GIRLS TRACK: Three NV individual events, one relay make state

Nodaway Valley’s girls track and field team is sending four events to this week’s state track meet after they competed last Thursday in a state-qualifying meet at Madrid.

The Wolverines end up with a sprinter, distance runner relay qualifying for the blue oval inside Drake Stadium. The state track meet is Thursday through Saturday.

“The girls were a smaller group this year, so I didn’t know how I was really going to piece that all together,” NV head coach Brett Welsch said. “Springtime’s always an interesting beast in and of itself to get kids in.”

The Wolverines are sending senior Maddie Weston in a pair of events to state in the 100m and 200m dash. Junior Izzy Eisbach qualified for state in the 1500m run. The distance medley quartet of Weston, Haisley Zoubek, Allie Cornelison adn Eisbach are also qualified.

Weston will get to show off her speed at state after earning a pair of wildcard spots in the two sprint events. She was third at the state-qualifying meet (13.02) in the 100m and second in the 200 (27.42).

“Maddie’s been fighting a back issue where she’s just been really tight. She really has not gotten the workouts in because of a number of little health things. It’s nothing major,” Welsch said. “This is her go time. Her times are down and I think she’s ready to give it another shot at state, and I’m super happy for her. She’s been with me for four years. With the small numbers, I’m happy for her [that she got there].”

Eisbach set a new season-best time, running a 5:10.02 in the 1500, placing fourth.

“Izzy has a big demand with basketball, but she has a great attitude, comes in when she can and does the workout. She’s a great 800 runner. We need to get those times down a little, but she turns around and runs a 1500 and those times have continually gone down,” Welsch said.

The distance medley finished in 4:33.30, which was good enough for fourth place and a qualifying spot. Weston hands off to Zoubek, who hands off to

“Maddie kicks it off. Haisley came out as a sophomore and got stronger. This year as a junior, she hasn’t complained through all the workouts, and she’s been healthy. I think she ran a 28 split in the 200. Basically, she’s really blossomed into a decent sprinter. She hands off to Allie, who is steady on the 400. I knew she was tough since I saw her last year as a freshman. And Izzy’s the anchor,” Welsch said.

In other individual events, Allie Cornelison placed sixth in the 200m dash in a season-best time of 28.98. Kaylee Moser ran a season-best time in the 100m dash when she placed 15th in a time of 15.81. Senior Jazz Christensen captured a top-10 finish in the 3000m run in a time of 14:30.90. Christensen nearly added a second top-10 finish, taking 11th in the 1,500m run.

The Wolverines also had a pair of top-10 finishes in relay events. Their sprint medley team of Weston, Cornelison, Kylie Nelson and Eisbach was seventh in 2:06.28. The 4x100 team was 10th in 59.35.

Madrid won the state qualifying meet with a team score of 144 points. AGWSR was runner-up with a team score of 98. West Fork was third with 94.