Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda eighth-grader Maddie Schumacher blazed to a first-place finish in the Class A girls’ 100-meter dash at the prestigious Trojan Relays in Worthington last Tuesday, (May 14) in what turned out be a rain-shortened high school track and field meet.
About two-thirds of the way through the huge two-class meet, a lightning strike was noticed and the event was put on a 30-minute delay. Soon after more lightning followed (along with thunder and a down pour of rain) which caused the meet to be suspended with several running events remaining, including both the 800-meter run and the 3,200-meter race, which each featured Coyote distance ace Morgan Gehl.
Gehl did get a chance to run the 400-meter dash and finished a close second with a new personal record-time of 1:03.32. Tracy-Milroy-Balaton’s Jordan Munson clocked a winning time of 1:02.17, while the third-place time was 1:05.89.
Schumacher highlighted HL-O / Fulda’s performances with her victory in the 100, nipping two other fast runners in a very close up race front. Schumacher’s winning time of a personal-record 13.76 seconds was just a bit faster than the second-place time of 13.80 and the third-place time of 13.82. Those first three were a ways better than fourth (14.01) and fifth (14.03), while the sixth-place time was 14.37.
“Maddie’s been having a great rookie season,” beamed HL-O / Fulda head girls’ track and field coach Gary Hildebrandt. “This, however, was her best race yet. She got out of the blocks quickly and looked smooth and strong all the way to finish, beating several top-notch sprinters to claim a gold medal at the Trojan Relays, which is a great accomplishment.”
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