Bland, Vienna track squads claim team hardware from Black and Gold Invitational

By Will Johnson, Sports Editor
Posted 4/26/23

Every point counts.

Middle School track teams from Bland and Vienna found this out Monday night during the Vienna Middle School Black and Gold Invitational Track Meet at Vienna High School.

It …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Bland, Vienna track squads claim team hardware from Black and Gold Invitational

Posted

Every point counts.

Middle School track teams from Bland and Vienna found this out Monday night during the Vienna Middle School Black and Gold Invitational Track Meet at Vienna High School.

It came down to the 4x400-meter relay to decide both the boys and girls team champions.

Vienna’s Lady Eagles (88) placed second in the event helping them top Bland’s Lady Bears (85) in the girls team standings while Bland’s Bears (128.5) came up 4.5 points shy of a team title finishing behind Newburg (133) overall and in the boys 4x400m relay.

Medals were given to the top three in each event Monday night.

Vienna’s Lainey Magner (2nd, 13.90) and Bland’s Piper Marsee (3rd, 14.37) earned medals in the girls 100m dash.

Kevin Russell won the boys 200m dash for Vienna on his home track in a time of 25.81.

Piper Marsee also placed second in the girls 200m dash in 29.84 followed by Lainey Magner in a third-place time of 30.07.

Russell also won the boys 400m dash for the Eagles in 1:02.14.

Bland’s Malachi Fredendall finished right behind Russell in a second-place time of 1:02.15.

Bland’s Lady Bear trio of Natalie Lansford (2nd, 1:12.28), Ellie Gray (3rd, 1:13.26) and Maddy Rhoads (4th, 1:18.07) racked 19 team points in the girls 400m dash.

Hunter Schwartze won the boys 800m run for Vienna in a time of 2:19.84.

He was followed by the Bear trio of David Skaggs (2nd, 2:25.27), Kelhen Struemph (3rd, 2:26.07) and Miles Frey (4th, 2:39.04) racking up 19 team points for Bland in the boys 800m run.

Nolie Finnegan (Bland) made it a Maries County sweep winning the girls 800m run in a time of 2:42.20.

Finnegan’s time broke a school record that was 18 years old.

Bland runners claimed the top spot in both the boys and girls 1600m runs.

Brice Robertson won the boys mile in 6:05.45 before an injured ankle caused him to have to sit out the rest of the meet.

Bear teammate Coltin Hazelwood took second in the boys mile with a time of 6:09.99.

Finnegan added to her win in the 800m run with a winning time of 6:08.22 in the girls 1600m run.

Lainey Magner added another silver medal in the girls 100m hurdles with a second-place time of 19.06.

Sprinting to a winning time of 58.01 in the girls 4x100m relay was the Lady Bear team of Piper Marsee, Ellie Gray, Natalie Lansford and Finnegan.

Earning a bronze medal in the boys 4x200m with a third-place time of 2:07.03 was the Eagle squad of Zac Kleffner, Zeb Wiles, Bryce Ewers and Blakely Crandle.

Placing second to Newburg in the boys 4x400m relay was Bland’s team of Hazelwood, Fredendall, Skaggs and Struemph in a time of 4:22.81.

Taking third right behind Bland was Vienna’s team of Dalton Timm, Wiles, Ewers and Crandle in 5:05.06.

Helping them top the girls team standings, Vienna’s girls 4x400m relay team of Kaylee Bresnahan, Larissa Magner, Ava Smith and Delaney Schwartze placed second in a time of 5:28.70.

Breaking the 10-minute barrier and re-breaking their own school record in the boys 4x800m relay with a winning time of 9:59.92 was Bland’s foursome of Fredendall, Frey, Skaggs and Struemph.

Vienna’s Lady Eagle 4x800m relay team of Riley McKinnon, Sophia Neubert, Kaitlyn Carpenter and Zoe Hawk won their race in a time of 15:26.47.

Braden Barzee helped the Bears with second-place throws of 10.83m in the shot put and 33.10m in the discus.

Weston Doss also just missed a medal in the shot put with a fourth-place throw of 9.42m.

Robertson (Bland) and Russell (Vienna) both cleared 1.47m in the boys high jump to finish tied for third place.

Adding to his wins in the 200m and 400m dashes, Russell won his third event of the meet for the Eagles with a first-place leap of 4.93m in the boys long jump.

Schwartze made it two Eagles in the top three with a third-place leap of 4.76m.

Schwartze added another medal to his haul with a second-place mark of 10.28m in the triple jump while Bland’s Miles Frey was third (9.90m).

Lainey Magner collected another medal for Vienna by winning the girls long jump with a leap of 4.22m.

Gray helped Bland score six team points with her third-place leap of 3.99m in the event.

One of two girls to break the eight-meter mark in the girls triple jump, Bresnahan helped the Lady Eagles score eight team points with a second-place mark of 8.43m.

She also won the girls pole vault with a clearing height of 2.13m.

Both Bland and Vienna’s middle school track teams will return to action on Monday, May 1 at the Cuba Invitational with events starting at 3:30 p.m.