team and presence will be missed next year. 

All event winners in the twelve 1A qualifier meets advance to the state championships next week in Des Moines .  The next twelve best performances in each event from across the state also advance to the state meet.  The state qualifier lists will be posted Friday afternoon at http://www.ighsau.org/IGHSAUwebsite/track.htm    

Riley Schmieder, Anya Slabaugh

The Iowa Mennonite girls track team scored four points at the South East Iowa Super conference meet held Thursday May 3 and Monday May 7.  Four athletes placed eighth to each earn one point for the team.  Michaela Prihoda scored her point in the long jump.  Anya Slabaugh scored hers in the high jump.  Amber Davis returned to action for the first time this season to score her point in the shot put.  Riley Schmieder scored her point on Monday in the 1500 with a time of 5:47.01, an eleven second improvement over her previous best time.  Anya Slabaugh also recorded a personal best time of 18.60 seconds in the 100 meter hurdles for ninth place.  Abbie DeWild was tenth in the long jump with a new personal best jump of 13 feet eleven inches. 

This year the Southeast Iowa Super conference north division track meet took two days to complete.  Starting on Thursday May 3 all field events and twenty-two of the twenty-nine running were completed before lightning was spotted to the west in the Wayland area.  After a ten minute delay it became clear that there was a serious storm to the west.  Everyone was sent home.  A couple of the teams had to wait out the storm either in their buses or in a school gym on their route home.  Everyone made it home safely.  The meet resumed Monday afternoon under much better weather conditions to complete the final seven track events.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Bridgette Brenneman

Abbie DeWild

Anya Slabaugh

Michaela Prihoda

Team Scores

Pekin 141
Mediapolis 116
Columbus 105
Highland 81.5
Winfield Mt. Union 74
Wapello 72
Louisa Muscatine 60
Waco 50
Lone Tree 36.5
IMS 4

Marty Gingerich

David Rumsey

The two Iowa Mennonite track coaches each earned victories competing in running events this past weekend. Marty Gingerich (class of ‘81) won his age group in the Drake Relays On the Roads 8k Saturday in Des Moines with a time of 30:20. David Rumsey (’05) running unattached won the 1500 meter race at the Loras College meet Saturday with a time of 4:01.10. David has competed four times this spring in college races throughout the Midwest. His best time this spring for the 1500 meters is 3:59.23 at the Kansas relays.

Gingerich comments, “Both David and I enjoy training and competing to see what we can do. It makes our coaching that much more meaningful too.  We have an idea what the high school athletes are going through because we have been there too. We also have a good idea what they can hope to achieve if they work hard. My high school career went very well without any major setbacks.  David’s, on the other hand, was hindered by injury. David was never able to run a sub 5 minute 1600 meter in high school.  Last week he ran the equivalent of a 4:15 1600 meter! Training and competing to do your best offers many analogies for the rest of our lives. One question I often ask is ‘are we fully utilizing the gifts God has given us?’”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Michaela Prihoda

Anya Slabaugh

Michaela Prihoda highlighted an evening of strong performances by the Iowa Mennonite girls track team Thursday in Wayland.  The sophomore won the class B division in the long jump by over seven inches.  Her jump of 15’6.75” is a career best.  Abbie DeWild also posted a career best jump of 13’5.75” to place fifth in the event.  This is the first time Abbie has scored team points in her high school career.  Junior Anya Slabaugh tied for second in the high jump.  She cleared 4’8”.  In the running events Prihoda placed fourth in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes.  Slabaugh placed fifth in the 200 meter dash and sixth in the 100 meter hurdles in a career best time of 18.92 (FAT).  Riley Schmieder also placed sixth in the 800 meter dash to round out the scoring.  Riley was eighth in the 400 meter dash in a personal best time of 1:13.65.  Jamilya Masylbekova also competed strongly in both the 400 meter dash and the 1500 meter run.  The team placed seventh out of eight in the class B division.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Jamilya Masylbekova

Riley Schmieder

Riley Schmieder

Anya Slabaugh

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tuesday afternoon the IMS girls track team traveled to Durant to compete in a track meet with nine other teams.  It was a beautiful afternoon providing perfect conditions for competition.  It was also the team’s first day back after a five day break from competition and practice.  Anya Slabaugh had the highest placing for the team placing sixth in the 100 meter hurdles to score the team’s only point.  Her time of 19.23 (FAT=Fully Automated Timing) is her new personal record.  Riley Schmieder was tenth in the event also recording a new personal record.  Schmieder recorded a second personal record in the 1500 meter run finishing in 5:58.97 for eighth place.  Benay Gozkaman also had a personal record time in the 200 meter dash of 56.58.  Michaela Gingerich was her guide for both the 100 and 200 meter dashes.  Click here to see a short video of Benay and Michaela. The team competes next in Wayland Thursday April 26 at the Ekstrand Relays hosted by WACO.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Jamilya Masylbekova

Bridgette Brenneman

Abbie DeWild

Anya Slabaugh

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The Iowa Mennonite girls track team competed in the A class of the Ruth Ahrens invitational held in Marengo Monday night.  The competition was strong since the A schools were much larger than IMS.  The IMS team was still able to score points at the meet.  Michaela Prihoda jumped 12’ 9” in the long jump going into the wind for fourth place.  Anya Slabaugh jumped 4’8” in the high jump also going into the wind.  That was good enough for sixth place.  Prihoda also earned a sixth place in the 100 meter dash covering the distance in 14.34 seconds.  Riley Schmieder recorded a personal best time in the 100 meter hurdles and Jamilya Masylbekova ran her fastest yet in the 1500 meter run.

Benay Gozkaman, Jamilya Masylbekova

Michaela Prihoda

The next track meet is Tuesday, April 17 at Durant.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Riley Schmieder, Jamilya Masylbekova

Michaela Prihoda