Fourth place finish for Griswold girls

DES MOINES — The state track meet was not unfamiliar territory for most of the Griswold girls who finished fourth as a team, with 30 points, last weekend.

In 2009, with many of the same runners, the Tigers finished fifth at the state meet, finishing with 30 points.

Last week, the Tigers won three silver medals as junior Lauren Moore finished second in the 400-meter hurdles and was a part of Griswold’s silver medal-winning distance medley and 4x800-meter relay teams. Moore was joined by Larissa Backhaus, Rachel Northrup, and Jenny Mortensen in the distance medley relay. Moore, Northrup, Jordyn Sindt, and Allison Young won silver in the 4x800.

Northrup also added points to the Tigers’ total with her seventh place finish in the 400-meter hurdles and was a part of Griswold’s fifth place sprint medley team, along with Backhaus, Mortensen, and Moore.

Northrup and Moore’s combined 10 points in the 400-meter hurdles amounted to the same as Logan-Magnolia’s Alex Gochenour’s first place finish which missed the state record by .03 seconds.

“She’s amazing,” Moore said about Gochenour’s gold-medal run. “I knew she was going to get out to a great start and I just had to run at my pace to try to keep up.”

Gochenour, a junior, led the meet with four gold medals, leading Logan-Magnolia to second overall.

The Tigers are hoping to see more state competitors in the future, being that Mortensen was the team’s only graduating senior.

Young, a freshman, was a part of the second-place 4x800-meter relay team and also finished 15th in the 1,500 meter run.

The Tigers also competed in the 4x200-meter relay, placing 18 of 24, with Backhaus, Mortensen, Sindt, and Keyla Reynolds. The same personnel also finished 22nd in the 4x400-meter relay.