Staff writer
“She ran a perfect race,” said the distance coach, Crysta Guhr, after Brittney Hiebert smashed the school record en route to a first place at the state track meet in the 800-meter run Saturday.
“I knew that winning state was a possibility,” said Hiebert between breaths immediately after her winning race. “It took hard work to prepare for this race. But my coaches helped me train for this distance.”
Hiebert, a sophomore at Goessel, came to the state meet with the ninth best time after the regionals.
At the start of the 800-meter race, runners are assigned two people in each lane, and Hiebert was in the same lane as the number one runner, a sophomore from Hanover.
“I knew I needed to stay near the front,” said Hiebert; and that is exactly how it played out.
Hiebert won the race by three strides for the 1A state title. Her time was 2:24.61, smashing the 41-year-old Goessel school record of 2:26.00 set in 1975, by LeNora (Klassen) Duerksen.
“She works so hard,” said Coach Guhr. “She does everything you ask. This championship couldn’t happen to a better girl.”
Hiebert also finished in fourth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 61.18, her season best.
Senior Zach Wiens ended his Goessel career with another medal at the meet.
In a rained-shortened track meet, Wiens finished the 110 meter hurdles with the third best time and then matched that performance with a 15.97 mark to earn a third place medal to add to his collection of awards as a Bluebird.
“Zach is the hardest worker we have in any sport,” coach Curtis Guhr said. “You tell him what needs to be done, and he is willing to work on it.”
Wiens also finished the 300 hurdles with a time of 46.29 seconds and ran a leg in the 4X400 relay along with Freddie Scheffe, Zach Zogleman and Josh Schmidt.
The relay team finished with a time of 3:45.59 for 14th place.
Stephany Meyer, Goessel’s freshman who qualified in three individual events, hit her best mark in triple jump on her first attempt.
The 33’2.75” leap was good enough for eighth place and a state medal.
She ran the 400-meter dash in 66.74 and then had to report immediately to Long Jump, where she leaped 13’11”.
Olivia Duerksen matched her best jump of the season in high jump with a clearance of 4’10”. She had one miss at this height which placed her in a tie for 10th place.
Senior, Aleena Cook ended her splendid career at Goessel, with a leg in the 4X400 relay. Meyer started the race, followed by Cook, then Lauren Rymill who gave the baton to Hiebert and the girls finished in 12th place with a season best 4:27.00.
The Goessel girls finished in 14th place out of 73 schools who had participants in the state track meet.
As a team, the Bluebirds finished in 39th place out of 77 schools.