Sigourney faces top dogs in preseason track meet

Sigourney sent a handful of girls to begin the 2018 track season up at Northern Iowa to compete in the Dickinson Relays on March 5. While none of the girls who competed finished on top of the podium, Autum Barthelman was able to make it to the final in multiple events.

One of the events that Autum qualified in the final for was the 60-meter dash. The top 16 times advanced into the final near the end of the day, and Autum finished her preliminary race with a time of 8.17, the 12th fastest time in the field. Other Sigourney girls to run in the event included Summer Barthelman, who ran a time of 8.44 (25th place) and Leah Carter (84th place) ran a time of 9.12. For Autum, it was her last event of the day, having run in several other events, and finished in 16th with a time of 8.36.

“Autum was nursing a couple aches and pains,” Lady Savages coach Jeni Harter said. “She is not only an all-round athlete but also a great competitor, she will be fine.”

The next event of increasing distance was the 400-meter dash, which had Summer and Sloane Magill running for a chance to get on the podium. Summer finished with a time of 1:04.39, placing her in 15th, while Magill ran a time of 1:19.03 and finishing up in 120th place.

The second event that Autum qualified in the finals for was the 60-meter hurdles, as she finished in sixth place with a time of 9.39 seconds. Carter and Magill also competed in the event, running in an earlier heat and running times that seemed quick enough to make it to the finals. As more heats went on the times steadily dropped, which ended up pushing Carter and Magill out of contention. Carter ran a time of 10.69 and Magill was right behind with 10.70 seconds, ending up in 48th and 50th respectively. Autum came close to making the podium, finishing with the fourthbest time at 9.26 seconds.

The Lady Savages also took part in the 4x200-meter relay and girls long jump. The team of four led off the day for the Savages, putting together a time of 2:07.80 in their heat, which wound up resulting in
a 47th place finish. Similar to Autum, Summer also competed in a third event, and was the only Lady Savage to participate in a field event. In the long jump, Summer was able to leap for a measured distance of 16’-06”, coming up just three inches shy of making the podium.

Even though the team may not have finished where they had hoped, the season still hasn’t officially begun, and this was their first competition of the year. Many bigger schools were there including Ames, Ankeny, Johnston, Waukee and West Des Moines Valley to name a few.

“I was extremely pleased with how the girls finished, two topfive finishes and a couple other top-20 finishes. Against competition like that is quite an accomplishment,” Harter said. “Going against big schools give us valuable experience. We have to be able to give our best effort, no matter the team name on the jersey or how bright the lights.”

The Lady Savages have some time to practice before running in the SICL Indoor meet at Grinnell College on March 19.

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