When examining the Gopher Conference meet on paper, NRHEG girls’ track and field coach Duey Ferber figured his Panthers had a good chance to finish in fifth place.
His figuring was right on.
The Panther girls were fifth out of seven schools in the conference meet they hosted Tuesday, May 12 in New Richland.
“It was a good night for our girls,” said Ferber. “We ended up about where we figured we’d place.”
WEM won the championship with 154 points, with Maple River second at 105. USC/AC was next with 102.5 followed by NRHEG with 95, Medford 79.5 and Bethlehem Academy 55.
The Panthers’ had four all-conference performers, the 4x200-meter relay team of Maddie Wagner, Marnie Wagner, Gretchen Ramaker and Hailey Schuller, who won the event in 1:54.3.The Panthers had three seconds, by Maddie Wagner in the high jump, Ramaker in the 100 and Schuller in the 100 high hurdles. Schuller was third in the 300 intermediate hurdles.
Other Panther places: Sophia Fischer, third, shot put; 4x800 relay, third (Kelly Harden, Sandra Quezada, Hailey Westrum, Maddie Bartelt); Schuller, fourth, long jump; Emily Eder, fourth, shot put and fifth, discus; 4x100 relay, fourth (Wagner, Wagner, Ramaker, Erin VanWilgen); Ramaker, fourth, triple jump; Quezada, fifth, 3200; 4x400, sixth (Westrum, Grace Kofstad, Bartelt, Annie Prigge); Marnie Wagner, sixth, high jump; Prigge, sixth, 1600; Maddie Wagner, seventh, 200; Harden, seventh, 800; Jade Mely, eighth, 3200; VanWilgen, eighth, 200; Westrum, eighth, 1600.