This past Tuesday the lady panthers participated in the sectional track meet at Bloomington North. The panthers blazed to a sectional title topping North, setting many PR’s and a new school record.
South sophomore Jordan Monson had a terrific night setting a PR in each of her events, including a new school record. Monson set a PR in the long jump with a leap of 16-6 ½ feet to take third place. In the 100 hurdles trials she set a new PR of 16.2. Later in the evening she went on to win the finals in a time of 16.49. Monson also lead off the 4×400 relay setting another personal best time of 60.2 seconds.
To top the night off Monson shattered the previous school record in the 300 hurdles, setting the new record at 45.64. The previous record was set by Ashley Hawkins in 2001 in a time of 46.4. Hawkins now co-owns Force Fitness where Monson worked out during the winter.
One of Monson’s preseason goals was to beat the 300 record since she was only a second off of doing it last year. She has been working on her form throughout the season to help improve her time. After struggling to decrease her times at the beginning of the year Monson “wasn’t confident that I would be able to beat the record, but I pushed in this meet and it was great.” To decrease her time she and her coach have been working on decreasing her stutter steps before each hurdle. “Even though my steps weren’t perfect, I stuttered over the first hurdle quite a bit, I was able to adjust and not let it affect the rest of my race.”
The top three athletes in each event automatically move on to the regional meet taking place next Tuesday at North. Other panthers to win were: Senna Hendricks in the 100 with a time of 13.08, Toudora Galuska in the 800 with a time of 2:23.82, and the 3,200 relay in 9:49.03. Also moving on is Anneke Furr in the 3,200, Zarya de Souza in the 1600, Emi McClane in the 300 hurdles, and Mackenzie Williams setting a new PR of 9 feet to take second place in the pole vault.
The team standings at the end of the night were South in first with 164 ½ points, North in second with 152 2/3 points, Brown County in third with 75 1/3 points, and Edgewood in fourth with 57 ½ points.
You could say that it was an “ex-sectional night for the panthers.”
