GILBERT — Shaking off the rust from being inactive for several weeks, Collins-Maxwell/ Baxter’s girls opened the 2014 outdoor track season Tuesday. The Raiders placed fourth as a team at the Gilbert Coed Invitational.
Freshman Mikayla Eslinger let the discus fly 100 feet, 2 inches to win the gold medal in the event. Senior Abbie Haupert placed third at 100’1”.
The Raiders’ 4x100-meter relay team of Maddy Poage, Toni Spencer, Bridget Hurley and Mackenzie Schmitz had steady handoffs and claimed a gold medal. Their winning time was 54.32 seconds.
Schmitz placed second in the 100-meter dash in 13.52 seconds and Spencer was sixth in 14.26 seconds. Hurley finished second in the 400-meter dash in 1 minutes, 5.31 seconds.
“Well, we finally had our first complete outdoor meet and you could tell we were a little rusty. We did some good things, and we also found some things that we need to work on,” said Jerry Meinerts, CMB girls’ head coach.
“Mikayla won the discus with her best throw of the season, and the 4x100 relay team of Maddy, Toni, Bridget, and Mackenzie had a respectable time.”
Poage cleared the bar at 4’8” to place second in the high jump and Hurley was sixth at 4’6”. Payge Jurgens finished fourth in the shot put with a toss of 32’9 1/2”. Spencer placed fifth in the long jump with a leap of 13’11”.
Hurley ran fourth in the 200-meter dash in 28.83 seconds. Poage, Spencer, Megan Ritter and Schmitz combined for a third-place time in the 4x200-meter relay race in 1:58.92.
CMB’s sprint medley relay foursome of Poage, Haupert, Kathleen Baldwin and Sydney Ziesman ran sixth in 2:18.23. Also taking sixth was the distance medley relay team of Kennedy Gulling, Haupert, Baldwin and Stephanie Twohey in 5:22.09.
“We had several sixth, seventh and eighth place finishes (Tuesday), just seconds out of fourths and fifths. Those points add up over 19 events,” Meinerts said.
“We need to take that next step, get in a little better shape, work on our handoffs some more and continue shaving some time off of each of our events. I can guarantee that we are only going to get better from here. Our next chance to compete will be Friday night at Ballard.”