Good finishes for Villisca and Essex at Bedford

BEDFORD—Both the Villisca and Essex track teams scored points at the Bedford Coed Invitational at Bedford High School Friday.

Both Villisca track teams took fifth, while the Essex girls took sixth and the Essex boys finished seventh.

The girls team for Villisca had several runner-up finishes. Morganne Haer finished second in the long jump, while Heather Means took second in the 1,500 and third in the 3,000. Essex’s Jasmine Glasgo scored the win in the 3,000, winning with a time of 12:29.22.

Additionally, the Villisca girls had a second place finish in the distance medley, when the team of Kelsey Means, Bree Ann Fisher,  Jenny King and Haer ran a time of 4:43.20. The sprint medley team, which featured Jill Vanderhoof in place of King, placed third.

Also finishing third was the 4x800 team of Mikayla Dolch, Kendra Top, Megan Schubert and Rachel Herzberg as they ran a time of 12:05.06. The Essex team of Shea Jensen, Stephanie McBride, Sara Skalberg and Mariah Johnson finished ahead of Villisca in second place with a time of 11:42.26.

Amanda Focht helped score points in the field events for Villisca as she took third in the discus and sixth in the shot put. Regan Burns of Essex won the shot put event with a throw of 34’3.5”.

For the boys team, Travis Herzberg had a couple of top five finishes individually. Herzberg took third in the 400 and 800-meter races. In the 400-dash, Herzberg was less than a second (53.51) behind the winner of the race, Matt Mankin of Earlham.

Austin Sorensen had the best individual finish for Villisca as he took second in the 1,600 with a time of 5:09.18, losing to Earlham’s Travis Herman by less than two seconds.

Villisca also had third place finishes in the 4x800 as well as the distance medley.

For Essex, Alex Dailey had a fourth place finish in the 3,200. Meanwhile, Zach Dailey and Jacob Ohnmacht were third and fourth in the high jump.

Essex’s best finish in the relay events was the 4x100 when they ran a time of 52.61 seconds.

Both Villisca and Essex teams are scheduled to compete Tuesday in Tabor at the Corner Conference meet. The meet will start at 4 p.m.

Later in the week, the Essex and Villisca boys teams will head to Corning to compete at a meet. The meet starts at 5 p.m.

The Villisca girls team will travel to Mount Ayr Thursday. The meet starts at 5 p.m.