Wolves track & field off to fast start

Relay races were the defining factor for the Wolves competing strong, taking home a high finish Friday at the Buena Vista University High School Elite.
“With all classes combined, it made for a competitive environment and a good way to see where we were at so far,” said Wolves Head Coach Emma Konkler-Petersen.
In the 4x200 relay event, Amber Halbur, Madelyn Snyder Abbagail Neiheisel and Hannah McKinney took a fifth place finish with a time of 2:01.91. In another 4x200 event, Mabel Langel, Taylor Beckendorf, Alikxa McGinn and Karlee Arp finished in fourth place with a time of 2:00.72.
“We had both 4x200 squads placed in the top five, which was great to see, especially since there were 22 teams in total,” Konkler-Petersen said. “We were also very happy with how our 4x800, 4x400, and shuttle hurdle teams competed at this point in the season.”
In the field events, Halbur took a 10th place finish with a long jump of 14-02.00 and a high jump of 04-04 which placed her at 15th. Langel finished 11th in the shot put event with 28-06.75.
Konkler-Petersen was pleased with the results, but knows work needs to be done with a long season ahead.
“The girls competed well against a number of teams,” she said. “As coaches, we were excited to see the depth of our sprinters at this point in the season. We have some room for improvement, but were very pleased with the splits the athletes in those relays ran. This gave us a good gauge of what is going well and what we need to work on.”
With weather being an issue for most teams including the Wolves and their first event taking place indoors, Konkler-Petersen indicated it’s tough to pinpoint exactly where the team is.
“Unfortunately weather has not been our friend this season so far, so it has made it very difficult to see where we were at,” she added.