Warrior girls set records in field events
By Willis Patenaude | Times-Register
“Finally, a beautiful day for a meet!” coach Martha Bauder said about the Central girls track and field appearance at the April 21 New Hampton Girls Invitational.
Central achieved 10 personal records, six season bests and four wins in the field events, including Layla Embretson pulling off a throw of 102-03 in the varsity discus, marking the first time she has gone over the century mark and the first time for the program since 2017.
In the junior varsity discus competition, Blair Scherf also hit a personal record of 89-02 to take first place by over 10 feet.
Warrior success continued in the shot put, where Natalya Singleton put up a mark of 34-00.00, securing another first place, while Embretson was 10th. Singleton also competed in the varsity discus, coming in sixth.
Not to be outdone, the jumpers from Central also had solid finishes, with Brooke Tieden clearing a height of 4-02 for fifth place in the high jump. Reese Berns leapt to first place in the long jump.
The impressive results for the Warriors in the field events yielded 32 varsity points and 10 points in junior varsity.
Other highlights included a second-place run by Alivia Wiley in the 400 hurdles, where she finished with a personal record time of 1:15.35. Wiley was also part of the third-place distance medley team with Ella Frieden, Berns and Scherf. The group ran a season-best time at 4:46.45.
Another group of Warriors, Payton Stannard, Tenley Bormann, Mya Gregerson and Lily Becwar, took third in the 4x200 relay in 2:06.27, while the 4x400 team of Frieden, Stannard, Embretson and Becwar finished fourth.
Central rattled off another fourth place in the JV 200-meter dash, with Embretson and Makenzie Thorson both putting up personal record times. Scherf finished the race fourth in 31.55, under three seconds out of first place, and Thorson took eighth in 36.49 seconds. Thorson also finished in fourth place in the JV 100 in 16.83 seconds.
In the varsity 100-meter dash, Stannard put in a season best time of 14.55 seconds for fifth place, and Singleton earned a personal record to cross the finish line seventh.
The Warriors added a fifth-place result in the 800-sprint medley with Stannard, Bormann, Frieden and Wiley running a season-best 2:07.27, while Scherf was fifth in the 1500, cutting 16 seconds off her previous best time and setting a personal record 5:47.01. Berns finished seventh in the 100-meter hurdles.
The Warriors’ next meet was April 24, at the West Delaware Girls Invitational, where they faced “extremely tough” competition that included several 3A and 4A schools among the 14 teams. Bauder said the addition of those schools means “placing is difficult,” so the Warriors focused more on improvements and setting personal records and season best times.
When the meet was over, Central had done just that. Across 16 events, they totaled three personal records, six season bests and 18 points, which was more than twice as many as last season at the event.
The personal records also included a historically significant one from Singleton, who put up a mark of 36’2” in the shot put, which put her third for the event. More importantly, the mark landed her sixth on Central’s girls all time top 10 list since 1975 and was the best mark in the program since 2011.
In the other field events, Embretson finished eighth in the discus, hitting 94’6” on her final throw, and Scherf came in 18th. Tieden cleared 4’4” in the high jump for 12th, and Berns matched that result in the long jump.
Other notable finishes included a fifth-place run by Scherf in the 1500, as she once again set a personal record, this time with a 5:45.36, nearly two seconds faster than at New Hampton. Aspen Rork finished the 1500 16th.
The 400-meter hurdles was another impressive finish for Wiley, who took fifth place in 1:15.70, and she helped lead the Warriors to sixth place in the 1600-meter distance medley with teammates Frieden, Berns and Scherf.
Several other races saw better times, like the 800-meter sprint medley relay, which featured Wiley along with Keppler, Stannard and Berns. They ran a season best time of 2:06.23 to finish 12th. Embretson added another personal record in the 400-meter, completing the race in 1:14.36 to finish 14th. The 4x100-relay team of Keppler, Frieden, Bormann and Stannard provided a personal record with a 13th-place finish in a time of 56.54 seconds.
In the 4x400 relay, Becwar, Coral Rork, Gregerson and Scherf combined for 13th. Rork added an 18th-place result in the 800-meter race and 12th in the 3000. The Warriors were 17th in the 4x200 relay with Keppler, Gregerson, Aspen Rork and Becwar, while Keppler took 19th in the 100 and Stannard was 16th in the 200.
The girls were scheduled to travel to Waukon on April 29, then follow that up with a trip to MFL MarMac May 1.
