Woodbury girls track & field: Royals hurdlers steal the show at conference relays
The Woodbury girls track and field team hit the road for the first time this year to face its fellow conference competitors in the Suburban East Conference Relays on Tuesday, April 10, at Roseville High School.
Woodbury finished in the top half at the meet, coming in fourth place in the nine-team SEC Relay meet, where all events were run in a relay format. The Royals scored 94 points to edge intra-district rival East Ridge, which finished fifth with 96 points, and was just behind third-place Forest Lake with 112 points. Stillwater won the meet with 166 points.
Woodbury’s best finishes on the day came in the two hurdle events. The Royals won the 300-meter hurdle relay and the 100-meter hurdle relay. In the 400-meter hurdle event, Woodbury’s Maria Versaguis, Nikkol Roberts, Taylor Malmgren and Wakpor Igavojah finished in first place with a time of 69.74. In the 1200-meter hurdle race Versaguis, Jessica Griffin, Devan Roman and Lisa Huska won with a time of 3:29.44.
“It was a great day for the hurdlers, sweeping both the 100 highs and 300s,” Woodbury head coach Kaycee Moore said. “Overall, we are pleased with our first away performance of the year.”
In addition to winning the hurdle relays, Woodbury had four third-place finishes.
In the 800-meter sprint medley relay, Woodbury’s Igavojah, Huska, Kat Herzberg and Grace Rogers teamed up to take third in a time of 1:58.35. In the 8-by-200-meter relay Woodbury took third place as Faith Adeola, Sarah Stevens, Haut, Versaguis, Shriya Raje, Roberts, Greta Eisenrich and Mackenzie Brand raced to a time of 3:57.07. In the 1600-meter sprint medley relay, Herzberg, Rogers, Ainslee Neu and Lauren Smith ran to a third-place time of 4:37.97. Also, in the 1600-meter relay, Woodbury took third place as Emily Twohig, Christina Doherty, Devan Roman and Huska ran to a time of 4:19.26.
“The team shows improved depth and greater versatility with athletes moving from event to event this year,” Moore said. “We hope to hone in on this throughout the season to determine the strongest relay combinations and bettering our places in True Team scored meets.”
Woodbury competed in a meet at Farmington on Tuesday, after the Bulletin went to press. Next, the Royals travel to Eagan High School for an invitational on Monday, April 24.