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Tracksters hitting stride on final turn of regular season

Sports reporter

Marion High School track teams made the most of just one meet this past week, contending for the top spot on both the girls' and boys' sides.

With 104 points the girls' team finished in second just five points behind champion Hillsboro.

The boys' team racked up 82.3 points for a fourth-place finish.

"We really got better at [this] meet," head coach Grant Thierolf said. "We has some outstanding performances and some performances that show that we are starting to peak at the right time."

Thierolf was impressed with everyone on the track, but especially with his distance runners.

Danielle Cope ran a season-best 3200-meter relay, wining the race by 320 meters.

"She will be one of the contenders for a state championship," Thierolf said.

Daniel Goentzel, Charlie Holub, Justin Heidebrecht, Camille Christensen, Jason Hett, John Barr III, Ryan Jones, and Amanda Richmond all placed in their respective distance events.

"They all ran great and are starting to race the way we have hoped that they would," Thierolf said.

The 4x400 and 4x800m relay teams both took second place as well.

Sprinters faired well on the track too.

Erin Carr won both the 100 and 200m dashes. Her time of 26.19 seconds in the 200, allowed her to defeat Hillsboro's Hannah Marsh, who had beaten Carr the week before.

Julia Zeiner won the 400m dash after finding herself in third place with just 60 meters left.

Kayley Heerey and Kristen Steinborn stepped up as well. Heerey was fourth in the 100m dash and Steinborn fifth in the 200.

"As our sprint crew starts to mature, we are hopeful that our distance crew can keep shaving seconds off their times," Thierolf said, "so that we can compete well at the league, regional, and state meets."

In the field, Erin Richmond came back from an injury to help lead the Warriors to the second-place finish.

She had what Thierolf called a big day, placing third in the pole vault, fourth in javelin, and fifth in the discus.

With time winding down toward the end of the season, Thierolf is confident his teams can keep competing at a high level.

"We have three meets left for everyone to work toward career best marks and we are very confident our young athletes will really shine for us," he said.

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