Lutheran West Girls Track and Field Team Makes School History in Columbus

The Lutheran West Longhorns Girls Track and Field team sent five athletes to Columbus this weekend. Read about their impressive trip to States below, via Lutheran West’s press release:

The Lutheran West Lady Longhorns Track & Field team enjoyed a 100% return on their investment from the Regional meet. All five of the athletes who qualified to Regionals qualified to State. Senior Sarah Ragland qualified in the Shot Put, Senior MaQuila Norman qualified in the 400m and 4x400m relay as well as the other relay team members, Junior Raiyah Johnson and Freshmen Kristin Groppe and Paris Mather.

Norman started the prelim day off on Friday with an impressive new school record in the 400m in 56.27 to earn a spot in the final. Then, the 4x400m team kept up the momentum with another school school record performance in a time of 3:58.05 breaking the 4 minute barrier for the first time. Their prelim time was the fastest time going into finals on Saturday.

Lutheran West has brought a 4x400m team to the State meet the past three years. After graduating two of the team members from last year’s team and replacing those spots with freshmen, the future was uncertain. However, the ladies came together in fine fashion after a season of great development to run faster than any Lutheran West team has before them.

In the finals on Saturday, the 4x400m ladies finished 6th overall in a time of 4:00.22, the second best time in school history.

Only an hour and fifteen minutes before the 4x400m relay finals, Norman ran another lifetime best in the open 400m in 55.96 breaking her own school record yet again. She finished an impressive 3rd place overall, her best State Meet placing in her high school career.

Sarah Ragland finished 11th overall with a solid 38’ 3.5” throw in the shot put just missing the finals. Both Norman and Ragland will continue their academic and athletic careers at the collegiate level.

 

Norman will be attending NCAA Division I Ball State University as a long sprinter and Ragland will be at NAIA University of Concordia in Nebraska as a thrower.

Of the five athletes competing, only two were seniors and the alternates were a sophomore and freshmen. The future looks bright for the Longhorn State Meet legacy.

Coach Anjanette Whitman: “This group of ladies represented everything great about coaching the sport of Track & Field. They developed appropriately at every stage of the season and for the seniors, at every stage of their high school careers. We pulled from each athlete’s strengths to enjoy great results to culminate the season and to launch the ladies into even better accomplishments in the future. Our goal now is to bring on more student-athletes with the same desires to build the team up further.”