by Ashley Miller

Two meet records were set at the South Tama Invitational on Thursday, April 20, by sophomores Paytan Schut and Maddie Samson. Five first place, six second and two third place finishes helped the Mustangs place second as a team. They finished the night with 132 points.

Samson placed first in the discus with a throw of 113 feet, two inches. She beat her previous record by five feet and the meet’s record set by South Tama graduate Tieranny Keahna by two. Schut finished in first in the 800 meter run with a personal best time of 2:21.89, setting both the meet record and the stadium record. Her time was ten seconds off of the previous meet record and .09 off of the school record set by Kim Elrod in 1990.

Freshman Kate McCarthy also had a gold medal performance. She crossed the finish line at 66.44 seconds in the 400 meter dash. The 4×400 team of senior Rachel Stafford, freshman Sierra Foster, McCarthy and Schut finished in first with a time of 4:28.49. Freshman Lexi Kuecker, senior Tatum Nearmyer, Stafford and senior Jayci Vos made up the first place distance medley team. They crossed the finish line at 4:41.72.

Vos also finished in second in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 69.36. Junior Ashley Miller finished second in the 100 and 200 meter dash with times of 13.41 and 28.14, respectively. Samson had a season best throw of 34 feet, 11.5 inches in the shot put, landing her second place. The sprint medley team of Foster, Nearmyer, Miller and Stafford finished in second with a time of 1:57.67. The last silver medal performance for the Mustangs was the 4×100. The team of Foster, Miller, Nearmyer and Vos finished at 53.29.

The two third place finishes for the Mustangs were in the 4×800 and shuttle hurdle relay. The 4×800 team of freshman Hailey Schutte, sophomore Sloan Hjortshoj, freshman Sayde White and freshman Klaire Jungling crossed the finish line at 11:13.28. Sophomore Megan Cowman, Kuecker, Nearmyer and Vos made up the shuttle hurdle team. They finished at 1:11.43.

The Mustangs’ next meet is tonight, April 27 at Pella for the Tulip Time Relays. Field events begin at 5 p.m.

“As a team, we did a nice job competing. We scored quite a few points tonight because we continue to show team depth which is nice to see,” Head Coach Bridget Martin said. “The weather wasn’t as friendly to us this evening, but it is important that we continue to get better even when the weather isn’t ideal. We are getting to the fun part of the season and our goal is to see times continue to drop.”