Charleston High School Indoor Invitational

The Plains Girls turned in a great performance this past weekend competing in the Charleston High School Girl's Indoor Invitational held on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. The team finished in 5th place overall among 35 teams competing at the meet. Among the meet highlights, Hope Tewes finished in first place in the High Jump, matching her season's best jump by leaping 5'4". Tewes narrowly missed a height of 5'6". Tewes also placed 6th overall in the 60 Meter Dash with a time of 8.48. Amber Clouser set a new 2015 indoor season PR in the 60 Meter Hurdles by running the event in a time of 9.69, which placed her 3rd overall. Clouser just missed scoring in the horizontal jumps placing 10th in both the Long Jump and Triple Jump. Ali Pankey set a new 2015 indoor season PR in the 800 Meter Run by posting a time of 2:28.96, placing 6th overall. The 4x800 Relay team of Lauren Feagans, Carley Hamilton, Carolyn Nika and Ali Pankey bested their time by over 56 seconds, running the event in a time of 10:50.73 and placing 5th overall. The 4x200 Relay team of Lauren Feagans, Stephanie Race, Claire Watson and Lauryn Leonard placed 5th overall posting their best time of the young indoor season by running the event in a time of 1:55.06. The 4x400 Relay of Stephanie Race, Ali Pankey, Baylee Vaughn and Lauren Feagans also improved their time posting a 4:35.73 and finishing in 8th place. 

Other highlights: In the Shot Put, C.J. Schmitt and Shae Sibert finished 18th and 19th respectively out of 41 throwers. C.J. tossed the shot 29'10" and Shae had a put of 29'9.25". Leonard just missed making the finals in the 60 Meter Dash posting a prelim time of 8.58, just 6/100 of a second from making the finals. Roya Nassirpour posted an improved time of 10.80 in the 60 Meter Hurdles, which placed her 19th overall. Carley Hamilton posted a time of 2:48.39 in the 800 Meter Run which placed her 26th overall. Lauren Feagans finished 11th overall in the 400 Meter Run, with a time of 1:06.09, her best this season. In the 1600 Meter Run, Rachel Lange improved her time crossing the finish line with a time of 6:23.32, 21st overall. Emily Russell posted a 6:38.60 in the 1600, placing her 31st overall. 

This was one fast meet, with some excellent teams competing. The girls did a great job and should be proud of their efforts. Several of the girls are on the leaderboard of the Illinois Top Times Meet, which takes place on Friday, March 27th at the Shirk Center on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. They'll have one more meet to try and improve upon their current times, throws, and jumps in order to secure a spot to compete in the Top Times Meet, the unofficial Indoor State Championships. The team travels to Monmouth, Illinois next Saturday, March 21st to compete in the Galesburg Silver Streak Last Chance Invite.