WHS TRACK AND FIELD: WHS’s Musa, Juber shine at St. James triangular

WORTHINGTON — On a beautiful spring day, Worthington joined Fairmont and St. James in a triangular high school track and field meet with a number of sparkling performances recorded.

Among the best were stellar early-season times by Worthington seniors Mubarik Musa and Megan Juber in the boys’ 1,600-meter run and the girls’ 3,200-meter race, respectively.

Musa pulled away from a pair of good distance runners — one each from St. James and Fairmont — to win the mile, clocked at 4:28.4.

“That’s really a good run for April,” praised WHS co-head Ken Henkels. “His time was really good and so was Megan’s in the two mile. Will Dudley cleared 13 feet again in the pole vault and both Danny Rodriguez and Mitch Weg won two individual events for us.”

Juber breezed to a 37-second victory in the girls’ 3200, covering the eight laps in 11:52.6.

In the final team standings, Fairmont won the boys’ meet with 87 points, ahead of Worthington (64) and St. James (37).

In the girls’ meet, Fairmont won with 91 points, followed by St. James (66) and Worthington (29).

The meet was scored 5-3-2-1 for the top four places in the 14 individual events, while the four relays were scored 5-3 for the top two finishes.

Rodriguez was a big scorer for the Trojans, as he won the 100-meter dash (11.2) and 200-meter dash (23.6), placed fourth in the long jump (18-2) and ran the leadoff leg on Worthington’s second-place 4x200-meter relay team (1:34.3), which finished just a tenth of a second behind Fairmont.

“That was a bang, bang finish,” declared Henkels. “The boys’ 4x2 was an exciting race from beginning to end.”

Running for the Trojans after Rodriguez were Jesse Guerra, Dudley and Ethan Spittle.

Weg won both the triple jump (41-11) and high jump (5-10), performing well in each event.

Freshman Peter Abraham scored a victory for the Trojans in the shot put, surpassing the 40-foot mark by two-and-a-half inches.

Dudley gave Worthington a seventh individual first-place performance by clearing the pole vault bar at 13 feet for the second time in competition this spring.

The Trojans were second in all four relays, as the quartet of Nathan Landwehr, Ian Stewart, Oliver Wolyniec and Gordy Moore ran the 4x800 in 9:07.4; the foursome of Troy Ektnitphong, Jon Vorwarld, Brandon Gray and Guerra ran the 4x100 in 47.6 and the team of Guerra, Musa, Dudley and Spittle ran a fine time of 3:37.9 in the meet-concluding 4x400-meter relay.

Individually, Spittle was second in the 400-meter dash (53.9) and eighth-grader Gbrown Ochothow finished a solid second in both hurdle races, running the 110-meter highs in 17 seconds flat and the 300-meter intermediates in 42.3.

Guerra placed third in the long jump (18-4) and Landwehr finished third in the 800-meter run, clocked at 2:12.3.

Scoring fourths for the Trojans, in addition to Rodriguez in the long jump, were Ochothow in the 100 (11.7), Ektnitphong in the triple jump (37-11.5), Abraham in the discus (90-6) and eighth-grader Ammanuel Fissiha in the 1,600 (5:01.8).

Coriolan, Svalland, 4x800 join Juber as girls’ event winners

In addition to Juber’s impressive first-place run in the 3,200, the Trojans also received individual victories from both Whitney Coriolan (300-meter low hurdles, 50.2) and Tara Svalland (high jump, 4-10), along with a nice meet-opening win by the 4x800-meter relay team of Juber, Alicia Darling, Meredith Moore and Olivia Ebbers (10:33.5).

“Our girls won four events, so we had some good performances,” praised Henkels. “Winning the 4x8 was a real highlight to start the meet.”

Lexy Teerink placed second in the discus (97-3) and Worthington’s 4x200 team of Coriolan, Tracy Prins, Sade Potter and Zalea Hamblin clocked a second-place time of 2:01.5.

The Trojans’ quartet of Potter, Carsen Wetzel, Prins and Hamblin finished third in the 4x100 (58.5) and the foursome of Moore, Emma Gerber, Quinn Bents and Hope Reeves came in third in the 4x400-meter relay.

Eighth-graders Moore (800, 2:39.1) and Gerber (1,600, 6:16.2) contributed to the WHS scoring with fine individual third-place finishes in their respective events.

Thursday, WHS hosts the annual eight-team Worthington Invitational at Trojan Field, beginning at 4 p.m.

Tags: track and field, sports, trojans, prep