Contributing writer
It was a breezy day for the Goessel track team at the 1A regional track meet in Burlington, but the Goessel girls achieved some impressive performances. The top four finishers at each regional meet advance to the Kansas State High School Track Meet this Friday and Saturday in Wichita.
Ali Buller pulled off an impressive first-place finish in the 800-meter run. After two laps, she had set a new personal best for the season with a time of 2:31.09. When comparing her time with other regional track meets across the state, she has the fastest time of all 16 qualifiers at the state meet. Buller will be scheduled to run at 5:05 p.m. on Saturday, for her first attempt at a state medal.
Brittny Czarnowsky also earned first place at the regional meet in the 3,200. After eight laps, she finished less than two seconds ahead of second place in a time of 13:01.28. Only once has she run this distance faster, and she will participate at the state meet with hopes to medal in her final year as a Bluebird athlete.
Tia Goertzen qualified in the two hurdle events at this year’s regional meet. She finished second in the 100 hurdles with a time of 17.30 seconds. She finished third in the 300 hurdles with a time of 53.15 seconds. With only these two events to concentrate on during the week, Goertzen hopes to improve on her times and exceed her performance in both of these events from last year’s state track meet.
Goessel scored a total of 34 points to finish in seventh place out of 17 schools at the regional meet.
Goessel Girls Competing at 1A Regional Track Meet:
100 hurdles: 2. Tia Goertzen, 17.30 (preliminaries at state 2:10 pm Friday).
300 hurdles: 3. Goertzen, 53.15 (preliminaries at state 4:20 pm Friday).
800: 1. Ali Buller, 2:31.09 (finals at state 5:05 pm Saturday).
3,200: 1. Brittny Czarnowsky 13:01.28 (finals at state 7:00 pm Friday).
Boys
Davis Cook launched his best effort of the season in the triple jump, but the 39-6 leap only earned him 8th place. The 4x800 relay team picked up the only point of the day with a sixth-place finish. Although the boys competed in five events, none of them finished in the top four places, which is required to advance to the state track meet.
Goessel Boys Competing at 1A Regional Track Meet:
800: 8. Nathan Czarnowsky, 2:20.72.
1600: 9. Ben Wiens, 5:21.06.
3,200: 8. Heath Goertzen, 12:03.56
4x800 relay: 6. Heath Goertzen, Wiens, Grant Flaming, Czarnowsky, 10:10.12.
Triple jump: 8. Davis Cook, 39-6.00.