Marion Local girls and Minster boys have an early advantage

VERSAILLES - Marion Local's girls and Minster's boys have the early leads in the team title races after the first day of the Midwest Athletic Conference track meet on Tuesday.

The Lady Flyers are in first thus far with 61 points with Minster (52 1/2), Coldwater (36 5/6) and Versailles (36 1/3) following closely. Versailles has won the MAC the last eight years.

Minster's boys are trying to win the MAC for the fourth consecutive year and are currently leading the way with 50 points, two better than Versailles (48 points), with Coldwater (37 1/2) resting in third.

Marion Local's girls won three field events to claim the early advantage.

Olivia Hemmelgarn earned a quick win for the Flyers in the pole vault. She started by clearing 9-6 on her first vault, and when she was also successful on her first attempt at 10-0, she found herself the last remaining competitor in the event. Hemmelgarn went on to match her performance from last year's meet when she also cleared 10-6.
  Allie Thobe followed with a win in the long jump by leaping 16-2 1/2 on her final attempt.

The last win for the Flyers came from Gina Kramer in the high jump. After she and two others were successful at 5-0, Kramer went on to clear 5-2 on her first try, a feat that none of the other competitors were able to match.
  Despite the three wins, Marion Local was still trailing Minster in the standings after five events. The Flyers pulled ahead of the Wildcats after solid finishes in the discus. Madison Chrisman and Carmen Meyer finished second and third to give Marion Local the points it needed to vault into the lead.
  Minster's sole win came from Madeleine Eiting in the shot put. Her first throw of 35-10 1/2 was far from a personal best, but good enough to hold off the field for the win. The majority of Minster's points came from the second-place finishes of the 3,200-meter relay, Mya Francis in the long jump and Maria Heckman in the pole vault.

The final local victory was turned in by Coldwater's 3,200 relay. They battled against Minster for the first three legs, reaching the anchor leg about four seconds behind the Wildcats. But that was good enough for Sarah Kanney, as she turned on the afterburners in the last 150 meters to pass Minster and pull away for a seven-second win.

The results of the preliminary races seem to indicate that the girls' team championship should be a close fight between Versailles and Minster, with Marion Local and Coldwater not far behind.

Minster's boys only won one of the five contested events which were completed Tuesday night, but also earned a trio of second-place finishes to secure the early lead in the team standings.   

The Wildcats were led by Wes Hegemann, who won the discus and placed second in the shot put. Hegemann's winning effort of 154-2 in the discus was his personal best.

Minster's 3,200 relay battled back and forth with Versailles, but in the end could not match the meet's record-setting time of the Tigers. Paul Dues took the other Minster runner-up finish by clearing 6-2 in the high jump, which was two inches better than his winning effort last year. However, this year he finished behind Versailles' Craig Pothast, who cleared the bar at 6-4.

The other local win was provided by Coldwater's Jake Kramer in the shot put. His winning throw of 50-10 3/4 was four-feet better than the rest of the field and four of his six throws were good enough to have won the event.
  Results of the preliminary races indicate that Minster and Versailles are heavy favorites to battle for the MAC team title.

The remaining field event, the boys' pole vault, is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. on Friday night with the running finals beginning at 6 p.m.