By DELBERT PETERS

Staff writer

Goessel sophomore Stephany Meyer, who competed in three individual events at this weekend’s state track and field meet in Wichita, became a bit anxious after two fouls in the triple jump.

Her third jump put her in seventh place and allowed her to advance to the final round of nine jumpers, each getting three more jumps.

She improved on each of her three final jumps but still finished in seventh place with a best distance of 34 feet 7¾ inches.

Meyer also finished 11th in the 200-meter dash and 13th in the long jump, without earning points in either event.

Overall, Goessel girls earned points in 4 of 10 events for which they qualified, finishing in 28th place in Class 1A.

Their 4x800-meter relay team chopped more than eight seconds off its fastest time to capture eighth place with a time of 10:50.59.

“We have probably had three combinations of runners in this relay during the season,” senior Lauren Rymill said.

Although Lauren and teammate Julia Nightengale were on the state champion cross country team in the fall, this was their first state medal in track and field.

Individually, Julia finished 14th in the 3,200-meter run, and Lauren finished 16th in the 1,600-meter run.

Katherine Manis, who finished ninth individually in 300-meter hurdles, also was on the relay team, which was anchored by Brittney Hiebert.

Brittney had several hours to recover from the race before participating in the individual 800-meter run.

The pace was quick as several runners moved to the front of the field. Brittney was in fifth position with 100 meters to go when she made a move to pass, but so did other runners.

In the final push to the finish line, six runners finished within three seconds, and she ended with a sixth-place medal for her time of 2:30.57.

In the girls’ high jump, senior Olivia Duerksen competed for her third time at a state meet.

Knowing that she needed to clear 5 feet to have a chance at a medal, she cleared that height and two lower heights without a miss. At 5 feet 2 inches, which she had not cleared at any time this year, she missed three times but secured a tie for seventh and earned another state medal.

The girls’ 4x400 relay finished 11th in preliminaries.

Josh Schmidt was the sole competitor for Goessel boys. He finished 13th in the 200-meter dash.