(Guthrie Center) ACGC has a very talented lineup in girls track this season.
The Chargers will be led by their distance runners, especially senior Kate Crawford. She’s a four time top ten finisher at state cross country and owns six career medals at state track. She was the runner-up at state in each of the last two seasons in the 3,000. “We have Kate Crawford coming back and everyone knows what she’s been able to do in her career. I’m just hoping we get to see what more she can do this season. We have three girls coming back from a state qualifying 4X800 and they’ve been working extremely hard to try and get themselves in position to get a medal. We have freshman Kiersten Knobbe who made some noise in cross country. Rylee Sloss is coming back and looking strong in the 1500. She put in a lot of work during the winter.”
While the distance runners are perhaps the biggest strength, the cupboard isn’t bare when it comes to sprinters. “One of our go to girls for the sprints is Reagan Rumelhart and it’s going to be her senior year. She’s been to state several times and has made a real positive impact on those younger girls. We’ve got a couple of freshman hurdlers in Sophie Dorsey and Saige O’Brien that have been looking really good. Another girl we are really excited to have out this year that didn’t go out last year because of an injury is Jenna Wheatley. She really dominated at the junior high level. We are excited to see what she can do at the Varsity level. Obviously it’s a really big jump, but we really think she can do some very cool things.”
Thrower Maddy Kelsey and high jumper Chloe Largent lead the field events. “Maddy Kelsey is a junior and has been really progressing well since her freshman year. She’s been behind Maddy McDermott so I think a lot of people forgot about her, but she’s ready to go out and make a name for herself.” Largent returns after placing 9th at state last year. “I think that motivated her more than anything because she was one place away from a medal. She really wants to go out there and get top three. The way she was jumping earlier in practices I have no doubt that if we have a state meet she will be able to accomplish that goal. She has gotten so much better than I ever thought she could.”
Shawgo adds freshman Saige O’Brien has shown some potential in the high jump as well. He is doing his best to follow a similar plan to what they would have been doing in practice. The biggest challenge comes with field events that can’t get the repetitions they normally would. He says they’ll be very disappointed if they don’t end up getting a chance to show off what they have.
On March 16th spring sports were suspended for four weeks. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has not yet announced any further schedule changes or extensions.
