Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Nightingale dominates once again for Jags

Another meet and a couple of more meet records for Blue Springs South track and field star Samantha Nightingale Wednesday night.

The Jaguar senior won the mile and two-mile at the Springfield Hillcrest Girls Night Out meet with times of 5 minutes, 3 seconds and 10:47, respectively.

“That’s three seconds off her personal record at state last year in the two-mile and she broke the meet record by 23 seconds,” South head coach Ryan Unruh said. “Once you break that 11-minute barrier, it’s more of a mental thing than anything. And she did it on her third meet, and at an all girl meet with a quick turnaround, so she raced again an hour later after the mile.”

Another bright spot for the Jaguars was fellow mile runner Grace Klausen who is pulling double duty, as she also plays on the soccer team.

She took sixth in the mile with a time of 5:33 – the second fastest for a freshman in school history – and was also seventh in the 800-meter run.

“She had a really good cross country season and approached me a week before the season and wanted to do both,” Unruh said. “She does a little training on her own but it’s mostly fitness from soccer and talent. She’s been a really big surprise.”

The relays were fairly strong as well for the Jaguars, with the 3,200-meter team of Lindsey Woody, Nightingale, Taylor Gregston and Klausen taking third.

“Lee’s Summit West, Lee’s Summit North and St. Teresa’s are the class of the district in that event and then it’s us and Blue Springs,” Unruh said. “We’ve got a couple of legs that are still getting into shape. Hopefully, we can continue to be consistent and drop time. They’re doing a good job scoring points.”

The 800-meter relay also scored points, taking fourth, while the 1,600-meter team came in fifth.

Other than Nightingale, Brooke Stetzler had the highest finish on the track by taking third in the 300-meter hurdles.

Blue Springs’ results were not available. 

No comments: