MUSCODA - The Riverdale Track Team hosted the Ginger Morrey Invitational on Saturday. It was a 10-team invite, and the weather was great for running.
The team was lead on the girls’ side by Gabby Werthwein, who picked up two first place finishes in the shot put and disc. Werthwein’s throw of 33’5” was the winning throw by more than three feet. She continued her great day by winning the disc by more than 14 feet. Werthwein was joined by teammates, Tamara Thomas and Macy Mau, who finished third and fourth respectively in the disc. Thomas also finished eighth in the shot.
Hannah Hanson had her best triple jump of the year going 33’ 2” to finish second. She also finished seventh in the 200-meter dash. Callie Arellano had a good day as well, finishing sixth in the 200-meter and fifth in the long jump. Mau finished eighth in the 200-meter, as well.
Leah Underwood placed sixth in the 1,600-meter run.
Rounding out the scoring for the girls was all three relays placing in the top eight. First the 4x100 of Riley Connor, Miranda Swaziek, Alexis Ambort and McKayla Ricco placed fifthth. The 4x200 team of Mau, Arellano, Hanson and McKenzie Couey placed third while also runing their best time of the season with 2:00, shaving three seconds off their previous time. Rounding out the scoring for the girls was 4x400-meter relay team of Connor, Swaziek, Ambort and Underwood, which finished second with their best time of the year.
The girls overall finished fourth as a team.
“It was a good day for the girls team,” said Coach Todd McKay. “We need to find and develop a couple young ladies to score us some points in hurdles. Then we will be a team to compete for the championships in many of our meets.”
On the boys’ side, Brian Mathews lead the way with two first-place finishes in the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs. Mathews also was in the 4x200 with Colt Pechan, Athan Karabetsos and Dakota Fiebranz that finished third.
“Brian had a good day,” said the coach. “We asked him to fill in on the 4x200 and he did a great job.”
Micah Arellano finished second in the pole vault for the Chieftains. Pechan and Fiebranz brought home third and seventh place finishes in the triple jump, and Athan Karabetsos jumped into seventh place in the long jump.
Kyle Hanke continued cutting his time down on the 400-meter and finished fifth overall. Hank Huang brought home a seventh place finish in the 800-meter run and an eighth place finish in the 1600-meter run, as well.
The Chieftains had two other relays score for them on Saturday. The 4x100 team of Jason Warton, Max Krueger, Terry Hrubes, and Kyle Hanke finished sixth. And rounding out the scoring was the 4x400-meter team of Pechan, Fiebranz, Hanke, Huang finishing fourth overall.
The boys finished seventh as a team.
The Chieftains will be back in action on Friday at the Sparky Reynolds Invite in Boscobel. On Tuesday May 17, the Chieftains host the SWAL Conference Championships. All events begin at 4 p.m. that day.
