Eagles Host Competitive O'Neill Track Invite

​The O’Neill Lady Eagle Track and Field team played host to their own meet on Thursday, April 13th. O’Neill was in a 3-way battle for the team title all day with Battle Creek and Norfolk Catholic. The team finished as runner-up to Battle Creek 132-109.

The team had many personal bests achieved again this meet along three individual champions. 

Juniors Aurora Gutshall and Mikayla Marvin both won events at the meet. Aurora cleared 4-8 to win the high jump and Mikayla got over 10-0 to win the pole vault. Aurora also had a good day in the hurdles. She placed third in the 100 high hurdles with a personal best time of 15.9 and sixth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 53.0. She also ran a leg of the 4 x 100 relay that finished in third with their best time of the year, 53.9. Marvin was also part of a relay team that placed as she ran a leg of the 4 x 400 relay that finished in fourth place.

The jump crew continues to get better each meet in the horizontal jumps.  Tori Wendell won the long jump with a leap of 14-11.5 and placed third in the triple jump going 32-6. Freshman, Makenna Fowler, continues to impress. Makenna placed sixth in the triple jump with a jump of 30-9.25 and fourth in the long jump with her best jump of the year, 14-8.5. 

The shot put trio of Emma Krysl, Emily Morrow and Blair Langan had a great day for the Lady Eagles. Emma finished in second place with a personal best toss of 33-8.5. Emily was right behind her in third place with a throw of 32-8.5. Blair finished in sixth with a throw of 31-4.5. 

Amanda Brown was able to place sixth in the discus with her best throw of the year, 91-3.

Caleigh Miles finished in 3rd place in the pole vault with a heigh of 8-6.

Samantha Eichelberger had a great meet after missing two meets due to an injury. Samantha sped to her personal best clocking of 12.8 in the 100 meter dash to finish in third place. Eichelberger also returned to hurdling by competing in the 300 low hurdles where she finished in third with a time of 50.9. Teammate Taya Rainforth also had a personal best time of 51.8 in the event to finish right behind Sam in fourth place.  Taya also placed fourth in the 100 hurdles with a time of 17.0.

Payton Birkel ran her best time in the 800, 2:32.2, to finish in fifth place.

Tessa Rainforth and teammate Kadra Sommersted-Simmons continue to improve each week in the 1600. Tessa ran a personal best of 6:14.3 to finish in fifth place. Kadra was not far behind in sixth place with her personal best of 6:19.6.

The relays all had good showings also. The 4 x 100 consisting of Aurora Gutshall, Samantha Eichelberger, Taya Rainforth and Tori Wendell ran their best time of the year 53.9, to finish in third.  The 4 x 400 ran their best time of the season, 4:28.8 to finish in fourth. The team consisted of Briaunna Parks, Claire Morrow, Mikayla Marvin and Payton Birkel. Rounding out the relay team placers was the 4 x 800 that finished in fourth also. Briaunna Parks, Claire Morrow, Tessa Rainforth and Chloe Scott finished with a time of 11:25.24.

“I was super proud of our efforts today. We had so many personal bests it was hard to count them all. We had a goal of beating Battle Creek for the team title. I felt our team really bought into that this week and competed not just for themselves, but for the team as a whole. It was nice to get Sam Eichelberger back this week and hopefully our team will be at full strength for the rest of the season as we get into conference and districts.”