The second track and field meet of the season has come and gone and the Vikings’ Girls team has begun to accumulate some impressive performances as the team builds fitness and returns their full roster to full strength.

“Certainly early in the season, sometimes we encounter sickness and injuries, as has been the case this season, but within the next week we hope to be at full strength,” said Head Coach John Peter.

Regardless of who has been available so far this year, the team has shown themselves to be progressing in the right direction and this past Tuesday proved this at the Barnesville Earlybird where they finished only 10 points behind Section 8A power DGF.

Mackenzie Thornton opened her hurdling account for the season with a career best time of 18.6 in the 100 hurdles which was good enough for 5th place.  In the 100 meter dash which followed, Maddie Guler ran a season best time of 13.23 to finish 2nd overall, while in the 4×200 meter relay, Larissa Seifert, Emily Monson, Riley Paulson and Emma Kress finished 4th overall with a time of 2:01.59. In the 1600 meter run, Mandi Sjolie finished strong to nab a 3rd place with a time of 5:54.8.

Tatianna Wiley made her varsity debut in the 400 meter dash, running away from the field and finishing with a winning time of 61.7. Her teammate Abby Syverson was 2nd with an equally impressive time of 62.5.  Thornton returned in the 300 hurdles with another big personal best time of 51.1 which was good enough for the win, in front of teammate Kaylie Isaman who crossed the line in 3rd with a time of 52.9.

Guler (27.4) and Wiley (27.5) would return in the 200 where they placed 1st and 2nd respectively while Jessica Weinrich was 4th with a time of 28.8.

The performance of the day however, went to Chloe Paulson who sandwiched the 200 meter dash by winning the 800 (2:35) and the 3200 (12:38) meter run with personal best times in both.  Paulson used a ferocious kick in the 800 to stride away from the field over the final 200 meters and returned 40 minutes later in the 3200 with a dominant performance lapping all but 2 girls in the race. Her teammate, Sjolie, was 2nd in the 800 meter run as well with a time of 2:40.

The girls closed out the day on the track with victory in the 4×400 meter relay as the winning team of Guler, Syverson, Isaman and Weinrich completed the four laps in 4:24.9.

In the field events, the Vikings were again led by Riley Berg who finished 2nd overall in the high jump with a leap of 4’8″.  Weinrich nabbed a 6th place in the long jump with a season opening jump of 13’7″ while Adriana Torres also scored points for the team in the discus with a toss of 77’1.5″.

The Vikings finished with a total of 120 points on the day, just 10 points behind team champion DGF.

This week, the Vikings travel to Hawley on Tuesday and on Thursday they will host the Pelican Invite at Chauncey Martin Field at 4:30 p.m.